Crotone, Calabria Region, Italy

🇮🇹 Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria, Italy. Founded c. 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Kroton (Κρότων or Ϙρότων; Latin: Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1992, it became the capital of the newly established Province of Crotone.

History Croton's oikistes (founder) was Myscellus, who came from the city of Rhypes in Achaea in the northern Peloponnese. He established the city in c. 710 BC and it soon became one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia with a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC. Its inhabitants were famous for their physical strength and for the simple sobriety of their lives. From 588 BC onwards, Croton produced many generations of winners in the Olympics and the other Panhellenic Games, the most famous of whom was Milo of Croton. According to Herodotus (3.131), the physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks, and among them Democedes, son of Calliphon, was the most prominent in the 6th century BC. Accordingly, he traveled around Greece and ended up working in the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. After the tyrant was murdered, Democedes was captured by the Persians and brought to King Darius, curing him of a dislocated ankle. Democedes' fame was, according to Herodotus, the basis for the prestige of Croton's physicians.

Crotone's location between the ports of Taranto and Messina, as well as its proximity to a source of hydroelectric power, favored industrial development during the period between the two World Wars. In the 1930s its population doubled. However, after the two main employers, Pertusola Sud and Montedison, collapsed by the late 1980s, Crotone was in economic crisis, with many residents losing their jobs and leaving to find work elsewhere. In 1996, the river Esaro flooded the city, which dealt a further blow to the city's morale. Since that low point, the city has undergone urban renewal and risen in quality-of-life rankings.

Tourist Industry • The Cathedral, originally from the 9th to 11th centuries, but largely rebuilt. It has a neo-classical façade, while the interior has a nave with two aisles, with Baroque decorations. Noteworthy are a baptismal font (12th century) and the Madonna di Capo Colonna, the icon of the Black Madonna which, according to the tradition, was brought from East in the first years of the Christian era. • The 16th-century Castle of Charles V. It houses the Town Museum, with findings excavated in the ancient site of Kroton. Notable are also the remnants of the walls, of the same century, and of various watchtowers. • The ancient castle built on an island, with accessibility on foot limited to a narrow strip of land, is referred to as Le Castella.

Transport Crotone Airport (Sant'Anna Airport) is served by Italiatour.it and other charter airlines. Crotone also has a railway station, although much of the tourism traffic is served by the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway and the National Road (called 106 Ionica) leading all the Jonic (eastern) coast from Taranto to Reggio Calabria. In recent times, Crotone Port has been used by visitors on yacht charter cruising vacations.

Museums Crotone hosts a national archaeological museum, a municipal museum, a municipal art gallery, and a provincial museum of contemporary art, as well as the Antiquarium di Torre Nao. • National Archaeological Museum: founded in 1968, it is located on Risorgimento street, in the heart of the historic city center. The building consists of two floors and contains all of the most significant finds from the archaeological sites of the entire territory Crotone. In particular rich archaeological finds come from the Sanctuary of Hera Lacinia site in Capo Colonna.