On the road to Pompeii, stands the populous "City of coral”, which is the protagonist of the precious local history also celebrated in museums such as the one created in 1986 by Basilio Liverino in a lava cavity six meters deep (the coral collection and cameos are made of more than a thousand pieces and is among the most important in the world); and the one hosted at the historic State Institute of Art.
Coral fishing has been practiced since ancient times and the sailors of Torre have sailed every Mediterranean route over the centuries, with ease, from Africa to Sardinia and Corsica. In the 16th century it boasted a fleet of four hundred dedicated boats. Fishing was encouraged by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon who, in 1790, gave life to the Royal Company of Coral, and the jurist Michele de Iorio had the task of drafting the Corallino Code, with rules governing its trade.
According to scholars, the name of the city derives from Turris Octava, as on the 8th Roman mile, along the consular road, there was a watchtower. The toponym was then transformed in medieval times, so much so that in a Latin document of 1324 reference is made to "Torre Octava commonly known as del Greco", probably due to the abundant production of greek wine in the area.
Inhabited in ancient times, the area of Torre del Greco also had numerous transformations, as a result of the eruptions of Vesuvius that devastated it several times: the most disastrous was that of 1794, at the height of a period of great economic prosperity which had begun in the 16th century. The lava flow destroyed most of the neighborhoods and buried many churches. Many historic buildings were rebuilt just after that date.
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