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Vibo Valentia (; Monteleone before 1861; Monteleone di Calabria from 1861 to 1928; scn, label=
Calabrian, Vibbu Valenzia or ) is a city and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' (municipality) in the
Calabria
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, demographics1_title2 ...
region of southern Italy, near the
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...
. It is the capital of the
province of Vibo Valentia
The province of Vibo Valentia ( it, provincia di Vibo Valentia; Vibonese: ) is a province in the Calabria region of southern Italy, set up by a national law of 6 March 1992 which came into effect on 1 January 1996, and formerly part of the Provin ...
, and is an agricultural, commercial and tourist center (the most famous places nearby are
Tropea
Tropea (; scn, label= Calabrian, Trupìa; la, Tropaea; grc, Τράπεια, Trápeia) is a municipality in the province of Vibo Valentia, in Calabria, Italy.
Tropea is a seaside resort with sandy beaches, located on the Gulf of Saint Euphemi ...
,
Ricadi
Ricadi ( grc, Ρηγάδιον, translit=Rigádion) is a small rural town, as well as a municipality, located along the Tyrrhenian coast, in the province of Vibo Valentia, in the Italian region of Calabria.
Geography
Boundaries
The municipalit ...
and
Pizzo). There are also several large manufacturing industries, including the tuna district of Maierato. Very important for the local economy is
Vibo Marina's harbour.
History
Vibo Valentia was originally the
Greek colony
Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC.
This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that i ...
of Hipponion ( grc-gre, Ἱππόνιον). It was founded, probably around the late 7th century BC, by inhabitants of
Locri
Locri is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. Its name derives from that of the ancient Greek region of Locris. Today it is an important administrative and cultural centre on the Ion ...
, a principal city of the Italian
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...
, south of Vibo Valentia on the
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...
.
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
reports that the city was taken in 388 BC by
Dionysius the Elder
Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder ( 432 – 367 BC) was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse, in Sicily. He conquered several cities in Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence in Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the Western Gre ...
tyrant of
Syracuse, who deported all the population. The population came back in 378 BC, with the help of the
Carthaginians
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
. In the following years Hipponion came under the dominion of the
Bruttii, who controlled most of Calabria. After the town fell to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, the name was Latinized to Hipponium. The town became a Roman colony in 194 BC with the name of Vibo Valentia. After a phase of prosperity during the late Republic and early Empire, the town was almost completely abandoned after the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
.
In 1070 the
Normans
The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...
built a castle at the site of the old Acropolis and in 1235 a new city was established by
Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor and king of Sicily, with the name of Monteleone. The city got back the old Roman name of Vibo Valentia only in 1928.
Government
Bishopric
A
Diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
of Vibo Valentia was established in 451AD and suppressed in 1083
AD when it was incorporated into the
Diocese of Mileto
The Diocese of Mileto-Nicotera-Tropea is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Calabria, southern Italy, created in 1986. In that year the historical Diocese of Mileto was united with the Diocese of Nicotera-Tropea. The diocese is a suffra ...
.
[Joseph Bingham, Origines ecclesiasticæ Volume 2(Printed for William Straker, 1834) p371.]
In 1968 it was restored as a
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
. The title has been assigned to:
*
Andreas Rigracher (1969–1970)
*
Luciano Angeloni Luciano Angeloni (2 December 1917 – 9 May 1996) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
Biography
Luciano Angeloni was born in Imperia, Italy, on 2 December 1917. He was ordain ...
(1970–1996)
*
Aldo Cavalli
Aldo Cavalli (born 18 October 1946) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1979 and served as an apostolic nuncio from 1996 to 2021. In November 2021 he became Apostolic Visitor to Medjugo ...
(1996–present)
Main sights
* Norman-Hohenstaufen Castle, located most likely on the site of Hipponion acropolis, and built around 1000. For its construction materials from the Greek temples nearby were used. It was damaged by an
earthquake in 1783. Today the castle is home to a state museum.
* Walls of Hipponion, including about of remains and foundations of eight towers, each with an estimated height of .
* Church of ''Santa Maria Maggiore e San Leoluca ''(Cathedral), built in the 9th century over the remains of a Byzantine basilica. It has an 18th-century marble high altar with a 16th-century sculpture of "Madonna della Neve", and a Renaissance triptych.
* ''
Santa Ruba: '' (c. 1000), church built during the reign of Pope
Callixtus II
Pope Callixtus II or Callistus II ( – 13 December 1124), born Guy of Burgundy, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 1119 to his death in 1124. His pontificate was shaped by the Investiture Controversy, ...
. It has a large cupola in Oriental style. It is located halfway between Vibo Valentia and
San Gregorio d'Ippona.
* Church of the Rosario (c. 1337), located over a Roman temple. Originally in Gothic style, it was remade after the 1783 earthquake. Moreover, it preserves different paintings of the local artist Giulio Rubino as well as 5 polychrome wooden statues of the Sorrowful Mysteries and a Risen Christ made by Ludovico and Domenico Rubino (brothers of Giulio, the painter), carried in procession during the Holy Week.
* Church of Carmine: built in the 17th century with a single-nave and an oval shape. The convent has been the city hospital for a long time.
* Church of ''Santa Maria degli Angeli'': built between 1621 and 1666, at first annexed to the convent of the Reformed Friars Minor (now National Boarding School), it is handled by Capuchin Fathers. It preserves a wooden Cross called "of Angels" of an unknown author of '600, destination of thousands of devotees who go on pilgrimage every year by tradition on every Friday in March.
* Church of Saint Michael: inside there are a paint by Luca Giordano, ''San Michele che scaccia Lucifero'', and a paint by Ludovico Mazzanti, ''Estasi di Sant'Ignazio''.
* Church of Saint Joseph: wanted by the Jesuit Fathers, it was opened to worship in 1701 with the name of Saint Ignatius or of Jesus; it preserves several paintings including The vision of Saint Ignatius and sculptures like the wooden composition of Saint Joseph on the high altar.
* Church of the Holy Spirit: built in 1579, it is still deconsecrated; it was the first church of the city before the construction of the current one. Inside different artistic works were preserved until its closing and then they were moved to other churches in the city.
* Church of ''Santa Maria la Nova'': built in 1521 with the name of Santa Maria di Gesù by duke
Ettore Pignatelli, it preserves the sarcophagus of him. During the Napoleonic domination it was used as stable and armory; then, in 1837, it was restored and reopened by Enrico Gagliardi. Inside there are many works by the Flemish painter
Dirk Hendricksz.
* Church of ''Santa Maria del Soccorso'': built around 1632, it was reconstructed in 1791 based on the drawings provided by Bernardo Morena.
* ''La Madonnella'': small church built on the site of the ancient convent of the Capuchins.
* Church of Saint Anthony of Padua: built during the 17th century, it was annexed to the convent of Friars Minor Capuchin; on the inside there are one painting by Luca Giordano, ''La Madonna col bambino tra i Santi Anna e Felice'', and one by Pacecco De Rosa, ''l'Immaculata con i santi Francesco e Antonio''.
Twin towns
*
Corleone,
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
, Sicily, Italy
*
Ruda Śląska
Ruda Śląska (formerly ) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica Rive ...
, Poland
*
Vrnjačka Banja
Vrnjačka Banja ( sr-cyr, Врњачка Бања) is a town and municipality located in the Raška District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 10,065 inhabitants, while the population of the municipality is 27,527 inhabitants.
Vrnja ...
, Serbia
*
Ituzaingó, Argentina
References
* ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. 2001
* ''The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites''; Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.
External links
*
{{Authority control
Vibo Valentia,
Cities and towns in Calabria
Populated places established in the 7th century BC
Populated coastal places in Italy