Crotone, Province of Crotone, Calabria

Kroton was an Achaean colony from about 710 BC on the coast Gulf of Taranto, and became a powerful city in Magna Graecia. It was notable for Pythagoras and his Pythagorean school, for its school of medicine and for producing many winners in the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic Games, among them Milo of Croton.

Around 510 BC Kroton sent an army of 100,000 men led by athlete Milo against its rival city, Sybaris, which was destroyed. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, temporarily occupied Croton. When Pyrrhus invaded Italy it was still a considerable city, but after the war half the city was deserted. It was then occupied by the Brutti, with the exception of the citadel where the original inhabitants had taken refuge; however, unable to defend the place against Carthaginians, they surrendered and were allowed to take refuge in Locri. Eventually, in 193 BC Kroton was occupied by the Romans, who established a colony there.

In decadence during the Roman Empire, the city rose again in the Byzantine era. In 596 it was occupied by the Longobards of the Duchy of Benevento. In 1284 it was granted by the Aragonese to the Ruffo di Catanzaro. After the death in 1434 of Don Niccolò, last Marquis of Crotone, his daughter Giovannella succeeded him, but was murdered one year later. Her sister Enrichetta succeeded, and married the Spanish nobleman Don Antonio Centelles, Count of Collesano and Prince of Santa Severina. Among the most important families who ruled for several centuries certainly were the Berlingeri and the Suriano.

In 1541 Viceroy Don Pedro of Toledo restored and fortified the pre-existing castle, now known as "Castle of Charles V", with intervention by Gian Giacomo dell'Acaya. The town was called "Cotrone" in the 16th century. Under the Bourbons there were remarkable construction works, as the so-called Candlelit Garden, at the foot of the castle.

In 1907 the first aqueduct of Crotone was inaugurated, commissioned by Eugenio Filippo Albani, who brought to the city the Sila freshwater from, captured from the springs on Mount Gariglione. Now these springs are dispersed and exploited, while in Crotone water is supplied by the river Neto. In 1928 the city changed its name from Cotrone to "Crotone". Its port, which strategically bridges the distances between the nearby ports of Taranto and Messina, has become a driving force for the agricultural economy and industrial activities.