Reggio di Calabria (Rìggiu in the Reggio dialect; Ρήγι, Rìghi in
the Greek of Calabria), commonly known as Reggio Calabria, is an
Italian town of 173 873 inhabitants, capital of the homonymous
metropolitan city, in Calabria.
First municipality by
population and only metropolitan city in the Region, as well as the
seat of the Regional Council of Calabria, it is the leader of the
so-called Grande Reggio, an urban agglomeration that gathers the
various municipalities of the Calabrian side of the Strait of
Messina.
Together with the metropolitan area of Messina, it
represents the heart of the metropolitan area of the Strait, a
conurbation that is the result of urban continuity, strong social
and economic integration between the municipalities on both sides of
the strait.
Reggio Calabria has a national archaeological
museum, one of the most important in Italy, the custodian of the
most important collections of finds from Magna Graecia and the Riace
Bronzes, which have become among its identifying symbols.
The
oldest city in Greek Calabria, despite its three-thousand-year
history - Ῥήγιον was an important and thriving Magna Graecia colony
- it has a modern urban layout, following the reconstruction carried
out in the aftermath of the catastrophic seismic events of 28
December 1908, which destroyed much of the town.
How to get
By plane
1 Reggio Calabria Airport (Airport of the
Strait), via Provinciale Ravagnese, 11, 89131 Reggio Calabria, ☏
+390965640517, fax: +390965636524, info@aeroportodellostretto.it. There
are flights to and from Rome, Milan, Turin and Venice, through the
companies Ita Airways, Blu Express and Volotea.
2 Catania Airport
(Fontanarossa Airport) (10 km from Catania on the A19), ☎ +39
0957239111. domestic, international and low cost hub flights and charter
flights
alternative airports
3 Palermo-Punta Raisi Airport
(Falcone e Borsellino Airport) (35 km from Palermo can be reached by the
A29 towards Trapani), ☏ +39 0917020273. The airport is connected to the
city center via the Trinacria Express metropolitan railway service or
bus shuttle operated by Prestia and Comandè. The trains have a frequency
of thirty minutes. They stop at the Centrale, Vespri, Palazzo Reale -
Orleans, Notarbartolo, Francia, San Lorenzo Colli, Tommaso Natale, Isola
delle Femmine, Carini, Cinisi, Punta Raisi stations at a cost of €5.80.
The entire journey takes about an hour. The bus, with a bi-hourly
frequency, takes about 50 minutes from Palermo Central station and 40
from Piazza Politeama, there are also stops at other points along Corso
della Libertà, ticket price € 6.30 (summer 2015). If you reach the
airport by car, parking is subject to charges. Punta Raisi airport
operates national and international flights, and various low cost
connections. Numerous periodic and charter tourist flights in summer.
By car
The main highway of the city is the A3 Salerno - Reggio
Calabria. Reggio Calabria is also the terminus of the state roads 18 and
106, which connect it respectively to Naples and Taranto.
On boat
The 4 port of Reggio Calabria connects the city with Messina and the
Aeolian Islands, and has an annual turnout of about 10 million
passengers.
On the train
5 Reggio Di Calabria CENTRAL railway
station, Via Barlaam,1.
6 Reggio di Calabria railway station LIDO,
Viale Zerbi.
Reggio Calabria serves as the terminus for two major
railway lines:
Southern Tyrrhenian Railway, which connects the city
with Rome, Naples and Salerno;
Ionian railway, with connections to
Bari and Taranto.
By bus
Venus Linee, Via Aspromonte 21, 89127
Reggio Calabria, ☎ +39 848 800877, fax: +39 06 41227586,
info@venuslinee.it. They make connections with Rome, Perugia and Urbino.
Lirosi Lines, Via S.S. 111 n.64, 89013 Gioia Tauro, ☎ +39 0966 57552,
fax: +39 0966 51431, info@lirosilinee.com. They make connections with
Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin, Genoa, Aosta and Nice.
By public transport
The city's public transport is managed by
ATAM, and makes use of around 130 bus lines.
Furthermore, since
2007, a suburban railway service has been active, which connects various
districts of the city with each other, and has, as its terminus, the
stations of Melito di Porto Salvo and Villa San Giovanni.
Over the centuries, some destructive events, both natural and
man-made, have greatly altered the face of Reggio Calabria, which today
is a modern city, mainly as a result of the reconstruction carried out
after the 1908 earthquake. were lost in previous centuries, but the city
has preserved monumental values and ancient remains that testify to its
history.
The historic center is mainly characterized by Art
Nouveau buildings, without interruption. There are also examples of
Neo-Gothic architecture such as the Genoese Villa Zerby, which overlooks
the sea and has an extensive interior garden.
In the neoclassical
style are the theater of Francesco Cilea and the Cathedral, rebuilt in
the neo-Romanesque-eclectic style with a wide staircase and three
entrance portals. In an eclectic style is the Palazzo Mazzitelli. Other
places of interest are the Rationalist church of San Giorgio al Corso
and the Casa del Fascio (which today houses a branch of the TAR of
Calabria).
There are also several modern style buildings such as
the Nervi Tower, the Glass Palace of Sant'Anna, the so-called Palazzo
CE.Dir. business center, the new Palazzo de Justice which is still under
construction, and the University Citadel.
In particular, the
Palazzo Campanella is designed in a futuristic style.
In
addition, some important historical remnants appear in the urban
context, such as the Castle of Aragon, partly destroyed by time and man,
which is located in the upper part of the city: its original structure
consisted of four towers and a moat, and today only two south-facing
towers remain. -east, and is the site of temporary exhibitions.
Originally, the fortress walls also surrounded the Ottimati church, an
important Norman-Byzantine church from the 10th century in excellent
condition; in the immediate vicinity of it is the college of Jesuits
that governs it.
The monument on the seafront of Reggio di
Calabria, at the exit of Pineta Zerbi, opened in 1996, commemorates the
sacrifice of the legendary ace Giuseppe Cenni, who was shot down at
Aspromonte on September 4, 1943, when he tried to protect his pilots.
who tried to prevent the Allied invasion of Calabria.
The region was one of the first Greek colonies established in
southern Italy in the middle of the 8th century BC. (about 730 BC) the
Chalkidians and the Messenians; it is considered one of the oldest
cities in Europe.
The place where the city was founded was
already inhabited by the Avsons, who are remembered by Diodorus Siculus,
and by the Oenotrians, mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and
Strabo, whose presence is confirmed by the discovery of tombs on this
site. According to the myth, it was the Delphic oracle that showed them
the place where they should found a new city: “Where Apsias, the most
sacred of the rivers, flows into the sea, where, landing, the female
joins the male, there he founds the city; (god) will give you the land
of Ausone” (Diod. VIII, 23; Strab. VI, 1.6; Her.Lem., Const. 25;
Dion.Hal., Excerpta XIX.2).
The toponym, like Rogudi and Riace,
is interpreted as derived from "Ruha ake", the place of the wind in the
Sumero-Akkadian languages (G. Tripodi, Atti Akkad. Peloritana dei
Pericolanti, 88 p. 45, 2012). . The antiquity of the toponym is
confirmed by the fact that the Apsias River comes from Apsu, the
primordial water in the Mesopotamian religions.
Reggio was one of
the most important cities of Magna Graecia, existing in the 5th century
BC. great political and economic importance under the rule of Anassila,
who began to control both sides of the strait. Polis acquired great
artistic and cultural value through its Pythagorean philosophical
school, as well as schools of sculpture and poetry, which would train
artists such as Pythagoras of Reggio and Ibico.
It became an ally
of Athens in the Peloponnesian War and was subsequently conquered by the
Syracusans of Dionysius I in 387 BC. An autonomous city with government
offices, Rhegium was an important ally and social alliance of Rome.
Subsequently, during the era of the empire, it became one of the
most important and prosperous centers of southern Italy, being, among
other things, the seat of the governor of the region III Lucania and
Bruttia (region of Lucania and Brucio). It was also the terminus of the
Via Capua Regium, which connected it with Capua in Campania and crossed
the entire southern Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula.
With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, it became the
stronghold of the Eastern Roman Empire and Greek culture in Italy. In
late antiquity, after the reconquest of Italy by Justinian, which took
place in 555 at the end of the Gothic wars, Reggio became the capital of
Thema of Calabria and the religious metropolis.
After the 6th
century, Greco-Roman administration ensured four centuries of
substantial economic and cultural stability. Trade and travel from
Reggio to the East were commonplace, as was the case between the
Sicilian lands and the rest of the Roman Empire. Many Calabrian saints
were guests of the Greek monasteries of Athos and the imperial court in
Constantinople.
The Arab raids on the coasts began in the 7th
century, which within a century will force many inhabitants of the
Ionian coast to move towards the hills with a shift in population
centers to an easily defended mountainous area. This is how the
acropolis of Bova, Gerache, Stilo will appear. Coastal areas will only
be inhabited from the end of the 18th century. In contrast, Reggio,
fortified with a castle, a wall, and several outposts on the hills,
would remain a seaside town despite repeated attacks and temporary
occupations, indicating a strategic interest for military control of the
strait and its importance as a trading port.
From the middle of
the 9th century, Sicily, conquered by the Arabs, will be face to face
with the lands of the Roman Empire, but trade and cultural exchange will
continue.
In 1060, the Normans took it forever from the
Greco-Romans, gradually transferring it to the Latin cultural sphere
under the influence of the pope, who intended to extend his power to the
entire peninsula. Despite this, the predominance of Eastern Orthodoxy
persisted until the 16th century, when around 1570 the Greek Rite was
forcibly abolished. Calamizzi produced a very large number of
manuscripts known throughout the world for their exceptional quality
(Reggio style or handwriting). Unfortunately, the city was deprived of
these works, which are now kept in the Apostolic Library of the Vatican
in Rome, in the Marcian Library in Venice, in the Austrian National
Library in Vienna, in the Holy Monastery of St. John the Evangelist on
Patmos and other libraries around the world.
Through ups and
downs, he came under the control of the Spanish Aragonese and Angevin
families, and in 1282, during the Sicilian Vespers, he sided with
Messina and other cities of eastern Sicily, with which he had common
historical, commercial and cultural interests. in anti-Angevin with
Aragonese troops. The city was subsequently transferred to the Kingdom
of Naples in the fourteenth century and given new administrative powers
with a large municipal base.
In the 15th and 16th centuries,
thanks to the introduction of the silk and citrus industries, the iron
industry, the birth of typographic printing, jewelry and the development
of trade, there was a long period of prosperity that lasted until the
late 1500s.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, frequent barbarian
raids, epidemics, and the oppressive tax system of Spanish rule brought
Reggio into decline, culminating in the devastating earthquake of 1783.
The earthquake severely damaged the city and all of southern Calabria.
In 1806, Napoleon occupied the city, making it a duchy and his
headquarters. Napoleonic ideas had a great influence on the liberal
Reggio, to the point that it was at the center of some of the events
leading up to the 1848 uprising: in 1847, the revolutionary Domenico
Romeo tried to take the city from the Bourbons, but was eventually
killed. In those years, many nobles and commoners were sentenced to
death or exile.
The city was also the protagonist of the
"Expedition of a Thousand": at dawn on August 21, 1860, the battle took
place in Piazza Duomo, after which Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the
city. Thus, the mayor of the city, Bruno Antonio Rossi, was the first in
the Kingdom to proclaim the end of the reign of Francesco II and the
beginning of the dictatorship of Garibaldi, who wrote in memory of the
battle:
“One foot is finally set on the smiling shores of the
Reggio and adorns the front of the Argonauts with new glory, in vain
thick cruisers are crowded and in vain the numerous host of the enemy,
the finger of God leads the tyrannical phalanx and the army and bastions
and thrones fall into the dust and the holy man right and freedom are
restored in ruins crimes, and heaven smiles on redeemed humanity.
(Giuseppe Garibaldi)
The turning point in the recent history of the city was on December
28, 1908, when one of the most catastrophic events of the twentieth
century occurred in Reggio, an earthquake and a tidal wave that reached
a magnitude of 7.1 and hit Reggio and Messina in very high waves.
destroying, devastating and killing in his rage everything he
encountered (on the side of Reggio alone, he caused the death of about
30,000 people).
Immediately after this, the reconstruction of
today's city began with modern canons and a classic square layout.
During fascism, the city housed various strategic military
installations of the regime, and in 1939 it was visited by Mussolini.
This meant that Allied forces had to heavily bomb the city between May
and September 1943 as part of Operation Baytown in order to open the
gates. the path to the troops of the 8th British army; in particular,
they destroyed the quarters of Santa Caterina, Aranguea, Tremulini and
Sbarre, killing some 4,000 civilians.
After the Second World War,
the city grew significantly, nearly doubling its population to
approximately 200,000, taking in many locals from the surrounding area.
At the beginning of the seventies, Reggio experienced an
administrative upheaval after violent riots in the streets over claims
to the status of regional capital, which, in accordance with the new
customary regional statute, was assigned to Catanzaro. An end to the
unrest was achieved through a compromise that provided for the
separation of the institutional offices, the regional government
established in Catanzaro, headquartered in a building called Cittadella,
which houses the Giunta, the presidency and most of the administrative
offices, while the Regional Council was housed in Reggio Calabria at the
Palazzo Campanella.
Between the seventies and eighties, the city
experienced a dark twenty years that contributed to the spread of
organized crime and the decline of cities, but from the beginning of the
nineties, a period of renewal began, the so-called "Primavera di
Reggio", led by the then mayor. Italo Falcomatà, which allowed the city
to rediscover its identity and promote social and economic recovery. The
city has been at the center of an urban and architectural transformation
marked by modernity and innovation. One of the most important works was
the completion of the Lungomare.
In the first decade of the
2000s, from 2002 to 2010, the city was ruled by Giuseppe Scopelliti, the
creator of the so-called Model Reggio, with whom he held various social
events in the city, subsidizing these events with an extremely careless
budgetary policy. With the transition to the government of the region,
various violations arose in the budgets of the municipality, as a result
of which the Cassation in 2018 finally confirmed the responsibility of
the former mayor in the context of the so-called "Fallar case" with a
sentence of 4 years and 7 months in prison for forging a state document:
in fact he appears to have been "the originator of falsifying the
municipality's financial records during his mandate, taking advantage
[...] of Orsola Fallara's leniency in exchange for positions as
lucrative as they are illegitimate [...]". The main effects of this
policy are still visible today, as the municipality bears the burden of
a debt that cannot even be clearly quantified, hovering in the region of
400 million euros (2019 report approved by the municipality of Reggio di
Calabria).
Another blemish on the city administration was the
dissolution due to the neighborhood with the mafia by order of the
government on October 9, 2012: after investigations by the Prefecture
Access Commission, the following reports were sent about a possible
infiltration of the 'Ndrangheta, the Council of Ministers, with a
decision taken unanimously in in a direct statement by the then Minister
of the Interior, Annamaria Cancelleri, ordered the Commissioner "due to
the proximity of the mafia to the municipality of Reggio di Calabria"
for a period of 18 months (subsequently extended to 24). Commissioning
was ensured by a three-member prefectural emergency commission sent by
the central government. It was the first municipal council of the
capital to be dissolved for this reason in Italy. Only in 2014 new
elections were held and Giuseppe Falcomata was elected mayor.
The municipal territory develops along the eastern coast of the
Strait of Messina for about 32 km and to the east, from the sea to the
mountains, for another 30 km, with mid-shore, hilly and mountainous
areas. The city covers a total area of 236.02 km² and extends from a
minimum elevation of 0 meters to a maximum of 1803 meters above sea
level.
The historic center was rebuilt at an average altitude of
31 m above sea level. leaving the lower part of the coast free of
civilian buildings, given the excessive proximity to the sea, which
resulted in thousands of deaths during the 1908 tsunami. Thus, the
entire coastline in front of the historic center was aligned in three
volumes: viamarina bassa, viamarina alta and the botanical strip.
Geographically, the main core is included between Fiumara del Annunziata
(North) and Fiumara del Calopinache (South), while the rest of the
municipal territory extends from Catona (North) to Bocale (South).
Reggio is located at the tip of the "boot", on the slopes of
Aspromonte. To the west, it faces the Strait of Messina, a sea arm about
3.5 km long that separates it from Messina, the western shore of the
strait. Together, these two cities form the metropolitan area of the
strait, the exact geographical center of what, for the ancient Romans,
was "Mare Nostrum".
In the village of Bocale, the city is crossed
by the 38th parallel, where an obelisk with a monolith of Carrara marble
is installed. In the metropolitan area, namely in the municipality of
Palizzi, is the southernmost place of the Italian peninsula, Cape
Hercules, today Capo Spartivento, where in 1867 the Capo Spartivento
lighthouse was built at an altitude of 64 m above sea level. with a
lantern visible up to 22 nautical miles.
The area is
characterized by particular fertility due to the abundance of water,
only the metropolitan area is crossed by seven rivers and has a mild
climate, despite the fact that the orography is mostly hilly and
mountainous overlooking the sea, an aspect that favored the terraced
cultivation and processing of tree crops that are easily adaptable. to
any relief and at the same time perform a draining function of erosion
of the territory. Citrus fruits, vines and especially bergamot trees
grow along the southern coastal strip.
However, on the south
coast, the mulberry tree is especially widespread, and in the past was
an important plant for silk production, since its fruits are the
preferred food for silkworms. In the past, the city was home to several
spinning mills in the Villa San Giovanni area and, from the 1600s, it
was widely known for the quality of the fabrics exported to the rest of
the continent and for the high volume of production that was an
expression of excellence. industrial system.
Sericulture and the
entire silk production chain experienced a deep crisis in the second
half of the twentieth century, until they disappeared with the discovery
of synthetic fibers and the modification of production methods.
The municipal territory of the city is part of the Reggio Calabria
Basin, a graben-type structure bounded by normal-type faults and the
Campo Piale horsts in the north and Aspromonte in the east. The city
extends on a predominantly alluvial and deltaic surface formed by
sediment deposits carried by the numerous rivers that traverse the area.
The hilly system consists of medium-sloping sandy deposits up to the
Aspromonte slopes of a crystalline-metamorphic Paleozoic character,
while the coastal coast develops in a relatively tortuous strike and is
characterized by ridges and depressions in accordance with the channels.
Seismic classification: zone 1 (high seismicity), RCM Decree no.
3274 dated 03/20/2003.
The entire municipal territory is crossed by rivers and streams,
which appear as dry channels for most of the year, but instead turn into
turbulent streams during exceptional meteorological events. In the past,
floods and flooding were not uncommon. The province is crossed by
several rivers and streams, only in the city area there are seven rivers
flowing along the north-south axis. The city has seven main ones:
Fyumara-Katona with a tributary of Rosali;
the Fiumara Gallico with
the San Biagio tributary;
Torrente Scaccioti, which acts as a natural
boundary between the areas of Gallico and Arca;
Torrente Torbido, not
to be confused with the Torbido River of the same name, the flow crosses
the Pentimele area in a transverse direction and has the Torbido
motorway viaduct above it;
Fiumara dell'Annunziata, the ancient
northern boundary of the city, is now completely underground and flows
between important city arteries: Viale della Liberta, Piazzale della
Liberta and Viale Boccioni. Its mouth is near the municipal Lido and
intersects with the mouth of the Caserta stream;
The Torrente
Caserta, also completely underground, from which Caserta Park takes its
name, flows under the Via Roma.
The Torrente Orange, intubated, fed
the moat of the Aragonese castle and in ancient times flowed in the
upper part of the city along the Trabocchetto street, curving along the
stream through the via del Salvatore, entering the moat where the piazza
Orange now stands;
Fiumara Kalopinache, known in the past as the
river Apsias, was the southern boundary of the city. It is crossed by
several bridges, the main junction of city highways is located here, it
is equipped with high reinforced concrete embankments that prevent it
from flooding in case of flooding. The route and estuary were partly
altered in the sixteenth century to allow the construction of the
Castelnuovo to defend the city, an intervention that led to the flooding
of Punta Calamizzi, the destruction of the ancient Basilian monastery
located there, the fortress itself and the city's natural port;
Fiumara Sant'Agata, partly channeled, in a section filled with earth and
facing the runway of the strait airport;
Fiumara Armo, which is
briefly buried in favor of the airport;
Brook Bovetto;
Fyumara
Valanidi, which divides the area of San Gregorio into two parts with
its mouth;
Pernacity Brook, tributary;
Located on the shore of the strait, at an altitude of several meters
above sea level, the climate is Mediterranean.
In summer, a fresh
sea breeze from the north, almost always present in the channel, and
breezes coming down from the Aspromonte, especially felt along the
streams, help to make the high temperatures more tolerable. Winters are
mild and short, and temperatures almost never approach freezing, with an
average annual temperature of 17.32 °C and an average annual rainfall of
547.16 mm. The sun is almost constant, with about 300 sunny days a year.