The history - Trapani
The ancient town of Drepanon was in the beginning inhabited by the Elimi , that used it as an emporium of Erice. The same thing was made by the Phoenicians that, realizing its important geographical location, made it become an efficient maritime and commercial landing-place. Then it came to Carthaginians’ hands that populated it making the Erice inhabitants go downhill. After the battle of the Egadi Islands in 241 B.C. it began to be part of the Roman provinces and so it remained till the V century B.C. . In 827 Arabs arrived in Sicily: the three centuries of their domination deeply marked culture, art and economy of Trapani. It came across a difficult period under the government of the Angioini to flourish again by the Aragonites about 1200, because of tuna and salt trading, and of coral valued processing. Then it was followed by the long-lasting Spanish domination, that ended only in 1713. In the half of 1500, Charles V granted the town of Trapani special privileges that allowed it to increase its own commercial and sea trades. Sicily then entered the Bourbons Kingdom until the coming of Garibaldi in 1860. The people of Trapani took part in the insurrectional risings of 1848 and this brought them the Golden Medal awarded by Umberto I of Savoy. During the II World War, the town was bombed many times. With the reconstruction, Trapani assumed a new disposition: new quarters and new streets were built. The vital fulcrum of the town is, up to and including today, the harbour, in the neighbourhood of the historical centre.
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