Reggio Calabria

Italy, Italy

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Reggio Calabria is a historic port city at the very southern tip of the Italian peninsula, overlooking the Strait of Messina directly opposite Sicily and serving as the largest city in Calabria with a Mediterranean climate and over 3,000 years of history.

Founded around 720 BCE by Greek colonists from Chalcis who named it Rhegion, the city prospered under various rulers including Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Saracens, and Normans before being conquered by Robert Guiscard in 1060, and it was destroyed multiple times by earthquakes and invasions, most notably razed by the devastating 1908 earthquake and subsequently rebuilt with wide streets and low reinforced concrete buildings.

Today, Reggio Calabria is best known as the city of the Bronzes because it houses the world-famous Riace Bronzes, two magnificent ancient Greek warrior statues recovered from the Mediterranean Sea near Riace, displayed at the National Archaeological Museum which holds a splendid archaeological collection.