Crotone (Cotrone until 1928, Cutroni in Calabrese) is an Italian
town of 60 443 inhabitants, the capital of the province of the same
name in Calabria.
The city was founded by Greek colonists
from the Achaia region in the second half of the 8th century BC. in
the place of a pre-existing indigenous settlement, and thanks to the
spread of the Italic-Pythagorean phenomenon it represented one of
the most important centers of Magna Graecia. The old city develops
in a maze of narrow alleys and squares up to the cathedral and the
central Piazza Pitagora, the point of contact between the "old" and
"new" city.
The homonymous crater on the surface of Mars and
the homonymous mine hunter of the Italian Navy have been named after
Crotone.
Crotone is a city of modern buildings. The antiquity of the settlements is reminiscent of the castle of Charles V, turned into a city museum, where, among other things, the results of the latest archaeological excavations, a small fortification of La Castella on an island in the bay and a Romanesque cathedral with a classicist facade and a "black madonna" from the sanctuary at Cape Colonna.
The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is the cathedral of the
archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina. In November 1983, Pope John
Paul II elevated it to the dignity of a minor basilica. The
cathedral of Crotone, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta and San
Dionigi l'Areopagita, dates back to the original layout of the 9th
century. Rebuilt in the 16th century on the initiative of the then
bishop Antonio Lucifero with the help of materials from the temple
of Hera Lacinia, the structure underwent numerous restorations over
time.
The dome
On the neoclassical facade, flanked by an
imposing bell tower, there are three majestic portals. The interior,
divided into three naves supported by pillars, houses valuable works
of art: a stone baptismal font with a zoomorphic base from the
thirteenth century, a seventeenth-century wooden choir, two wooden
busts depicting San Gennaro and San Dionigi, both from the
seventeenth century , a terracotta crucifix and a marble pulpit
designed by the architect Pietro Paolo Farinelli in 1898.
At
the bottom of the right aisle opens the nineteenth-century chapel in
which the Byzantine icon of the Madonna di Capocolonna is kept
which, according to tradition, is the work of San Luca. The chapel,
on whose vault musician angels are depicted, is decorated with
gilded stuccoes, bronzes and precious paintings by Boschetto (16th
century) and De Falco (17th century).
On the left aisle there
is an eighteenth-century canvas depicting Jesus returning from the
temple made by Niccolò Lapiccola; the church also preserves an
interesting treasure consisting of vestments and silverware
including, of great interest, a gilded silver chalice with enamels
from 1626, a gift from Philip IV to the archbishop of Crotone, an
eighteenth-century chalice and basin by unknown Neapolitan artists,
and an 18th century processional cross. Inside there is also an
eighteenth-century painting on canvas, recently restored, depicting
the beheading of San Dionigi, attributable to Corrado Giaquinto.
In recent years, a bronze statue of Padre Pio has been placed at
the entrance.
The square adjacent to the entrance was
completely restored in 2003-2004.
On May 2, 2016, the Solemn
Eucharistic Concelebration took place in the Cathedral Basilica for
the Presentation of the Confraternity of the Madonna di Capocolonna
and the Blessing of the insignia of the Sodality. The ceremony was
presided over by the archbishop father, Monsignor Domenico Graziani.
The motto of the Confraternity well expresses the soul of the
deepest and most genuine popular sentiment: Mater Domini, praesidium
and cor huius vrbis - Mother of the Lord, garrison and heart of this
city.
Greater Greece
Croton was founded by the Achaean Greeks in 710
BC (according to legend, Miskel, who named it after Croton, to whom
Hercules predicted that his grandchildren would build a city on the
site of his house). Despite the flaws of the bay, the city served as
the only harbor on the stretch of coast from Tarentum to Rhegius,
thanks to which it quickly flourished. The ancient settlement
occupied a hill, where over time the acropolis, traditional for the
Hellenic policies, arose.
Since 580 BC, Crotons shone at the
Olympic Games and were famous in Hellas for the art of healing.
Democede of Croton is mentioned by Herodotus as "a doctor who
surpassed all his contemporaries in art." In 530 BC. e. Pythagoras
founded a philosophical and ethical school in Croton, which
supported the local oligarchic government. In 510 BC. e. Milon of
Croton defeated the main rival of Crotona - the city of Sybaris. The
tyranny of Clinius was established shortly thereafter. The
Pythagoreans left Croton, and tyranny was replaced by popular rule.
At the end of the 6th century BC, Croton for a short time became the
most powerful city of Magna Graecia.
By the 4th century BC,
there were signs of a crisis. In 379 BC. Croton for 12 years came
under the rule of the Syracuse tyrant Dionysius I. In 295 BC. in
Crotone the tyrant Menedemos ruled, who was expelled by the Syracuse
king Agathocles, after which the city briefly became part of his
Syracuse state.
Ancient Rome
Croton significantly weakened
due to the Pyrrhic War and in 277 BC. first obeyed the Romans, from
whom he fell away again during the invasion of Italy by Hannibal's
army. It finally became a Roman colony in 194 BC. Titus Livy reports
on the devastating consequences of the Pyrrhic Wars:
The wall
that surrounded Croton before Pyrrhus came to Italy was twelve miles
in circumference; after the devastation caused by that war, barely
half of the city was inhabited. The river used to flow in the center
of the city, now it flowed in places with little built-up, while the
fortress was far from any housing.
- Titus Livy. History from the
founding of the city
The action of the last surviving part of
the Satyricon is set in Croton. The heroes of the novel, having
climbed the mountain by the sea, discover that “from it there was a
view of a city located very close to us on a high hill. Wandering in
an unfamiliar area, we did not know what it was, until finally some
farmer told us that it was Crotona, an ancient city, once the first
in Italy. "
Almost nothing has survived from the ancient
city, only on the Lacinian hill a lone marble column reminds of the
sanctuary of Juno (because of which the cape is called Capo Colonna,
Capo Colonna).
Later history
Croton is rarely mentioned
during the Roman Empire, which is evidence of its decline. In the VI
century, he withstood the siege of Totila, later entered the Ravenna
Exarchate. In 870 it was plundered by the Saracens, who executed the
bishop and some of the townspeople who tried to hide in the
cathedral.
The patrons of the city are the Most Holy
Theotokos (Santa Maria di Capo Colonna) and St. Dionysius the
Areopagite, celebrated on October 9.
Under Mussolini, the
city became the largest industrial center in Calabria, favored by
the proximity of a hydroelectric power station. In the 1980s. due to
the bankruptcy of the main factories, it experienced an economic
crisis. In 1996 it suffered from floods. Since 1955 archaeological
excavations have been conducted in Crotone.
The city is located on the eastern side of Calabria,
overlooking the Ionian Sea at the mouth of the Esaro river, and the
municipal territory is part of the Authority of the interregional
basin of the Esaro river. The municipality has an area of 182 km²
and the capital is located at 8 m above sea level.
The
southern territory is entirely immersed in the protected marine area
of Capo Rizzuto and furthermore, to make a further supplement to
this scenario, there is the promontory of Capo Colonna where the
only column of the Temple of Hera Lacinia remained, formerly called
Lakinion Akron , which closes the city in a large basin that divides
it from the Gulf of Squillace.
The climate is
temperate. Winter is generally mild, although temporary but sudden
drops in temperature with occasional snowfalls are possible (1956,
1965, 1991, 1998, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2017, 2018), in the event
of an influx of polar air. Summer is hot but moderately ventilated
by the sea breeze; only in the presence of heat waves with sirocco
or libeccio winds, the maximum temperatures can be around 40 ° C but
with low relative humidity rates (peak max 48 ° C, 1998). Strong
winds also characterize the Crotone climate. On November 25, 2018,
an energy-intensive whirlwind hit the immediate outskirts of
Crotone.
Precipitation is mainly concentrated in autumn, with
a secondary winter maximum; between spring and summer drought can be
considerably accentuated, with some rare afternoon thunderstorms.