The Navy Yard – historical crafts exhibition of Taranto’s Navy Yard

The ambitious project that provided Taranto of an important naval base took place in the second half of 1800, strongly requested by the Senator Cataldo Nitti.

It was only after years, preliminary studies and many project changes that the building site was started in the Santa Lucia area, occupied by the homonymous medieval church and the Bishop Capocelatro’s 18^th century Villa.

The work started in September 1883 and ended in August 1889 with the solemn inauguration directed by the King Umberto I.

During the process of excavation, many important archaeological areas were brought to the surface. These areas, despite the lack of documentation (that was very common at that time), can be described as possible port facilities of the classical age and big necropolis of the Greek and Roman age. Today, many of the findings of this operation are kept inside the showcases of MArTa, the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto.

At the end of the work the entire facility occupied a total of 220.000 square meters and it’s physically separated from the rest of the city by a 7 meters tall  (23 ft.) boundary wall, which is also 3 kilometers long. The wall was named from the citizens as “il muraglione” (“the big wall”).

The main building is located in a large and spectacular plaza and it can be seen through its big gate; it stands out also for the purity of its shape, typical of the neoclassical style.

The sloping roof of this two floors structure has a centered mechanical clock, which is been working for over a century and marks the working day rhythm of the employees.

Inside Taranto’s National Military Navy Yard, since 1978, there is the “Historical Crafts Exhibition” that shows many historical military finds such as original paintings and pictures of the launch of “Nave Puglia”, the first military ship built in Taranto in 1898.