Reggio Calabria

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After Cumae, Reggio was one of the first Greek colonies in southern Italy. The colony was settled by the inhabitants of Chalcis in 730 or 743 BC on the site of the older settlement, Erythra (Ερυθρά), meaning 'red'. The legendary founder of the city was King Iocastus, son of Aeolus, who was later said to be buried on the Punta Calamizzi promontory (called "Pallantion") and appeared on the city's coinage. The colony retained the name of "Rhegion" (Ῥήγιον). Pseudo-Scylax also writes that it was a Greek city.

Rhegion was one of the most important cities in Magna Graecia, reaching great economic and political power during the 5th and 6th centuries BC under Anaxilas, who reigned as tyrant from 494 to 476 BC. Anaxilas conquered Zancle (modern Messina), extending Rhegian control over both shores of the Straits of Messina. He attempted to conquer Locri as well in 477 BC but was rebuffed. When he died in 476 BC, his two sons were too young to rule, so power was held by their regent Micythus. Under his rule, Rhegion founded a colony, Pyxous (modern Policastro Bussentino) in Campania in 471 BC.Herodotus 7.170; Diodorus Siculus 11.52, 11.59.14. Hieron I of Syracuse orchestrated Micythus' removal from power in 467 BC,Diodorus Siculus 11.66.1-3 after which Anaxilas' sons ruled on their own until they were deposed in 461 BC.Diodorus Siculus 11.76.5; Justin 4.3.1-3 During the Peloponnesian War, Rhegion allied with Athens. An Athenian inscription ( IG I³ 53) reports a renewal of this alliance in 433 BC. Translation and commentary on Attic Inscriptions Online. The Athenians supported Rhegion in a war with Locri during the First Sicilian Expedition (427–425 BC).Thucydides 4.1.1-3 However, when the Athenians launched the much larger Sicilian Expedition of 415–413 BC, Rhegion offered them only limited assistance.

During the Third Sicilian War, Rhegion became hostile to Dionysius I of Syracuse. He attacked the city for the first time in 396 BC, but he was rebuffed. Dionysius destroyed the Rhegian navy in 389 BC, besieged the city again in 388 BC and, when it finally fell in 387 BC, destroyed it.Polybius 1.6.1, Diodorus Siculus 14.56.1-2, 108-111, 114-117 His son, Dionysius II refounded the city as 'Phoebeia' in the 360s BC. When he was expelled from Syracuse in 356 BC, he retained control of Phoebeia, but it was captured by Syracusan forces led by Leptines II and Callippus in 351 BC.Diodorus Siculus 16.45.9 Rhegion then reverted to its original name.

Throughout classical antiquity Rhegion remained an important maritime and commercial city as well as a cultural centre, as is demonstrated by the presence of academies of art, philosophy, and science, such as the Pythagoreanism School, and also by its well-known poet Ibycus, the historian Ippys, the musicologist Glaucus, and the sculptors Pythagoras and Clearchus.

Rhegion made an alliance with the Roman Republic in 282 BC, shortly before the Pyrrhic War. The , under the command of Decius Vibellus, was installed as a garrison but subsequently launched a violent coup and seized control of the city.Dionysius of Halicarnassus 20.4. cf. Polybius 1.7.6-7, Diodorus Siculus 22.1.2-3 Roman forces deposed Decius and restored the city's independence in 271 BC. Thereafter, Rhegium was an important ally of Rome, with the status of municipium and socia navalis (naval ally). It retained its Greek customs and language, as well as its mint. It was a central pivot for both maritime and mainland traffic, reached by the final part of the Via Popilia, which was built in the 2nd century BC and joined the older Via Appia at Capua, south of Rome. Close to Rhegion, on the Straits of Messina, was the busy port of Columna Rhegina. Under the Emperor Augustus, the city was renamed Rhegium Juli in honour of the emperor's adoptive father Julius Caesar and was the seat of the corrector]] (governor) of "Regio III Lucania et Bruttii" (the southernmost of the eleven regiones into which Italy was divided). In AD 61 the apostle St. Paul passed through Rhegium on his final voyage towards Rome,Acts 28.13 converting the first local Christians and, according to tradition, laying the foundations of the Christianization of Bruttium.

Rhegium boasted in imperial times nine thermal baths,De Gregorio, Lucia. "Le Terme Romane di Reggio Calabria. La ricerca archeologica tra il 1881 e il 1924", Calabria Sconosciuta n. 139/140– Azienda Grafica Biroccio, Reggio di Calabria (July–December 2013). one of which is still visible today on the sea-front. Due to its seismic activity, the area was often damaged by earthquakes, such as in 91 BC, AD 17, 305 and 374.AAVV "Reggio di Calabria" in "L'Italia - Basilicata e Calabria", Touring Club Italiano, La Repubblica, Pioltello, 2005

Invasions by the Vandals, the Lombards and the Goths occurred in the 5th–6th centuries. Then, under Byzantine rule, it became a metropolis of the Byzantine possessions in Italy and was also the capital of the Duchy of Calabria several times between 536 and 1060 AD. Following wars between the Lombards and Byzantines in the 6th century, Bruttium was renamed Calabria.

As a Byzantine centre of culture, certain monks there undertook scribal work, carrying out the transcription of ancient classical works. Until the 15th century, Reggio was one of the most important Greek-rite Bishoprics in Italy—even today Greek words are used and are recognisable in local speech and Byzantine terms can be found in local liturgy, in religious icons and even in local recipes. During this period, constant migrations of Greeks fleeing the Slavic invasion of Peloponnese, further strengthened the Hellenic element of the city.

The Arabs occupied Reggio in 918 and held some of its inhabitants to ransom or kept them prisoners as slaves. Western Europe on the Eve of the Crusades, Sidney Painter, A History of the Crusades, Vol. I, ed. Kenneth M. Setton and Marshall W. Baldwin, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), p. 50. For brief periods in the 10th–11th centuries the city was ruled by the Arabs and, renamed Rivàh (or sometimes Rŷu), became part of the Emirate of Sicily. During the period of Arab rule various beneficial ideas were introduced into Calabria, such as citrus fruit trees, mulberry trees (used in silk production) and several ways of cooking local vegetables such as aubergines. The Arabs introduced water ices and ice cream and also greatly improved agricultural and hydraulic techniques for irrigation.

In 1005, a Christian fleet coming from Pisa sacked the city and massacred all the Saracens to the great jubilation of the local population.

In 1060, the Normans seized it permanently from the Eastern Roman Empire, gradually bringing it into the Latin cultural sphere under Papal influence, which sought to extend its power over the entire peninsula.

In 1122, hostilities arose between Roger II, Count of Sicily, and his cousin William II, the new Duke of Calabria, culminating in a conflict that was resolved only through the intervention of Pope Callixtus II. In 1121, the Pope succeeded in reconciling the two rivals by securing an agreement whereby the Count of Sicily would provide his cousin with a cavalry squadron to suppress the revolt led by Giordano, Count of Ariano Irpino. In exchange, William renounced his possessions in Sicily and Calabria. Roger II, already Prince of Salerno, then travelled to Reggio, where he was recognized as Duke of Calabria and Apulia, Count of Sicily, and sovereign over Amalfi and Gaeta, parts of Naples, as well as Taranto, Capua, and the Abruzzo. When Roger II was crowned King of Sicily in 1131, he transferred his seat from Reggio to Palermo, although Reggio remained the capital of the Justiciarate of Calabria.

From 1266 it was ruled by the Angevins, under whom life in Calabria deteriorated because of their tendency to accumulate wealth in their capital, Naples, leaving Calabria in the power of local barons.Mario Caligiuri, Breve Storia della Calabria. Newton & Compton, Rome, 1996 In 1282, during the Sicilian Vespers, Reggio rallied in support of Messina and the other oriental Sicily cities because of the shared history, commercial and cultural interests. From 1147 to 1443 and again from 1465 to 1582, Reggio was the capital of the Calabrian Giustizierato. It supported the Aragonese forces against the House of Anjou. In the 14th century it obtained new administrative powers. In 1459, the Aragonese enlarged its medieval castle.

Reggio, throughout the Middle Ages, was first an important centre of calligraphy and then of printing after its invention. It boasts the first dated, printed edition of a Hebrew language text, a Rashi commentary on the Pentateuch, printed in 1475 in La Giudecca of Reggio, "The Books of the People of the Book – Hebraic Collections", Library of Congress, Washington, DC; accessed 26 March 2015. even though scholars consider Rome as the city where Hebrew printing began. The Jewish community of Reggio was also considered to be among the foremost internationally, for the dyeing and the trading of silk: silk woven in Reggio was esteemed and bought by the Spaniards, the Genoese, the Dutch, the English and the Venetians, as it was recognised as the best silk in the Kingdom of Naples.

In 1714, southern Italy became once more property of the Austrian Habsburgs, who remained until 1734, when they were replaced by the Bourbons of Spain. Reggio was the capital of Calabria Ulteriore Prima from 1759 to 1860. In 1783, a disastrous earthquake damaged Reggio, all of southern Calabria and Messina.

The precious citrus fruit, Bergamot orange, had been cultivated and used in the Reggio area since the 15th century. By 1750 it was being grown intensively in the Rada Giunchi area of Reggio and was the first plantation of its kind in the world.

In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte took Reggio and made the city a Duchy and General Headquarters. After the former's fall, in 1816, the two ancient Kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily were unified, becoming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

During the course of the 19th century new public gardens were laid out, the piazzas (or squares) were embellished and cafés and a theatre were opened. On the newly opened sea promenade a Civic Museum was inaugurated. In fact, some 60 years after the devastation caused by the 1783 earthquake, the English traveller and painter Edward Lear remarked "Reggio is indeed one vast garden, and doubtless one of the loveliest spots to be seen on earth. A half-ruined castle, beautiful in colour and picturesque in form, overlooks all the long city, the wide straits, and snow-topped Mongibello beyond."Edward Lear, Journals of a landscape painter in Southern Calabria, R. Bentley, London, 1852

On 28 December 1908, at 5:21 am, the town was hit by a heavy earthquake and shook violently for 31 seconds. Damage was even worse in Messina across the Straits. It is estimated that 25,000 people perished in Reggio and 65,000 in Messina. Reggio lost 27% of its inhabitants and Messina lost 42%. Ten minutes after the catastrophic earthquake, those who tried to escape by running towards the open spaces of the coast were engulfed by a 10-metre-high tsunami. Three waves of 6–12 metres swept away the whole waterfront. The 1908 Messina earthquake remains one of the worst on record in modern western European history. Reggio Calabria commemorates its 1908 earthquake victims, on Calabria Living The 28 December 1908 Messina Straits Earthquake (Mw 7.1): A Great Earthquake throughout a Century of Seismology, Historical Seismologist, March/April 2009.

During the World War II, due to its strategic military position, it suffered a devastating air raid and was used as the invasion target by the British Eighth Army in 1943, which led to the city's capture. After the war Reggio recovered considerably. During 1970–71 the city was the scene of a popular uprising—known as the Reggio riots—against the government choice of Catanzaro as capital of the newly instituted Region of Calabria.Partridge, Italian politics today, p. 50. The revolt was taken over by young neofascism of the Italian Social Movement, backed by the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type criminal organisation based in Calabria.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 198. Town the mafia shut down, The Independent, 4 February 1996. The Reggio Calabria protests were the expression of malcontent about cronyism and the lack of industrial planning. In the 1970s and 1980s, Reggio went through twenty years of increasing organized crime by the 'Ndrangheta as well as urban decay. The town is home to several 'ndrine, such as the Condello-Antonio Imerti and the De Stefano-Giovanni Tegano clans, who were involved in bloody wars against each other during this period. Godfather's arrest fuels fear of bloody conflict, The Observer, 24 February 2008. The 'Ndrangheta extorts protection money ( pizzo) from every shop and viable business in town and has more power than the city council in awarding licences to retailers.

The spiral of corruption reached its zenith in the early 1990s. The sitting mayor at the time, , made a confession reporting "suitcases coming into city hall stuffed with money but going out empty". As a result of the nationwide corruption scandals most of the city council was arrested. Since the early 1990s, the so-called "Primavera di Reggio" (Reggio Spring)—a spontaneous movement of people and government institutions—encouraged city recovery and a renewed and stronger identity. The symbol of the Reggio Spring is the Lungomare Falcomatà, the sea-side boulevard named after Italo Falcomatà, the centre-left mayor who initiated the recovery of the town. Dieci anni senza Italo, il sindaco della primavera di Reggio Calabria , Corriere della Calabria, 11 December 2011.

On 9 October 2012, the Italian government decided to dissolve the city council of Reggio Calabria for infiltration by the 'Ndrangheta. The move came after some councillors were suspected of having ties to the powerful crime syndicate, under the 10-year centre-right rule of Giuseppe Scopelliti, mayor from 2002 to 2010. Sprechi e mafia in Calabria, repubblica.it, 23 September 2012. His successor, the centre-right mayor Demetrio Arena and all 30 city councillors, were sacked to prevent any "mafia contagion" in the local government. It was the first time that the entire government of a provincial capital had been dismissed over suspected links to organized crime. Three commissioners ran the city for 18 months until a new election. Italy sacks Reggio Calabria council over 'mafia ties', BBC News, 9 October 2012. Il Viminale scioglie per mafia il comune di Reggio Calabria, Repubblica.it, 9 October 2012. According to anti-mafia investigators in 2016, Scopelliti was elected thanks to votes from the 'Ndrangheta. Secret 'Ndrangheta cupola 'picked men for parliament', Ansa, July 15, 2016

• Patras, Greece
• Athens, Greece, since 2003
• Egaleo, Greece, since 2004
• Cesana Torinese, Italy, since 2006
• San Diego, United States, since 1973
• Montesilvano, Italy, since 2009
• Fairfield City, Australia

The beaches of the city have become a popular tourist destination. Tourism is distributed between the Ionian coast (Costa Jonica), the Tyrrhenian coast (the Costa Viola, Purple Coast) and the Aspromonte mountain behind the city, containing the natural reserve of the Aspromonte National Park where, at 1,300–1,950 metres above sea level, there is a panoramic view of the Strait of Messina from the snowy mount Etna to the Aeolian Islands.

• The Castle, originally built before 540 AD and enlarged by the Italo-Normans and later by the Aragonese in 1459,Giuseppe CARUSO, Il Castello Aragonese di Reggio Calabria - Caruso edizioni, Reggio di C, 2016 partially torn in the late 19th century and in 1923, is now home to art exhibitions.
• The Cathedral of Reggio, re-built after the 1908 Messina earthquake.
• The Church of Saint Gaetano Catanoso, in the Spirito Santo neighborhood. It houses the namesake saint's glass tomb, in the sanctuary as well as museum exhibits.
• The Church of the Optimates constructed in Byzantine-Norman style, containing medieval artistic items of interest.

• The Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia (National Archaeological Museum of Magna Grecia), dedicated to Ancient Greece, heir of the previous City Museum (created in 1819); its building was built in 1932 with project of Marcello Piacentini under the auspices of Archæological Superintendent Edoardo Galli.
• The Villa Genoese-Zerbi is a modern villa in 14th century Venetian style (Neo-Gothic). It is the seat of exhibition of the Venice Biennale in southern Italy.
• The Palazzo Nesci is a mansion in Neoclassical style; it is one of the few 19th-century buildings survived to the 1908 earthquake.
• The Pinacoteca Comunale ("Town Art Gallery") houses works by Antonello da Messina ( Abraham Served by the Angels and St. Jerome in Penitence), Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, Giuseppe Benessai and others.
• The Piccolo Museo San Paolo, a museum with a collection of medieval Byzantine art and Russian art artistic items.

• Soprintendenza alle Antichità della Calabria, established in 1907 as Archeological Superintendence of Bruttium and Lucania.
• The Riace bronzes, that can be seen at the important National Museum of Greater Greece, are some of the main touristic destinations in Reggio.
• The Lungomare Falcomatà, a seaside promenade located in the downtown, is a swimming destination and main symbol of the summer movida; it was defined by Nando Martellini, quoting the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, as "the most beautiful kilometre of Italy".
• The botanic gardens facing the sea.
• The walls of the ancient city, one of the few remaining examples of the original Greek walls, are divided into four separate sections. The one at the Falcomatà Seaside dates to the 5th–4th century BC and is attributed to the city's reconstruction by Dionysius II of Syracuse.
• The remains of ancient Roman baths, along the sea promenade.
• The archaeological excavations of Piazza Italia, which was the central square of Reggio since Greater Greece age until today.
• The archaeological site of Griso Laboccetta, an ancient Greek and Roman sacred area.
• The archaeological excavations nearby Church San Giorgio al Corso.
• Other sites of archæological interest in the upper-eastern part of the city, such as a Greek mansion, a necropolis, or some ancient Greek walls and Byzantine items of interest nearby Reggio Campi street.

• Teatro Comunale "Francesco Cilea": Municipal Theatre, firstly inaugurated in 1818 as Real Teatro Borbonio, it was rebuilt in a different place after the 1908 earthquake.
• Politeama "Siracusa": multi-purpose theatre inaugurated in 1922 inside a Liberty style building.
• Biblioteca Comunale "Pietro De Nava": the Municipal Library was inaugurated in 1818 as Regia Biblioteca Ferdinandiana and set in its present-day building in 1928, after the last earthquake.

• Università "Mediterranea": established in 1968, it is the first Calabrian university.
• Università per Stranieri "Dante Alighieri": it is one of the three Italian Universities for Foreigners; created in 1984 it includes several Linguistic and Philology courses.
• Accademia di Belle Arti: the Academy of Fine Arts, established in 1967 is the most long-standing of its kind in Calabria and the third one in Southern Italy.
• Conservatorio Musicale "Francesco Cilea": founded in 1927, the most ancient Conservatory of Music in Calabria, was then dedicated to the musician from Palmi.
• State High School "Thomas Gulli", ( Liceo statale Tommaso Gulli) established in 1911 as Girls Private School.
• Liceo Classico "Tommaso Campanella", established in 1814 as Real Collegio under Joachim Murat government; poet Diego Vitrioli, from Reggio, attended this college.
• Liceo Scientifico "Leonardo da Vinci", founded in the 1920s, under Fascism.
• Liceo Scientifico "Alessandro Volta".
• Istituto Tecnico-Industriale "Panella-Vallauri".

• Learchus (end of 15th century BC), sculptor
• Iokastos (beginning of 13th century BC), probably king of Reggio
• Clearchus (7th–6th century BC), sculptor
• Ibycus (6th century BC), poet
• Theagenes of Rhegium (6th century BC), literary critic
• Pythagoras (6th–5th century BC), sculptor born in Samos
• Lycus of Rhegium, also known as Boutheras, was a historian who wrote a history of Libya and Sicily. Father of Lycophron.
• Elicaon or Helicaon (Ἑλικάων) of Rhegium, a Pythagorean philosopher A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Elicaon
• Proclus of Rhegium (1st–2nd century AD), physician
• Pope Agatho (7th century AD), pope born in Sicily
• Barlaam of Seminara (1290–1348), Byzantine thinker
• Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639), philosopher, theologian, astrologer, writer and poet born in Stilo
• Raffaele Piria (1814–1865), chemist born in Scilla
• Domenico Spanò Bolani (1815–1890), politician, historian and author
• Francesco Cilea (1866–1950), musician and composer born in Palmi
• Gaetano Catanoso (1879–1963), saint, priest born in Roghudi
• Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), painter/sculptor
• Domingo Periconi (1883–1940), painter
• Goffredo Zehender (1901–1958), Grand Prix driver
• Tito Minniti (1909–1935), pilot
• Leopoldo Trieste (1917–2003), actor and movie director
• Diego Carpitella (1924–1990), ethno-musicologist
• Nik Spatari (1929–2020), painter, sculptor, architect and art scholar born in Mammola
• Luigi Malice (born 1937), painter and sculptor born in Naples
• Marina Ripa di Meana (1941–2018), writer, actress, director, stylist and activist born Maria Elide Punturieri
• Italo Falcomatà (1943–2001), politician and university teacher
• Mino Reitano (1944–2009), singer born in Fiumara
• Santo Versace (born 1944), fashion designer and politician
• Mia Martini (1947–1995), singer born in Bagnara Calabra
• Gianni Versace (1946–1997), fashion designer
• Antonio Strati (born 1949), organisational theorist, artist and university teacher
• Loredana Bertè (born 1950), singer born in Bagnara Calabra
• Nicola Calipari (1953–2005), mayor general and military intelligence officer
• Nuccio Schepis (born 1955), sculptor and art restorer
• Donatella Versace (born 1955), fashion designer
• Marco Minniti (born 1956), politician and former Minister of the Interior in Italy
• Giuseppe Filianoti (born 1974), operatic tenor
• Michele Morrone (born 1990), actor, fashion designer, model, singer, songwriter
• Mimmo Candito (1941–2018), journalist, reporter, writer
• Paul N. Luvera Sr. (1898–1990), Washington State Senator

• Black-figure pottery
• Fatti di Reggio
• List of mayors of Reggio Calabria
• Museo della ndrangheta
• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reggio-Bova
• Urbs Reggina 1914
• Chiesa di Gesù e Maria, Reggio Calabria
• Chiesa degli Ottimati

• Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, New York: Oxford University Press; ( Organized-crime.de, Review by Klaus Von Lampe) ( target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> CCKA-ACJP.ca, Review by Alexandra V. Orlova)
• Partridge, Hilary (1998). Italian politics today, Manchester: Manchester University Press;

• Official tourist site
• The City of Reggio di Calabria
• Province of Reggio di Calabria