Trapani
Trapani is a coastal city and comune in western Sicily, Italy, located on a crescent-shaped peninsula between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the Province of Trapani, it has long been associated with the historic salt trade and has increasingly developed as a destination for tourism.
The municipality comprises the urban area on the peninsula and a rural hinterland to the south, separated by the municipality of Paceco, while to the north-east the built-up area merges with the lower districts of Erice. Trapani lies at the base of Monte Erice, whose slopes and summit overlook the city and provide a link to the ancient settlement of Eryx.
Historically, Trapani’s economy was based on salt extraction and trade, together with red-coral fishing and processing, and tuna fishing and related food-processing industries. These activities were supported by its strategic position on the Mediterranean and by a natural harbour that served as the commercial outlet for Eryx. Today, the local economy is dominated by the service sector, with activities linked to public services, commerce and tourism, as well as services associated with the Port of Trapani and the city’s traditional fisheries.
History
Etymology
The city was originally known as Drépanon, derived from the Greek word meaning "sickle", in reference to the curved shape of its natural harbour.In later interpretive tradition, the origin of the name was also explained through mythological and symbolic narratives inspired by the site’s distinctive sickle-shaped promontory. Such accounts associated the natural form of the harbour with celestial or divine imagery, offering legendary explanations for the city’s name. These interpretations reflect symbolic readings of the toponym rather than its historical derivation from the Greek drépanon.
In classical literature, the harbour appears as Drepanum in Virgil’s Aeneid, where Aeneas lands there and his father Anchises dies during the Trojan hero’s wanderings, a setting later identified with the historical port at Trapani.
In Punic and Roman religious tradition, the god Saturn—often identified by classical authors with the Punic deity Baal Hammon—was regarded as a protective divinity of the area, reflecting broader patterns of religious syncretism in western Sicily and later echoed in the city’s civic symbolism.
Antiquity
The earliest settlement at Trapani originated as the port of the Elymian centre of Eryx, a hilltop settlement in western Sicily. The Elymians were an indigenous population of the region in the first millennium BC, whose principal centres included Eryx, Segesta and Entella. In antiquity the site was known as Drepana and developed around a natural harbour at the base of Monte Erice. Classical and later geographical sources describe Drepana primarily as a maritime outlet serving Eryx, rather than as an independent urban centre.From the first millennium BC, the settlement came under Punic influence through Phoenician trade networks in western Sicily and was later incorporated into the sphere of Carthage. During the conflicts between Carthage and the Greek poleis of Sicily, Drepana functioned as a fortified harbour and naval base. In 249 BC, during the First Punic War, a Carthaginian fleet under the admiral Adherbal defeated the Roman navy off the coast in the Battle of Drepana, one of Rome’s most severe naval setbacks of the war. Together with Lilybaeum, Drepana remained among the last Carthaginian-held positions in Sicily until the Roman victory in 241 BC.
After the defeat of Carthage, Drepana passed under Roman control and was Latinised as Drepanum. Under Roman rule, the settlement retained its role as a minor harbour serving the surrounding region of western Sicily, but it did not develop into a major urban centre. Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that its importance declined during the Roman imperial period, and by late antiquity the site had become relatively marginal, preceding the more substantial developments of the medieval era.
Medieval period
After the end of Roman rule, the settlement that became Trapani passed through phases of early medieval control common to much of western Sicily. A period of renewed development began in the 9th century following the Islamic conquest of the island, when Sicily was incorporated into the wider economic and maritime networks of the central and western Mediterranean under Muslim rule. During this period, Trapani’s harbour gained increased importance as a coastal port, benefiting from renewed maritime activity linked to North Africa and the broader Islamic world.Trapani was captured by the Normans in 1077 during the conquest of Sicily led by Roger I of Sicily. Under Norman and subsequent dynasties, the town developed more clearly as a maritime centre, complementing the fortified hilltop settlement of Erice above. Its function as a port and naval anchorage became increasingly important in the context of medieval Mediterranean trade and warfare, particularly along the routes linking Sicily with the Italian peninsula and North Africa.
By the 13th century, Trapani’s harbour figured in major regional naval conflicts. In 1266, during the War of Saint Sabas, a Venetian fleet defeated the Genoese fleet off the coast of the city in the Battle of Trapani, underscoring the strategic value of the port within wider struggles for commercial dominance in the Mediterranean.
In 1282, Trapani supported the revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers, which ended Angevin rule in Sicily and brought the city under the authority of the Crown of Aragon. Under Aragonese rule, the harbour’s strategic importance prompted major investment in its defences. The islet fortress later known as the Castello della Colombaia was substantially rebuilt in 1320 under Frederick III of Aragon. Within the town, the Castello di Terra functioned as a key defensive and administrative stronghold, controlling access to the harbour and the landward approaches to the port.
During the later Middle Ages, Trapani continued to develop as a regional port in western Sicily, laying the foundations for its expanded urban and economic role in the early modern period.
Early modern and Bourbon period
From the late 15th century, following the incorporation of Sicily into the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire, Trapani entered a prolonged phase of transformation that reshaped it from a medieval port into a fortified early modern city. Its position on a narrow peninsula at the western extremity of Sicily gave it strategic importance for the defence of maritime routes linking the Tyrrhenian Sea, the central Mediterranean and North Africa. Within the Spanish imperial system, Trapani functioned as both a military outpost and a logistical harbour on the island’s western frontier.During the 16th and 17th centuries, the city’s defences were substantially expanded in response to the growth of Ottoman power and the threat of Barbary pirates across the Mediterranean. Medieval fortifications were adapted to early modern military requirements, with the construction of bastioned walls and coastal defences designed to protect the length of the peninsula. These included the reinforcement of fortifications protecting the historic harbour and northern seafront—most notably the Mura di Tramontana—together with the strengthening of the land-facing perimeter through works such as the Bastione dell'Impossibile. These defences were complemented by the continued strategic use of the offshore fortress of the Castello della Colombaia and of the Castello di Terra to control access to the harbour. Together, these works formed part of a broader system of Spanish coastal defence in Sicily.
At the same time, Trapani experienced significant urban and architectural development. The early modern period saw the construction and expansion of numerous churches, convents and civic buildings, reflecting both the influence of the Counter-Reformation and the city’s growing economic resources. Urban growth was largely constrained by the peninsula’s geography, encouraging dense development along its axis and contributing to the elongated historic centre that characterises Trapani today. Civic spaces, religious institutions and noble residences played a central role in shaping the city’s social and visual identity.
Under Spanish rule, Trapani also emerged as a major economic centre in western Sicily. Its port supported a range of activities including fisheries, the processing and export of sea salt from the surrounding salt pans of Trapani and Paceco, coral working and maritime trade. These industries integrated the city into wider Mediterranean commercial networks and reinforced its importance as a regional hub for the surrounding countryside.
Following the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, Sicily passed under the rule of the House of Bourbon, first as part of the Kingdom of Naples and later the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1848, amid a wave of liberal and nationalist revolutionary movements across Europe, local insurgents led by figures such as Enrico Fardella and Giuseppe Coppola stormed the Castello di Terra, temporarily overthrowing Bourbon control in the city. Although royal rule was later restored, Trapani again changed hands in 1860 during Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand, becoming one of the first Sicilian cities to fall to the revolutionary forces and contributing to the subsequent unification of Italy and the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.
Modern period
From the late 19th century, Trapani underwent significant transformation as part of the broader process of industrialisation and state consolidation following the unification of Italy. Central to this change was the expansion and reorganisation of the harbour and the construction of the modern Port of Trapani on the southern side of the peninsula, which increased the city’s capacity for commercial shipping and strengthened its links to national and Mediterranean trade routes. These developments marked a shift in the local economy away from traditional activities such as small-scale fishing toward logistics, services and port-related commerce.During the early 20th century, Trapani was affected by the political and social changes associated with the rise of Italian Fascism. As a strategically located coastal city, it was drawn into the military infrastructure of the regime and later suffered damage during the Second World War, particularly from Allied bombing targeting its port and industrial facilities. Among the buildings affected were the convent of Santa Maria di Gesù, which was later demolished following secularisation, the Teatro Garibaldi in Piazza Scarlatti, which was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1943 and subsequently demolished, and the former building of the State Archives of Trapani, now housing the Museum of Contemporary Art San Rocco, which also sustained wartime damage.
In the decades following the war, the city underwent reconstruction and gradual economic diversification. Improvements in transport and infrastructure—including rail links, road connections and, later, the development of Trapani–Birgi Airport—strengthened the city’s regional and national accessibility. While traditional activities persisted, the post-war period saw an increasing emphasis on services and administration, alongside the slow recovery of maritime activity.
From the late 20th century onward, Trapani increasingly developed as a centre for cultural and coastal tourism, benefiting from its historic urban fabric, proximity to destinations such as Erice and the Aegadian Islands, and improved transport links, including the Trapani–Erice Cable Car. Tourism has become an important component of the local economy, complementing port activity and services and shaping the city’s contemporary identity.