Ancona

Ancona (Lat. Ancona, Gk. a corner or elbow), a very ancient port on the east coast of Italy, built on a point of land projecting into the Gulf of Venice, and about 125 miles north of Rome. Originally colonised from Syracuse, it was taken by the Romans in 268 B.C., and became a great naval and commercial station, being specially celebrated for purple dye. Trajan built a mole there in 107 A.D., and upon it stands a beautiful marble arch to his memory. In the middle ages Ancona was occupied by Saracens, Lombards, Greeks, and Germans, and was for a time a free republic. It then came under papal rule. The cathedral (St. Cyriac) dates from the tenth century. Clement XII. built the new mole, also surmounted by an arch. Taken in 1797 by the French, it was recaptured by the Austrians, and in 1814 restored to the pope. The French occupied the place again from 1832 to 1838. In 1860 the city and the province, to which it gives a name, were ranged in the kingdom of Italy. Ancona has always been a busy city, exporting and importing a large proportion of the goods produced or consumed in Italy, and manufacturing leather, paper, candles, silk, and verdigris. Latterly its importance was temporarily increased, as the English Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company made it the starting point of their mail route to the East.