iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Lombardy

Coordinates:

For the village of the same name in Ontario, Canada, see .


Regione Lombardia
Map highlighting the location of Lombardy in Italy
CapitalMilan
PresidentRoberto Formigoni
(Forza Italia-House of Freedoms)
Provinces12
Comuni1546
Area 23,861 km
 - Ranked4th (7.9 %)
Population (2006 est.)
 - Total9,475,202
 - Ranked1st (16.1 %)
 - Density397/km
Lombardy (Latin: Langobardia, Italian: Lombardia, Western Lombard: Lumbardìa, Eastern Lombard: Lombardia) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fourth of Italy's GDP is produced in this Region. The language is Italian, the spoken dialects are sub-divided in Western Lombard and Eastern Lombard. The religion is Catholic, of Ambrosian rite or Roman rite.

History

The area of current Lombardy was settled at least since the 2nd millennium BC, as shown by the archaeological findings of ceramics, arrows, axes and carved stones. In the following centuries it was inhabited first by some Etruscan tribes, who founded the city of Mantua and spread the use of writing; later, starting from the 5th century BC, the area was invaded by the Celt (Gaul) tribes. This people founded several cities (including Milan) and extended their rule to the Adriatic Sea. Their development was halted by the Roman expansion in the Padan Plain from the 3rd century BC onwards: after centuries of struggle, in 194 BC the entire area of what is now Lombardy became a Roman province with the name of Gallia Cisalpina ("Gaul on the nearer side of the Alps"). The Roman culture and language overwhelmed the former civilization in the following years, and Lombardy became one of the most developed and rich areas of Italy with the construction of a wide array of roads and the development of agriculture and trade. Important figures like Pliny the Elder (in Como) and Virgil (in Mantua) were born here. In late antiquity the strategic role of Lombardy was emphasized by the temporary moving of the capital of the Western Empire to Milan. Here, in 313 AD, emperor Constantine issued the famous edict that gave freedom of confession to all religions within the Empire.

During and after the fall of the Western Empire, Lombardy suffered heavily from destruction brought about by a series of barbaric invasions. The last and most effective was that of the Lombards, or Longobardi, who came around 570s.[1] and whose long-lasting reign (whose capital was set in Pavia) gave the current name to the region. There was a close relationship between the Frankish, Bavarian and Lombard nobility for many centuries.

After the initial struggles, relationships between the Lombard minority and the Latin-speaking majority improved. In the end, the Lombard language and culture assimilated with the Latin culture, leaving evidence in many names, the legal code and laws among other things. The end of Lombard rule came in 774, when the Frankish king Charlemagne conquered Pavia and annexed the "Kingdom of Italy" (mostly northern and central Italy) to his empire. The former Lombard dukes and nobles were replaced by other German vassals, prince-bishops or marquises. However, to this day the population is still in part the descendents of Lombards.

The 11th century marked a significant boom in the region's economy, due to improved trading and, mostly, agricultural conditions. In a similar way to other areas of Italy, this led to a growing self-acknowledgement of the cities, whose increasing richness made them able to defy the traditional feudal supreme power, represented by the German emperors and their local legates. This process reached its apex in the 12th and 13th century, when different Lombard Leagues formed by allied cities of Lombardy, usually led by Milan, managed to defeat the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I, at Legnano, and his grandson Frederick II, at Parma. This did not prevent other important Lombard centres, like Cremona (then rivalling Milan for size and wealth) and others, from supporting the imperial power if this could grant them an immediate advantage. Taking advantage of the flourishing agriculture, the area around the Po River, together with Venice and Tuscany, continued to expand its industry and commerce until it became the economic centre of the whole of Europe. The enterprising class of the communes extended its trade and banking activities well into northern Europe, and the name "Lombardy" came to designate the whole of Northern Italy until the 15th century.

From the 14th century onwards, the instability created by the unceasing internal and external struggles ended in the creation of noble seignories, the most significant of which were those of the Viscontis (later Sforzas) in Milan and of the Gonzagas in Mantua. In the 15th century the Duchy of Milan was a major political, economical and military force at the European level. Milan and Mantua became two centres of the Renaissance whose culture, with men like Leonardo da Vinci and Mantegna, and pieces of art were highly regarded (as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci). This richness, however, attracted the now more organized armies of national powers like France and Austria, which waged a lengthy battle for Lombardy in the late 15th-early 16th century. After the decisive battle of Pavia (1525), the Duchy of Milan became an Austrian possession, which was passed on to the royal Austrian Habsburgs of Spain: the new rulers did little to improve the economy of Lombardy, instead imposing a growing series of taxes needed to support their unending series of European wars. The eastern part of modern Lombardy, with cities like Bergamo and Brescia, was under the Republic of Venice, which had begun to extend its influence in the area from the 14th century onwards (see also Italian Wars).

Pestilences (like that of 1648, described by Alessandro Manzoni in his I Promessi Sposi) and the generally declining conditions of Italy's economy in the 17th and 18th centuries halted the further development of Lombardy. In 1706 the Austrians came to power and introduced some economical and social measures which granted a certain recovery. Their rule was smashed in the late 18th century by the French armies, however, and Lombardy became one of the semi-independent provinces of the Napoleonic Empire.

The restoration of Austrian rule in 1815, in the form of the puppet state called Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, had however to contend with new social ideals introduced by the Napoleonic era. Lombardy became one of the intellectual centres of the process which led to the Unification of Italy. The popular republic of 1848 was short-lived, and Lombardy was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy 1859 as a result of the Second Italian Independence War. Starting from the late 19th century, and with a boom after World War II, Lombardy confirmed its status as the most economically developed area of Italy.

Economy

Lombardy is one of the engines of the global economy with a GDP calculated by ISTAT at $400 billion and a per capita GDP of $49,216. The Lombard per capita GDP is higher than those of United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Sweden. The region is one of the three richest in Europe, with a per capita gross domestic product that is 50 percent higher than the rest of Italy. In fact, the latest Eurostat figures shows that Lombardy in 2003 had the highest GDP for a region in the whole of the EU. Many foreign and national companies have their headquarters in Milan. Manufactures include iron and steel, cars, mechanics components, chemical products, textiles, furnitures, leather, shoes and many others. The province of Brescia is well-known for the production of weapons and the province of Como for silk and lace. The productivity of agriculture is enhanced by a well-developed use of fertilizers and the traditional abundance of water, boosted since the Middle Ages by the construction (partly designed by Leonardo Da Vinci) of a wide net of irrigation systems. Lower plains are characterized by fodder crops, which are mowed up to eight times a years, cereals (rice, wheat and maize) and sugarbeet. Productions of the higher plains include cereals, vegetables, fruit trees and mulberries. The higher areas, up to the Prealps and Alps sectors of the north, produce fruit, vines, olives. Cattle (with the highest density in Italy), pigs and sheep are raised.

Politics

The Christian-centre party of Democrazia Cristiana (DC) maintained a majority of the votes and rule of the most important cities and provinces until the late 1980s; support for the other traditional major force of Italian politics, the Italian Communist Party (PCI), was increasingly eroded by the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) until, in the early 1990s, the Mani Pulite corruption scandal which spread from Milan to the whole of Italy wiped away the old political class almost entirely. This, together with problems caused by immigration and the general disaffection towards Rome's government (considered too oriented to the less developed regions of southern Italy in economical matters), led to the sudden growth of the separatist party of Lega Lombarda (later Lega Nord), with somewhat plebiscitary consensus especially in agricultural areas and minor cities of the region. Today Lombardy is a stronghold of the House of Freedom coalition, and gave about 57% of its votes to Silvio Berlusconi at the April 2006 elections.

Demographics

One sixth of the Italian population or about 9.5 million people live in Lombardy. The regional population doubled during the '50s and '60s because of the dramatic immigration from Southern Italy. In '80s and '90s the population growth was guaranteed by foreign immigrants, so today more than a quarter of all foreign immigrants in Italy lives in Lombardy. As of 2006, the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 665,884 foreign-born immigrants live in Lombardy, equal to 7.0% of the total regional population.

Towns of Lombardy with a population of 50,000 or more:

Comune Population (2006 est.)
Milan1,308,735
Brescia191,059
Monza121,961
Bergamo116,197
Sesto San Giovanni83,556
Como83,002
Varese82,809
Busto Arsizio79,552
Cinisello Balsamo73,770
Cremona71,313
Pavia71,064
Vigevano59,714
Legnano56,622
Rho50,623

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

National monuments

Province of Bergamo Province of Brescia Province of Como
  • Cantù
  • Basilica di San Vincenzo di Galliano e battistero di San Giovanni
  • Como
  • Camnago Volta, Casa natale di Alessandro Volta (r.d. n. 1089 del 17/08/1942)
  • Camnago Volta, Tomba di Alessandro Volta (r.d. n. 262 del 22/02/1925)
  • Collegio Gallio
  • Gravedona
  • Palazzo Gallio, chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio , chiesa dei Santi Gusmeo e Matteo
  • Meride
  • Chiesa di San Silvestro
Province of Lecco
  • Barzio
  • Villa del Caleotto (r.d. n. 1354 del 29/02/1940)
  • Lecco
  • Pescarenico, Convento dei Cappuccini (r.d. n. 1354 del 29/02/1940)
Province of Milan Province of Monza and Brianza Province of Pavia Province of Sondrio Province of Varese

Image gallery


Bergamo

Brescia

Como

Cremona

Lecco

Lodi

Mantova

Milan

Monza

Pavia

Sondrio

Varese


References

1. ^ Iron Age Braumeisters of the Teutonic Forests. BeerAdvocate. Retrieved on 2006-06-02.

External links

General information

Provinces

Universities

 •  • [ e]
Regions of Italy
Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Sdtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto
geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
..... Click the link for more information.
MILAN (French: Missile d´infanterie léger antichar = Anti-Tank Light Infantry Missile) is a European anti-tank guided missile. Design of the MILAN started in 1962. It was ready for trials in 1971, and was accepted for service in 1972.
..... Click the link for more information.
Roberto Formigoni (Lecco, 30 March, 1947) is an Italian politician, and the current (from April 2005) Governor of Lombardy Region, Italy.

Biography

Roberto Formigoni began very early his political career in Christian Democracy, through youth movements such as
..... Click the link for more information.
See also Politics of Italy
Political parties in Italy
Elections in Italy

Forza Italia (Forward Italy, FI) [1] is an Italian political party.
..... Click the link for more information.
Leader Silvio Berlusconi
Political ideology Center-right
Website
See also Politics of Italy Casa delle Libertà (CDL; Italian for House of Freedoms
..... Click the link for more information.
In Italy, a province (in Italian: provincia) is an administrative division of intermediate level between municipality (comune) and region (regione).
..... Click the link for more information.
In Italy, the comune, (plural comuni) is the basic administrative unit of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word municipality.
..... Click the link for more information.
Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

..... Click the link for more information.
Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to:
  • 1,000,000 m²
  • 100 ha (hectare)
Conversely:
  • 1 m² = 0.

..... Click the link for more information.
These are ranked lists of the regions of Italy. Population figures are from 2001.

By population


Rank Province Population % Density

Lombardia 15.8%
2 Campania 10.0%
3 Lazio 9.0% 297.2
Sicily 8.7% 193.3
Veneto 7.9% 246.6
Piedmont 7.4% 165.9
Apulia 7.
..... Click the link for more information.
population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
..... Click the link for more information.
These are ranked lists of the regions of Italy. Population figures are from 2001.

By population


Rank Province Population % Density

Lombardia 15.8%
2 Campania 10.0%
3 Lazio 9.0% 297.2
Sicily 8.7% 193.3
Veneto 7.9% 246.6
Piedmont 7.4% 165.9
Apulia 7.
..... Click the link for more information.
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, humans in particular.

Biological population densities


..... Click the link for more information.
Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
..... Click the link for more information.
Italian}}} 
Official status
Official language of:  European Union
 European Union
 Switzerland
 San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta

The template is . Please use instead.

..... Click the link for more information.
Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a little part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small
..... Click the link for more information.
Eastern Lombard (occasionally also called Orobic or Transabduano) is a group of related varieties, spoken in the eastern side of Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua and in the area around Crema.
..... Click the link for more information.
Italy

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Italy

  • Constitution
  • Constitutional Court
  • President
  • Giorgio Napolitano

..... Click the link for more information.
MILAN (French: Missile d´infanterie léger antichar = Anti-Tank Light Infantry Missile) is a European anti-tank guided missile. Design of the MILAN started in 1962. It was ready for trials in 1971, and was accepted for service in 1972.
..... Click the link for more information.
Italian}}} 
Official status
Official language of:  European Union
 European Union
 Switzerland
 San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta

The template is . Please use instead.

..... Click the link for more information.
Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a little part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small
..... Click the link for more information.
Eastern Lombard (occasionally also called Orobic or Transabduano) is a group of related varieties, spoken in the eastern side of Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua and in the area around Crema.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ambrosian Rite (also sometimes called the Milanese Rite) named after Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan in the fourth century, is a Catholic liturgical rite practised among Catholics in the greater part of the Archdiocese of Milan (excluding, notably, the city of Monza, and a
..... Click the link for more information.
The liturgical rite of the Church of Rome is called the Roman Rite. The quite distinct term Latin Rite usually refers not to a liturgical rite but to the particular Church within the Roman Catholic Church that was sometimes referred to also as the Patriarchate of the West,
..... Click the link for more information.
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci.
..... Click the link for more information.
Country Italy
Region Lombardy
Province Mantua (MN)
Mayor Fiorenza Brioni (since April 18, 2005)

Area km
Population
 - Total (as of December 31, 2004)
 - Density /km

..... Click the link for more information.
Celts, normally pronounced /kɛlts/ (see article on pronunciation), is widely used to refer to the members of any of the peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages or descended from those who did.
..... Click the link for more information.
Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea.
..... Click the link for more information.
Origin Cottian Alps, Italy
Mouth Adriatic Sea
Basin countries Italy, Switzerland, France
Length 652 km
Source elevation 2022
Mouth elevation 0
Avg.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter