Crotone, twenty miles of history in the heart of the Mediterranean

Seaside city, city of history, city of culture, city of fine food, Crotone offers to its visitors a vast cultural heritage which got richer and richer throughout over two millennia, going from the archaeology of Magna Græcia to the fortifications of Aragonese dynasty, to a medieval old town where they set valuable noble houses and ancient places of worship.

The story of Crotone takes its roots in VIII century B.C., when it was founded with the name of Kroton by Greek settlers who found a mild climate and a fertile land, beyond a strategic position on the Ionian Sea that still makes the city a crucial point in the Mediterranean.
Recently elevated to the rank of provincial capital, Crotone and its hinterland offer a natural landscape, still intact and extremely varied, from the mountain of the Sila National Park to the uncontaminated sea, where was established the Marine Protected Area "Capo Rizzuto", the largest in Europe thanks to 36 km of coastline, inhabited by a rare wildlife.

It is, above all, thanks to the Magna Graecia period, that Crotone inherited a unique privilege, that of taking on the role of custodian to the history of this civilization.
Even today, wherever one excavates, it is possible to uncover remains from the Greek age which saw Crotone at the height of its splendour in the 5th century BC.
Crotone, during the course of the centuries, has been home to several ancient Mediterranean civilizations, such as the Enotri, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Bruzi and Franco-German civilizations, such as the Normans, the Svevi, the Angioini and the Bourbons.
These populations, founders of western and Mediterranean civilization, have left visible traces of their greatest and culture.
The stratification of the territory makes it possible to trace, at different depths, testimony to the different historic phases which have passed Crotone.
The plan which privileged this area was not simply of a strategic character for the military defence of the coasts, but also for the environmental and cultural profile which characterize this territory.

By Gruppo di Marketing Territoriale - January 2010.