Reggio Calabria was founded as a Greek colony of Khalkis in the in the second half of the VIII century before Christ. It became a Roman municipium in the first century b.C.
The diocese was founded in the first century a.D.; Saint Paul visited the city in his fourth journey, after he had been in Malta and Syracuse. The sentence that can be read on the arch of the door is from the Acts (28,13: περιελόντες κατηντήσαμεν εἰς Ῥήγιον ). The cathedral was almost destroyed in the last earthquake (1908) and rebuilt afterwards.
