Reggio Calabria, l’immagine trasformata. Il fronte marittimo in età romana

28th December 1908: Reggio Calabria, like Messina, was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Yet, the huge disaster generated knowledge as rubble removal and earthworks for the reconstruction unveiled the layers of the ancient city. In fact, some fortuitous discoveries and a few archaeological digs of the foundation trenches brought to light significant, though poor, evidence. The identification of the Hellenistic urban walls as well as the discovery of some baths and remains of buildings along the coastline were very important. The excavations were made known by Paolo Orsi whose report was published in a Supplement of Notizie degli Scavi in 1922. The find of the public buildings unearthed in the area of the former Lido Station near the beach in the Eighties was also remarkable. The study of the relevant archival, iconographic, and photographic documents, allowed me to exactly localize the findings in the urban fabric, to assess their stratigraphic levels and sometimes to rectify uncrictically accepted data. It was evident that the seafront experienced a radical transformation from the Hellenistic phase, when it was engirded by imposing walls, to the Roman age when, on the contrary, it looked directly onto the sea and was lined with houses and baths featuring luxurious rooms for leisure and body care.