Rodi Garganico
Encyclopedia
Rodi Garganico (ˈrɔːdi ɡarˈɡaːniko; locally Roud' ˈroɵːd̪(ĕ) or Rur' [ˈrʊːɾ]) is an Italian town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 of 3,681 inhabitants, in the province of Foggia
Province of Foggia
The Province of Foggia is a province in the Apulia region of Italy.This province is also known as Capitanata, originally Catapanata, because during the Middle Ages it was governed by a catapan, as part of the Catapanate of Italy...

 in Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

. It belongs to the National Park of gargano and the Mountain Community of Gargano.
It is an important center for the production of citrus fruits
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

 such us Arance del Gargano (Gargano Orange) and Lemon "Femminiello" of Gargano, both DOP products
Protected designation of origin
Protected Geographical Status is a legal framework defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. Protected Designation of Origin , Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed are distinct regimes of geographical indications within the framework...

), made since the Middle Age
Middle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....



A seaside resort, it has received a number of Blue Flag awards dalla Foundation for Environmental Education
Foundation for Environmental Education
The Foundation for Environmental Education is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development through environmental education...

. In 2009 it won three sails of Goletta Verde by Legambiente.

The origins

The origin of Rodi Garganico must be connected to the expansionistic movement of the Rodiis Argivi, a Greek population, that in the 8th century B.C. colonized the coasts because they were attracted by the climate.

According to Cellarius and Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...

 instead, Rodi Garganico could have been rebuilt on the ruins of the mythical Uria destroyed after wars; of the opposite opinion is the historian Michelangelo De Grazia, who contemporarily describes Rodi and Uria.
Plinio, finally, mentions a Portus Garnae that the historians identify with the old harbour of Rodi Garganico, whose ruins were visible up to the beginning of the last century. An epigraph suggests that Rodi Garganico, in the Roman Age, pits a province administered by the "comite" Gneo Suilio Mascillioni, judge and collector of tributes.

In the place "Sotto il Castello" (under the castle) today is also visible the defensive walls
Walls
- Other uses :*Wall's , a company that makes ice cream*Wall's sausages, a British sausage brand*Walls, an episode of Power Rangers S.P.D.- Music :*Walls EP, a 2005 album by The Red Paintings*Walls , 2007...

 and, buried in the cliff, a trap door through which is entered to a place on whose lintel is written Tabularium .
The tabulario, in the Roman Age, was the person employed to the vigilance of the measurers of cereals and wheat to prevent frauds that they often committed him, therefore in that room accounting was recorded and they was held preserved the weights and the measures and since the commercial activity of Rodi Garganico was for a long time the only mean of communication of the Gargano, that trap door had to serve to embark on the ships the agricultural products of all her Headed.

From the Middle Age to today

After the fall of Rome, difficult times followed : Rodi Garganico was destroyed by the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 in the 485 d.C., reconstructed in 553 after the Greek-Gothic war and attached by the Saracen
Saracen
Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...

 in the year 950.
In 1240, when the town was allied with Fred II, it was ransacked by the Venetians and in 1446 it was conquered by Alfonso V of Aragon
Alfonso V of Aragon
Alfonso the Magnanimous KG was the King of Aragon , Valencia , Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica , and Sicily and Count of Barcelona from 1416 and King of Naples from 1442 until his death...

 and such it remained up to the 19th century. In the 18th century it was home to Gioacchino Murat, King of Naples and soldier in the Napoleonic army. Murat stayed in the town whilst he looked for a way to return to Naples following Napoleon's fall.

Last century, when Italy was under Fascism, Rodi Garganico entered a period of discreet economic development thanks to the construction of the railroad. Immediately after the second world war, trade of citrus fruit, the main export of the city, slowed down because of the international situation. Since then, and up to the last decade the sector has found a new and more solid development.

Today it has definitely developed as a tourist destination. Already a noted bathing destination in the 1960s, through important processes of retraining, it has revalued in its own history and rediscovered the perfumes and the fruits that its earth offers. The recent construction of the harbour has strengthened the town's position on the Mediterranean tourist circuit.

Geography

Rodi Garganico is located on the northern coast of the Gargano
Gargano
Gargano is a historical and geographical Italian sub-region situated in Apulia, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of the Gargano Promontory projecting into the Adriatic Sea. The high point is Monte Calvo at . Most of the upland...

 peninsula, less than five kilometers from San Menaio
San Menaio
San Menaio , also San Menaio Garganico, is a seaside resort and a frazione of the comune of Vico del Gargano in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of south-east Italy...

 and from Ischitella
Ischitella
Ischitella is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.In 1936 it had a population of 5,187....

. Foggia
Foggia
Foggia is a city and comune of Apulia, Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known as the "granary of Italy".-History:...

 is 90 km away and can be reached from the E88 using the Poggio Imperiale-Gargano exit, trough the SSV of the Gargano highway.
The inhabited area is on a rocky promontory among two long sandy beaches a few kilometers east of the Lake of Varano. It is surrounded by lush vegetation, primarily citrus fruits, pines, olive and fig trees.

The historical center has medieval origin, as are the surrounding boundaries. The old town is characterized by narrow and, often, steep alleys with tangled and complex layouts that allow most houses to view the ocean. This is also due to the topography and geography of the land, as the town is built on a point surrounded by the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...

 on three sides in response to the commercial needs of the town.

Territory

The coast, which extends toward the North, is characterized by long beaches whose continuity is interrupted by the promontory
Promontory
Promontory may refer to:*Promontory, a prominent mass of land which overlooks lower lying land or a body of water*Promontory, Utah, the location where the United States first Transcontinental Railroad was completed...

 on which stands the town of Rodi Garganico. The sand of beaches are clear and characterized by particularly fine grain.

East beach

The beach, sheltered by northwest through the screen offered by the port, stretches for about 4 km in length almost to the beach of San Menaio
San Menaio
San Menaio , also San Menaio Garganico, is a seaside resort and a frazione of the comune of Vico del Gargano in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of south-east Italy...

, and is large in the vicinity of town more than 60 meters. In 2009, following the dredging of the seabed made during the construction of the marina, hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand were added all'arenile, helping to further increase the width along the coastal front.

West beach

The west beach is spread west of the city including the BeachandSanta Barbara Bay Beach Beach of the sun, which concentrates most of the tourist infrastructure Rhodians.APT Regione Puglia, 2009 op. cit. p. 17

The beach stretches to the municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 border with Ischitella
Ischitella
Ischitella is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.In 1936 it had a population of 5,187....

 for a total length of 4950 m and is formed in the western section by a long series of sandy Dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...

s sloping slowly into the sea, while in the first 400 meters west of the port has gravel and sand for the presence of transported pebbles
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

 from the washout of rain and tides. The beach is interrupted at the mouth of the River Romandato.

Climate

The atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...

, already warm by latitude and longitude, influenced by the sea that mitigates the winter cold and summer heat.
The average annual temperature is 16 °C. The coldest month is January (8 °C on average) and the warmest are July and August (27th).

From legislative point of view the town of Rhodes Garganico falls in climatic zone C as the degree days of the city is 1353, then the maximum permitted limit for ' heating is switched on 10 hours a day from November 15 in March 31.
  • Climate classification: Area C, 1353 DD
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