Places to see in ( Trapani - Italy )
Places to see in ( Trapani - Italy )
Trapani is a city in western Sicily with a crescent-shaped coastline. At the western tip, offering views as far as the Aegadian Islands, is the 17th-century Torre di Ligny watchtower. It houses the Museo di Preistoria e del Mare, with archeological artifacts. North of the harbor, the Chiesa del Purgatorio church holds wooden sculptures that are paraded around the city during Easter’s Processione dei Misteri.
Hugging the harbour where Peter of Aragon landed in 1282 to begin the Spanish occupation of Sicily, the sickle-shaped spit of land occupied by Trapani's old town once sat at the heart of a powerful trading network that stretched from Carthage to Venice. Traditionally the town thrived on coral and tuna fishing, with some salt and wine production. These days, Trapani's port buzzes with ferry traffic to the Egadi Islands and Pantelleria, and the adjacent historic centre is a popular place to stroll, for both locals and travellers awaiting their next boat.
The elongated scythe like form of Trapani, as it curves elegantly into the sea, inspired early settlers: the Elymians, of Phoenician extraction, named the city Drepanon, which translated means sickle. Legend tells that Demeter, goddess of harvests and of plenty, whilst seeking her lost and beloved daughter dropped her sickle in a moment of despair, and as it fell to earth and landed by the sea, Trapani grew in its place, retaining the form of the Goddess' scythe.
Myths aside, Trapani is the perfect port, and fishing village, being set on a low peninsula stretching in an arc into the sea, the housing of the city melting into plains of salt pans, valuable to the regions economy. Beyond, the solitary plains dotted with windmills dating from the medieval era, lies the open sea stretching to the horizon, punctuated only by the beautiful peak of mount Erice and the Egadi Islands.
Apart from its ancient trade in tuna, fishing, and salt, Trapani also deals in olives and wine, and in recent years has begun to flourish. At present, the province of Trapani produces more wine than Austria, Chile, Hungary, or the region of Tuscany.
Trapani is the most strategic spot in the west of Sicily as it is the only major port. Thus for the various invaders mindful of its fertile potential and geographic position, it has been considered a small but worthy prize. After the epoch of the Greeks in which Trapani was a minor colony, it became a trading centre for the Phoenicians before becoming a pivotal hinge in the Carthaginian empire. The Romans, quick as ever to spot a valuable site, then defeated the Carthaginians in the battle of the Egadi Islands and took the town, using it as a minor trading post.
After the invasion and disappearance of the Vandals, the town revived a little during Byzantine rule, until 830 A.D. when for the first time the town began to come into its own under the Muslims who virtually reconstructed the town, enclosing it with walls on all sides, and giving it a unique street plan peculiar to the Arabs, to be found in several Sicilian cities. The Arabs also increased the town's prosperity with the growth in production of salt, tuna and coral as well as introducing an irrigation system thus increasing the town's food productivity. The Normans continued to develop the town's potential, awarding it with the title Royal City. Thus this picturesque little town of position par excellence, grew in prosperity throughout the Arab and Norman period.
During the Spanish era of dominion, the town's coral production and decoration grew along with the extraction and export of marble. As a port, the town had always enjoyed the benefit of customs ensuring a constant for the town's prosperity. Charles V restructured Trapani's walls adding a deep ditch and channel around the city to protect it from attack. At the end of the eighteenth century it was pulled down and the walls lengthened to the base of Mount Erice. From this time on, the town expanded indiscriminately and without planning, and sadly continues to do so
( Trapani - Italy ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Trapani . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Trapani - Italy
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