Catanzaro
For the football club, see U.S. CatanzaroCatanzaro is a city in
Calabria,
Italy, the capital of the
province of Catanzaro and also of the region Calabria since 1970.
This town rises on a rock and is split into two parts by the steep Fiumarella valley, the two sections being connected by a huge concrete steel bridge (the
Viadotto Morandi), among the highest in Europe, built in 1960 on a design of architect
Riccardo Morandi. The beach side neighborhood Catanzaro Lido, located about 5 kilometers south, has a wide promenade and a harbor for small fishing and pleasure boats.
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The Viadotto Morandi at night |
There are doubts on the origins of the name. Some say it derived from two
Byzantine generals, Kattaro and Zaro, while another theory is that Zaro was the original name of the river (Zarapotamo), so that
katà Zaro would mean beyound the river. According to
Luigi Settembrini, the name could also be derived by the
Greek words
kata'- antheros "on the flowery (hills)"
The old town was built over three hills (St. Trifone or St. Rocco Hill; Episcopate's Hill; St. John's Hill) in Byzantine times.
Catanzaro was since the
11th century the
lace capital of the world with a large
silkworm breeding, it produced all the laces and linens used in the
Vatican and supplied merchants that came from all over
Europe to buy the silk in the port of
Reggio Calabria soon before
Pentecost day.
A devastating
earthquake in
1783 wiped away churches, palaces and a large part of the population, and a second in
1832 completed the destruction of most ancient historical buildings.
Catanzaro is home of the
Nobel prize winner prof.
Renato Dulbecco and of the contemporary artist
Mimmo Rotella, inventor of the
Decollage.
*
Official site*
ItalianVisits.com*
Accademia di Belle Arti - Catanzaro
