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Taranto district
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Taranto main information page)
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia,
southern Italy, the most interior part of the Ionic gulf, at the
north-west of the Salentine Peninsula.
known as an important military and commercial
port second only to La Spezia (Liguria), it has a population of
around 200 thousand inhabitants.
It is locates at an altitude of 15 metres
above sea level, with a surface area of 217 km?, standing on an
island and on two peninsular projections between the lagoon area
of the Mar Piccolo and the small marine bay of the Mar Grande
Its economy has includes steel and iron
foundries, oil refineries, chemical works, some shipyards for
building warships, and food-processing factories.
The ancient city was situated on an island,
joined by two bridges with the mainland, where the new city is
built. Two islets, S. Pietro and S. Paolo, protect the bay (Mar
grande), the commercial port, while the old city forms another
bay (Mar piccolo), a military port.
The city has a large export trade and
extensive works connected with the construction of warships,
while the fishing industry, especially in the Mar piccolo, is
flourishing.
To the visitor the Taranto retains the
antique atmosphere of an historic city by the sea with few
remains of the numerous Greek buildings that once stand, while
in relation to the Roman Tarentum there is still the
amphitheatre, the remains of the thermal baths and private
houses with mosaics. There can be also found some medieval
remains like the Cathedral, fully restored in Baroque times, the
Gothic church of San Domenico Maggiore; and the Aragonese castle
(1481).
Undoubtedly, Taranto is famous for its
seafood since antiquity, the speciality being its shellfish and
fleshy oysters.
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