Test on the history of Taranto. Realized by Luca Titoto

The City rises in the Ionian Sea. Ancient legend tells us its origins date to 1200 years before the founding of Rome, when Taras the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, landed near the site of the present City, at what today is the mouth of the Tara River.
This “City of the two Seas” is still for lovers and scholars of history and of Art ,a source of fascination. It is easy to imagine the splendors of the ancient metropolis where about three hundred thousand people lived and accumulated vast wealth from the extremely fertile soil, from trade, the famous “bisso”, gold-working shops and the marvelous objects made of “porpora”(porphyry);to become even more famous because of its reknowned Schools of Philosophy.
Taranto’s history is rich in tales of war. In the centuries the old town passed from the Saracens ,the Normans, the Swabians and the Angevins.
In the twentieth century the economy was based essentially on fishing and shipping, and on the presence of the “Arsenale Militare”
In 1960 the IV steelworks of the Italsider was founded.It is one of the most important plants in the world.
Taranto has two distinct parts: The Old Town”,the center of a vast restoration and renovation operation, whose purpose is to turn a great many of the old buildings into social centers and to rehabilitate and re-vivify the area. The “New City”has been developed in the shape of trapezoid, whose long side are bounded by the Mar Piccolo and the Mar Grande.