Editing Ancona (section)

==History==
{{See also|Timeline of Ancona}}
[[File:Repubblica di Ancona nel XV secolo - confini e castelli.png|thumb|Borders and castles of the Republic of Ancona in the 15th century]][[File:Lazzaretto-Ancona.JPG|thumb|left|Vanvitelli's Lazzaretto]]
[[File:San Francesco church-Ancona.jpg|thumb|left|The portal of the church of San Francesco]]

===Greek colony===
Before the Greek colonization, the territory was occupied by separated communities of the [[Picentes]] tribes.

Ancona took a more urban shape by Greek settlers from [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] in about 387 BC, who gave it its name: ''Ancona'' stems from the Greek word {{lang|grc|Ἀνκών}} (''Ankṓn''), meaning "elbow"; the harbour to the east of the town was originally protected only by the promontory on the north, shaped like an elbow. Greek merchants established a [[Tyrian purple]] dye factory here.<ref>Silius Italicus, VIII. 438</ref> In Roman times it kept its own coinage with the punning device of the bent arm holding a [[palm branch]], and the head of [[Aphrodite]] on the reverse, and continued the use of the [[Greek language]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Ancona|volume=1|pages=951–952}}</ref>

===Roman ''municipium''===
When it became a [[ancient Rome|Roman]] town is uncertain. It was occupied as a naval station in the [[Illyrian War]] of 178 BC.<ref>[[Livy]] xli. i</ref> [[Julius Caesar]] took possession of it immediately after crossing the [[Rubicon]]. Its harbour was of considerable importance in imperial times, as the nearest to [[Dalmatia]], and was enlarged by [[Trajan]], who constructed the north quay with his architect [[Apollodorus of Damascus]]. At the beginning of it stands the marble [[triumphal arch]], the [[Arch of Trajan (Ancona)|Arch of Trajan]] with a single archway, and without [[bas-relief]]s, erected in his honour in 115 by the Senate and Roman people.<ref name="EB1911"/>

=== Byzantine city ===
Ancona was attacked successively by the [[Goths]] and [[Lombards]] between the 3rd and 5th centuries, but recovered its strength and importance. It was one of the cities of the [[Pentapolis]] of the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]], a lordship of the [[Byzantine Empire]], in the 7th and 8th centuries.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>The other four were [[Fano]], [[Pesaro]], [[Senigallia]] and [[Rimini]]</ref> In 840, Saracen raiders sacked and burned the city.<ref>''The Italian Cities and the Arabs before 1095'', Hilmar C. Krueger, ''A History of the Crusades: The First Hundred Years'', Vol. I, ed. Kenneth Meyer Setton, Marshall W. Baldwin (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955), p. 47.</ref> After [[Charlemagne]]'s conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the [[Marca di Ancona]], whence the name of the modern region derives.

===Maritime Republic of Ancona===
{{See also|Republic of Ancona}}
After 1000, Ancona became increasingly independent, eventually turning into an important [[maritime republic]]<ref>''The International Geographic Encyclopedia and Atlas'', ''Ancona'' (p. 27), Springer, 1979. ISBN 9781349050024.</ref> (together with [[Gaeta]] and [[Dubrovnik|Ragusa]], it is one of those not appearing on the [[Italian Navy#Naval ensign|Italian naval flag]]), often clashing against the nearby power of [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three ''[[terziere|terzieri]]'' into which the city was divided: S. Pietro, Porto and Capodimonte.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} It had a coin of its own, the [[agontano]], and a series of laws known as ''Statuti del mare e del Terzenale'' and ''Statuti della Dogana''. Ancona was usually allied with the [[Republic of Ragusa]] and the [[Byzantine Empire]].{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In 1137, 1167 and 1174 it was strong enough to push back the forces of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Anconitan ships took part in the Crusades, and their navigators included [[Cyriac of Ancona]]. In the struggle between the Popes and the Holy Roman Emperors that troubled Northern and central Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sided with the Popes ([[Guelphs and Ghibellines|Guelph]]s).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ancona-Presentazione di Storia |url=https://view.genially.com/656c6238f6fe2900149bea71/presentation-ancona-presentazione-di-storia |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=Genially |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Repubbliche marinare - fondachi anconitani.png|thumb|Trade routes and warehouses of the maritime republic of Ancona]]

Unlike other cities of northern Italy, Ancona never became a [[signoria]]. The sole exception was the rule of the [[House of Malatesta|Malatesta]], who took the city in 1348, taking advantage of the [[black death]] and of a fire that had destroyed many of the city's important buildings.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} The Malatesta were ousted in 1383. In 1532, Ancona definitively lost its freedom and became part of the [[Papal States]], under [[Pope Clement VII]]. The symbol of the new papal authority was the massive Citadel.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

===In the Papal States===
[[Pope Pius IV]] commanded the execution and burning of Converso merchants in Ancona for returning to Judaism.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Jonathan Stewart |title=After expulsion: 1492 and the making of Sephardic Jewry |date=2013 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-2911-3 |location=New York |pages=70, 73}}</ref> Later, Ancona, along with Rome and [[Avignon]] in [[southern France]], was one of the three cities in the [[Papal States]] where [[Jews]] were permitted to remain after [[Pope Pius V]] ordered their banishment in 1569. They lived in the [[ghetto]] that had been established in Ancona in 1555.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In 1733, [[Pope Clement XII]] extended the quay, and an inferior imitation of Trajan's arch was set up; he also erected a [[Lazaretto]] at the south end of the harbour, [[Luigi Vanvitelli]] being the architect-in-chief.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} The southern quay was built in 1880, and the harbour was protected by forts on the heights. From 1797 onwards, when the French [[Republic of Ancona|took]] it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

====The Greek community of Ancona====
{{See also|Republic of Ancona#Communities present in the Republic}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}
Ancona, as well as Venice, became a very important destination for merchants from the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the 16th century. The Greeks formed the largest of the communities of foreign merchants. They were refugees from former Byzantine or Venetian territories that were occupied by the Ottomans in the late 15th and 16th centuries. The first Greek community was established in Ancona early in the 16th century.

===Contemporary history===
Ancona entered the [[Kingdom of Italy]] when [[Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière]] surrendered here on 29 September 1860 following a brief [[Siege of Ancona (1860)|siege]], eleven days after his defeat at [[Castelfidardo]].<ref name="EB1911" />

On 23 May 1915, Italy entered [[World War I]] and joined the [[Allies of World War I|Entente Powers]]. In 1915, following Italy's entry, the battleship division of the [[Austro-Hungarian Navy]] carried out [[Bombardment of Ancona|extensive bombardments]] causing great damage to all installations and killing several dozen people.<ref>Hore, Peter, ''The Ironclads'', London, Southwater Publishing, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-84476-299-6}}.</ref> Ancona was one of the most important Italian ports on the Adriatic Sea during [[World War I|the Great War]].
 
During [[World War II]], the city was taken by the [[II Corps (Poland)|Polish 2nd Corps]] against Nazi German forces, as [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Free Polish forces]] were serving as part of the British Army. Poles were tasked with capture of the city on 16 June 1944 and accomplished the task a month later on 18 July 1944 in what is known as the [[battle of Ancona]]. The attack was part of an [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] operation to gain access to a seaport closer to the [[Gothic Line]] in order to shorten their [[lines of communication]] for the [[Italian Campaign (World War II)#Allied advance into Northern Italy|advance into northern Italy]].<ref>Jerzy Bordziłowski (ed. ), ''Mała encyklopedia wojskowa. Tom 1'' (in [[Polish language|Polish]]), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1967.</ref>

=== Jewish history ===
{{See also|Ancona Jews}}
[[Jews]] according to documents began living in Ancona in 967 AD, even though there is evidence they lived there even before.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ancona |title=The Jewish Community of Ancona |access-date=3 February 2014 |publisher=The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141842/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ancona |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Ancona Ghetto">{{Cite web |title=Ghetto of Ancona |url=https://www.visitjewishitaly.it/en/listing/ghetto-of-ancona/ |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=Visit Jewish Italy |language=en-US}}</ref> It has been claimed that in 1270, a Jewish resident of Ancona, [[Jacob of Ancona]], travelled to [[China]], four years before [[Marco Polo]], and documented his impressions in a book called "The City of Lights". From 1300 and on, the Jewish community of Ancona grew steadily, most due to the city importance and it being a center of trade with the [[Levant]].<ref name="Matas v7" /> In that year, Jewish poet [[Immanuel the Roman]] tried to lower high taxation taken from the Jewish community of the city. Over the next 200 years, Jews from Germany, Spain, [[Sicily]] and Portugal immigrated to Ancona, due to persecutions in their homeland and thanks to the pro-Jewish attitude taken towards Ancona Jews due to their importance in the trade and banking business, making Ancona a trade center.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In 1555, pope [[Paul IV]] forced the [[Crypto-Judaism|Crypto-Jewish]] community of the city to convert to [[Christianity]], as part of his Papal [[Cum nimis absurdum|Bull of 1555]]. While some did, others refused to do so and thus were hanged and then burnt in the town square.<ref name="Ancona Ghetto" /> In response, Jewish merchants boycotted Ancona for a short while. The boycott was led by [[Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi]].{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Though emancipated by [[Napoleon I]] for several years, in 1843 [[Pope Gregory XVI]] revived an old decree, forbidding Jews from living outside the [[ghetto]], wearing identification sign on their clothes and other religious and financial restrictions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140225181422/http://www.j-italy.org/sources/books-and-essays/edict-of-the-inquisition-of-ancona-against-the-jews Edict of the Inquisition of Ancona against the jews] at [[Internet Archive]]</ref> Public opinion did not approve of these restrictions, and they were cancelled a short while after.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary.org">[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0002_0_01073.html Jewish Virtual Library]</ref>

The Jews of Ancona received full emancipation in 1848 with [[Papal conclave, 1846|the election of Pope]] [[Pius IX]]. In 1938, 1177 lived in Ancona;<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary.org"/> 53 Jews were sent away to Germany, 15 of them survived and returned to the town after [[World War II]].{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} The majority of the Jewish community stayed in town or emigrated due to high ransoms paid to the fascist regime. In 2004, about 200 Jews lived in Ancona.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Two synagogues and two cemeteries still exist in the city. The ancient Monte-Cardeto cemetery is one of the biggest Jewish cemeteries in Europe and tombstones are dated to 1552 and on.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} It can still be visited and it resides within the [[:it:Parco del Cardeto|Parco del Cardeto]].