Via Duomo

Via Duomo crosses Taranto's old island on a line the Greeks drew. The main axis of their acropolis became the medieval city's principal street, fronted by the cathedral, noble palaces and the Dominican convent, with temples and tombs still stacked beneath the pavement.

Why it matters

Archaeological excavations beneath the present road surface have found traces of older paving: in the Greek era, this was a main road axis running almost the length of the acropolis of Taras. The street's buildings include the cathedral, the Doric columns, the Dominican convent and palazzi of the Tarantine nobility, preserving layers from the ancient city through the Baroque period.

What to notice

The street's monuments include the cathedral of San Cataldo, the sunken remains of the Doric Temple columns, Piazza Fontana and the convent of San Domenico. An eighteenth-century staircase leads to a church preserving remains of an archaic temple. Beneath the buildings, the Portacci hypogeum preserves quarry cuts where carparo was extracted for a sixth-century BC Doric temple. The palazzi retain carved coats of arms, wrought iron and balconied salons.

Context and history

The street's continuity explains its importance. Greek Taras organised its acropolis with this axis as the spine; the Roman town kept the line; the medieval city built its cathedral and convents along it; and the nobility of the early modern city chose it for their town houses. Archaeology beneath the pavement documents the earliest phases directly, so the street functions as a vertical section of the settlement — prehistoric occupation, the archaic sanctuary, the classical grid, the Christian monuments, all stacked in order of depth.

The old island faced decades of decay and contested redevelopment in the twentieth century. A conservation plan for the Città Vecchia adopted in the 1970s helped preserve its historic fabric.