Facts about Brescia
Brescia is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio. Brescia has a population of around 190,000.[2006] It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan. Brescia is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with about 1,200,000 inhabitants.[2006] The ancient city of Brixia, Brescia has been an important regional centre since pre-Roman times A number of Roman and medieval monuments are preserved, among which is the prominent castle. The plan of the city is rectangular, and the streets intersect at right angles, a peculiarity handed down from Roman times. Different mythological versions of the foundation of Brescia exist: one assigns it to Hercules, while another attributes it to Altilia ("the other Ilium") by a fugitive from the siege of Troy. According to a further one, the founder was the king of the Ligures Cidnus, who had invaded the Padan Plain in the late Bronze Age. Other scholars attribute the foundation to the Etruscans. Brescia was invaded by the Gauls Cenomani, allied of the Insubri, in the 4th century BC, it became their capital. The city bcame part of the huge Roman empire in 225 BC, when the Cenomani submitted to Virginia. During the Carthaginian Wars Brixia(old name of Brescia) was usually allied of the Romans. In 202 BC it was part of a Celt confederation against them, but, after a secret agreement, changed side and attacked by surprise the Insubri, destroying them. In 89 BC it was recognized as civitas ("city") and in 41 BC received the Roman citizenship. Augustus founded a civil (not a military) colony here in 27 BC, and he and Tiberius constructed an aqueduct to supply it. When Constantine advanced against Maxentius in 312, an engagement took place at Brescia in which the enemy was forced to retreat as far as Verona. In 402 the city was ravaged by the Visigoths of Alaric I. In 452, during the invasion of the Huns under Attila, Brescia was again besieged and sacked while, some forty years later, it was one of the first conquests of the Goth general Theoderic the Great in his war against Odoacer. In 568 or 569 Brescia was occupied by the Lombards, who made it the capital of one of their semi-independent duchies. The last king of the Lombard, Desiderius, had been also duke of Brescia. In 774 Charlemagne captured the city and ended the existence of the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy. In 1258 Brescia fell into the hands of Eccelino of Verona. In 1311 Emperor Henry VII laid siege to Brescia for six months, losing three-fourths of his army. In 1439 Brescia was once more besieged by Francesco Sforza, captain of the Venetians, who defeated Niccolò Piccinino, Filippo's condottiero. In 1769 the city was devastated when the Church of San Nazaro was struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignited 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroyed one sixth of the city and killed 3,000 people. Brescia was annexed to Italy in 1859. The city was awarded a Gold Medal for its resistance against Fascism, in World War II. On May 28, 1974, Brescia was the seat of the bloody Piazza della Loggia bombing. Camillo Golgi experimental pathologist, b. 1843, d. 1926, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906 for his studies of the structure of the nervous system has lived in this city. |
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