Accordin to many leggends, the town of Brindisi has been founded by the legendary hero Brento, son of Heracles. The coast reveals traces of remote settlements in the middle age of the bronze, in the middle port as Punta Le Terrare. The first urban plan developed in the eighth century. to. C., by the Messapians, who according to Strabo would have determined the name that would refer to Brunda, or “deer head”, for the conformation of the port. Following the Roman conquest, culminating in the deduction of a Latin colony in 244 a. C., the city experienced a long period of economic and social development, establishing itself as an irreplaceable hub in East-West trade relations. The innate commercial vocation of the port attracted over the centuries the interest of those who had control of the south of Italy until becoming, with the opening of the Suez Canal, the European terminal of the Indian suitcase, and port of embarkation par excellence within the main communication route between Western Europe and the East. Brindisi was one of the main operational bases of the Italian Navy during the Great War; in the following world war it hosted the king fleeing from Rome assuming from 10 September 1943 and until 11 February 1944 the role of capital of the kingdom of Italy. Currently the city retains its ancient link with the sea and is one of the favorite ports for tourism in Greece. UNESCO has called Brindisi port of peace.
