Parthenope
Parthenope | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Urban Parthenope at night | |
| Country | Isles of Velar |
| County | Parthenope |
| Population (2014) | |
| • Urban | 1,130,817 (23rd) |
| Demonym | Parthenopean |
| Time zone | UTC−1 (TCT) |
Parthenope (pronounced //) is the capital and second-most populous city of the Isles of Velar. The chief city on the island of Napocis, it is the only settlement in the City and County of Parthenope with which it is coterminous. It is the twenty-third most-populous city in the Trellinese Empire.
Parthenope has been continuously settled for over three thousand years. It flourished in the mid-1st millennium BC as the centre of the Kingdom of Parthon. In 765, Parthenope became the capital of the nascent Kingdom of the Isles of Velar established by Szantir I and has retained this distinction to the present day. It is the chief royal centre of the kingdom and is the traditional residence of the Velaran monarchs, although no monarch has made Parthenope his primary residence since Queen Tarien. In 1770, the Siege of Parthenope saw the city fall to forces loyal to Elcmar IV of Trellin during the War of the Velaran Succession. As a capital city within the Trellinese Empire, Parthenope is a key economic and political centre and enjoys a high standard of living.
Parthenope's historic core is divided into three districts: the Old Town, within the seventeenth-century walls; the Middle Town, formerly a belt of slums, and the late sixteenth-century New Town.
History
Parthenope first developed as a market town and pilgrimage centre around the temple of its tutelary deity, the goddess Thonop.
Parthenope was the most populous city in the kingdom into the seventeenth century, when it was surpassed by Txir as a result of building restrictions introduced to safeguard the capital. In the 1630s, much of the Middle Town — then largely slums — was cleared and demolished, and a thick circuit of walls was erected around the Old Town. Building was forbidden within 160 metres (520 ft) of the walls. The city's growth was stifled as new economic activity moved elsewhere in the kingdom, particularly to Txir and Zarthalin.