Brindisi


Brindisi is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city remains a major port for trade with the Balkan Peninsula, Greece and the Middle East. Its industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity.
From September 1943 to February 1944, Brindisi was the provisional government seat of the Kingdom of Italy.

Etymology

The name Brindisi derives from the Latin Brundisium, which itself comes through the Greek Brentesion from the Messapic Brention, meaning "head of a deer". This likely refers to the shape of the natural harbour, which resembles the head or antlers of a deer.
The root is related to the Albanian words bri, brî, meaning "horn" or "antler", from late Proto-Albanian *brina < earlier *brena.

Heraldry

The emblem of the city of Brindisi relates to certain unique characteristics of the ancient city of Brindisi, some of which are still visible today. The head of the deer derives from the Messapic name of the city Brention, a name inspired by the shape of the port city, which is reminiscent of the stag antlers. The emblem also contains the so-called "terminal pillar" of the Appian Way.

History

Ancient times

Several traditions concern its founders; one claims it was founded by the legendary hero Diomedes. The geographer Strabo says that it was colonized from Knossos in Crete.
Brindisi was originally a Messapian settlement predating the Roman expansion. The Latin name Brundisium, through the Greek Brentesion, is a corruption of the Messapian Brention meaning "deer's head" and probably referring to the shape of the natural harbour. According to other sources, in 267 BC, it was conquered by the Romans and became a Latin colony. The peninsula of the Punta lands, which is located in the outer harbor, has been identified as a Bronze Age village where a group of huts, protected by a barrier of stones, yielded fragments of Mycenaean pottery. Herodotus spoke of the Mycenaean origin of these populations. The necropolis of Tor Pisana returned Corinthian jars in the first half of the 7th century BC. The Brindisi Messapia certainly entertained strong business relationships with the opposite side of the Adriatic and the Greek populations of the Aegean Sea.
After the Punic Wars, it became a major center of Roman naval power and maritime trade. In the Social War, it received Roman citizenship and was made a free port by Sulla. It suffered, however, from a siege conducted by Caesar in 49 BC, part of Caesar's Civil War and was again attacked in 42 and 40 BC, with the latter giving rise to the Treaty of Brundisium between Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus in the autumn of the same year.
The poet Pacuvius was born here about 220 BC, and here the famous poet Virgil died in 19 BC. Under the Romans, Brundisium – a large city in its day with some 100,000 inhabitants – was an active port, the chief point of embarkation for Greece and the East, via Dyrrachium or Corcyra. It was connected with Rome by the Via Appia and the Via Traiana. The termination of the Via Appia, at the water's edge, was formerly flanked by two fine pillars. Only one remains, the second being misappropriated and removed to the neighbouring town of Lecce.

Middle Ages and modern times

Later, Brindisi was conquered by the Ostrogoths and reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD. In 674, it was destroyed by the Lombards led by Romuald I of Benevento, but such a fine natural harbor meant that the city was soon rebuilt. In the 9th century, a Saracen settlement existed in the city's neighborhood, stormed in 836 by pirates.
In 1070, it was conquered by the Normans and became part of the Principality of Taranto and the Duchy of Apulia, and was the first rule of the Counts of Conversano. After the baronial revolt of 1132, owned by the will of Roger II of Sicily, the city recovered some of the splendor of the past during the period of the Crusades, when it regained the Episcopal See, saw the construction of the new cathedral and a castle with an essential new arsenal, and became a privileged port for the Holy Land. In 1156, a siege of Brindisi by the Byzantine Empire ended in a battle in which the besiegers were decisively defeated by the Sicilian Normans, ending the Byzantines' hopes of conquering Southern Italy.
It was in the cathedral of Brindisi that the wedding of King Roger III of Sicily took place. Emperor Frederick II married Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem on 9 November 1225 here and started from the port of Brindisi in 1227 for the Sixth Crusade. Frederick II erected a castle, with massive round towers, to guard the inner harbour; it later became a convict prison. Like other Pugliese ports, Brindisi, for a short while, was ruled by Venice, but was soon reconquered by Spain.
A plague devastated Brindisi in 1348; it was plundered in 1352 and 1383; and an earthquake struck the city in 1456.
Brindisi fell to Austrian rule in 1707–1734 and afterward to the Bourbons.
Between September 1943 and February 1944, the city functioned as Italy's temporary government seat and hosted King Victor Emmanuel III, Pietro Badoglio, and a part of the Italian armed forces command in September 1943 after the armistice with Italy.
In the 21st century, Brindisi is the home base of the San Marco Regiment, a marine brigade originally known as the La Marina Regiment. It was renamed San Marco after its noted defense of Venice during the Second Battle of the Piave River.
On 19 May 2012, a bomb made of three gas cylinders, detonated in front of a vocational school in Brindisi, killing a 16-year-old female student.

Geography

Brindisi is situated on a natural harbour, that penetrates deeply into the Adriatic coast of Apulia. Within the arms of the outer harbour islands are Pedagne, a tiny archipelago, currently not open and in use for military purposes. The entire municipality is part of the Brindisi Plain, characterised by high agricultural uses of its land. It is located in the northeastern part of the Salento plains, about from the Itria Valley and the low Murge. The Natural Marine Reserve of the World Wide Fund for Nature of Torre Guaceto is close to the city. The Ionian Sea is about away.

Territory

The territory of Brindisi is characterised by a wide flat area from which emerge sub-deposits of limestone and sand of marine origin, which in turn have a deeper level clay of the Pleistocene era and an even later Mesozoic carbonate composed of limestone and soils. The development of agriculture has caused an increase in the use of water resources, increasing indiscriminate use.

Climate

Brindisi experiences a Mediterranean climate. Summers are hot and dry with abundant sunshine. Summer heat indexes can be regularly over and occasionally as high as during July and August. Winters are mild with moderate rainfall. Brindisi and the mostly topographically flat Salento peninsula are subject to light winds most of the year. The two main winds in Salento are the Maestral and the Scirocco. The northerly Maestral wind from the Adriatic Sea is cooling, moderating summer heat and increasing winter wind chill. The southerly Scirocco wind from the Sahara brings higher temperatures and humidity to Salento. During spring and autumn, Sirocco winds can bring thunderstorms, occasionally dropping red sand from the Sahara in the region. Snow is rare in Brindisi but occurred during the January 2017 cold spell, bringing snow and ice to much of southern Italy.

Main sights

  • The Castello Svevo or Castello Grande, built by Emperor Frederick II. It has a trapezoid plan with massive square towers. Under the Crown of Aragon four towers were added to the original 13th-century structure. After centuries of being abandoned, in 1813 Joachim Murat turned it into a prison; after 1909 it was used by the Italian Navy. During World War II it was briefly the residence of King Victor Emmanuel III.
  • The Aragonese Castle, best known as Forte a Mare. It was built by King Ferdinand I of Naples in 1491 on the S. Andrea island facing the port. It is divided into two sections: the "Red Castle" and the more recent Fort.
  • Two ancient Roman pillars, symbols of Brindisi. They were once thought to mark the ending points of the Appian Way, instead they were used as a port reference for the antique mariners. Only one of the two, standing at, is still visible. The other crumbled in 1582, and the ruins were given to Lecce to hold the statue of Saint Oronzo, because Saint Oronzo was reputed to have cured the plague in Brindisi.
  • the Duomo, built in Romanesque style in the 11th–12th centuries. What is visible today is the 18th-century reconstruction, after the original was destroyed by an earthquake on 20 February 1743. Parts of the original mosaic pavement can be seen in the interior.
  • Church of Santa Maria del Casale, in Gothic-Romanesque style. The façade has a geometrical pattern of grey and yellow stones, with an entrance cusp-covered portico. The interior has early-14th-century frescoes including, in the counter-façade, a Last Judgement in four sections, by Rinaldo da Taranto. They are in late-Byzantine style.
  • Church of San Benedetto, in Romanesque style. Perhaps built before the 11th century as part of a Benedictine nunnery, it has a massive bell tower with triple-mullioned windows and Lombard bands. A side portal is decorated with 11th-century motifs, while the interior has a nave covered by cross vaults, while the aisles, separated by columns with Romanesque capitals, have half-barrel vaults. The cloister has decorated capitals.
  • Portico of the Templars. Despite the name, it was in reality the loggia of the bishop's palace. It is now the entrance to the Museo Ribezzo.
  • the Fontana Grande, built by the Romans on the Appian Way. It was restored in 1192 by Tancred of Lecce.
  • Piazza della Vittoria. It has a 17th-century fountain.
  • Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
  • Church of the Sacred Heart.
  • Church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro, with circular plan, dating from the 12th century.
  • Church of the Santissima Trinità. It has a late 12th-century crypt.
  • the