Palmi (; ; ) is a comune (municipality) of about 19,303 inhabitants in the province of Reggio Calabria in Calabria.
It is seat of the district, which includes 33 municipalities in the plain of Palmi, with a population of approximately 170,000 inhabitants.
With the nearby beaches of Marina di Palmi and Lido di Palmi, overlooking the Violet coast, the city is a major seaside resort thanks to its landscape, which has led writers and poets to call it the "terrace on the Strait of Messina".
In addition to being the main administrative center, office and school of the Tyrrhenian coast of the province of Reggio Calabria, Palmi was also an important agricultural and commercial center and a bishopric of Roman Catholic Diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi.
For centuries, the city was one of the most important cultural centers of Calabria in the literary, musical, historical and archaeological interest. Gave birth, among others, to the famous composer Francesco Cilea, and the writer Leonida Repaci and houses the museum complex of the House of Culture and the Archaeological park of Tauriani, on the ruins of the ancient city of Tauriana. In the latter lived in Saint Fantino, the oldest saint of Calabria and the crypt, which contained his remains, is currently the oldest catholic place of worship in the region.
In addition to Palmi are celebrated two holidays of national importance. The two events are the Varia di Palmi, inserted in 2013 in the UNESCO "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity", and the feast of Saint Roch with the "procession of barbed wire".
History
Toponymy
About the origins of the name given to Palmi is a constant tradition, followed over the centuries to its foundation, it has acquired its name because of the many palm trees that stood in its territory, so much so that the indication De Palmis, Roger I Count Calabria specified grant of the Church of San Georgium, in 1085, the Church of St. Mary of the Twelve apostles and Bagnara Calabra. Dominus Palmae was called instead by Baron De Iacobus Roto of Seminara in the records of the Angevin barons of Calabria in 1333, while in the following centuries, the ancient Civitas Palmarum notaries they used the expression to indicate Palmi. Which, in the 16th century, by Gabriel Barrio was called to Parma while Lando Alberti was appointed as Palma. Carlopoli was also named in the aforesaid century, in honor of the Duke Carlo Spinelli, who rebuilt the fortress after a Saracen devastation, so much so that in 1567 are given the title of oppidum (a confirmation of fortification) and Palma nunc Carlopoli assuming that the new Carlopoli was built next to the old town. Only in 1669 it began to be written Palmi, but with the start of the 18th century, the city was known as ordinarily Palme, a name that always prevailed until the unification of Italy (1860), where it settled as Palmi.
Prehistory and antiquity
The municipal area was already inhabited by the Bronze Age, as evidenced by findings obtained in the excavations conducted in the "Cave of Pietrosa" or hut remains discovered in Taureana of Palmi.
From the 4th century BC and up to the 10th century, in the municipality developed on the city of Tauriana before Brettia and Roman. The latter was in 951, which was destroyed by the troops of the Emir Palermo Hasan Ibn Ali, for failure tribute owed by the Byzantines to which belonged the extreme southern Italy. Fleeing, the part of Taurianensi dedicated to traffic and the arts seamanship chose and planted the upper part of the coast, between Monte Aulinas and the river Metaurus, in district De Palmis where there were houses of the Tauriani.
Middle Ages
The small town, hamlet of Seminara and feudal lords of the latter, was hit again in the course of centuries by Saracen pirates until, in 1549, after the devastation of the last feudal lord Duke Charles Spinelli decided to fortify it. In this way, the city took on a rectangular shape and was surrounded by walls with four imposing towers which stood extremes. In that century, the city grew in importance attracting all the maritime trade of the southern coast of Calabria.
Independent of Seminara in 1632 in the 17th century, the city developed urbanistically and economically thanks to the commercial activity of its inhabitants and the foresight of the Marquis Andrea Arena Concublet that instituted a "fair". The walls to the east fell gradually to allow the coupling to the new agglomerations were to be formed as a result of population growth. Also in the 17th century the urban fabric focused around a node formed by the new "Market Square".