Ancient Sparta's wealthiest colony — sea urchins and the heel of Italy's boot
Taranto occupies an extraordinary geographical position in the instep of Italy's boot — a city built on an island between two seas (the Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo), connected to the mainland by a swing bridge that opens for tankers heading to the steelworks. Taranto was founded in 706 BC by Spartan exiles and became the most powerful Greek city in the western Mediterranean; the Museo Nazionale holds one of Europe's finest collections of Magna Graecia gold jewellery and terracotta. The old city (Città Vecchia) is a dense medieval island of decaying palazzi and baroque churches, where the e…
Ancient Taras (Taranto) was founded by Spartan colonists — according to legend, by the illegitimate sons of Spartan men and Helot women, exiled after a political crisis. It flourished as a major trading hub and cultural centre, home to the philosopher Archytas (a friend of Plato who may have invented the screw and pulley), and the largest Greek city in Italy until it fell to Rome in 272 BC after the Pyrrhic War. The city was repeatedly attacked and partially destroyed — by Hannibal in 213 BC, by the Romans in 209 BC — and the medieval city was built atop the ruins of the ancient one. The city…