The origins of the town of Vieste back at least ten centuries before Christ - as attested by the remains of the megalithic walls of pre-Roman times . Vieste was a Greek colony and enjoyed , under Roman rule , the state of the town hall, with administrative autonomy. The discovery of a necropolis with greek style of Apulian vases and Roman coins , they made it to identify with the Apeneste , of the third century BC , mentioned by Ptolemy. In Thousand Cathedral was erected in 1200 and was fortified Frederick II erected the Castle . Vieste was repeatedly attacked by the Saracens in 1554 suffered the memorable attack of the pirate Dragut , which claimed the lives of 5,000 people , many of them beheaded on a log kept at the Cathedral, the bitter chianca (stone of suffering) . Ninety-two years after the town of Vieste suffered another disaster, an earthquake that devastated seriously . In the early years of the Unification Vieste was attacked by the pro-Bourbon soldiery . Vieste is ' has also been a bishopric since the end of the first 900 years of the nineteenth century . Until the early years of the Second World War has retained a mainly agricultural economy . Beginning in the sixties has grown in the industrial sector and especially in the tourist with a strong presence of German and English , in the late sixties in Vieste first arose in large complexes : Hotels, camping sites , residences and villages and the eighties , with mass tourism , has become summer holiday destination for millions of people . In the last decade of the twentieth century has seen the growth conference tourism , which is well suited accommodation facilities such as hotels, and the harbor has been transformed from a port of transit to the parking structure . Since the late nineties Vieste is home to an exhibition of Italian cinema. He has counted among its citizens , Bishop Ugo Boncompagni , who was elected pope under the name of Gregory XIII.
The company of Vieste
Located on a rocky promontory at the east end of the Gargano, leaning towards the Dalmatian coast as a bridge remote geological upheavals that have abruptly stopped , Vieste is the most important tourist center in the Gargano . The oldest part of the town is perched on the rocky tip of St. Francis, with a typically medieval and the modern section has been developed with orthogonal along the coast. 47% of the territory vieste is made up of woods and pine forests , 23% meadows and pastures. The predominant economic activity is tourism , which is represented by over 200 establishments with 600 employees, 20% of the labor force . The beds are a total of almost 40 thousand ( overwhelmingly non-hotel ) , equivalent to a third of all those of the captains , the number of tourists now reach a figure close to 3 million. The tourist can take advantage of the harbor , from the current 154 berths will go to 654 , with the construction of fixed and floating piers , intended for recreational boating, fishing and distinct from the commercial area . Agriculture , which is assigned 17% of the active population is based on the cultivation of the olive tree , and there are a dozen medium-sized businesses and some corporations. The industrial activities of Vieste are represented by ninety companies (food, building products , metal construction) , from which 7% of the working age population. The branch of the fishery is represented by 5 companies , with a hundred employees. Relevant is the branch building : over 120 companies with approximately 180 employees. In business there are about 300 companies . In public administration are occupied about 700 people. In the branch of real estate there are a dozen operators . Corporations are 76 ( 9% of all firms ) , most of whom work in the tourism , construction and real estate services . Employment in Vieste is mainly due to the seasonal tourist flows . The turnover rate among businesses is the best in the province.