Guide turistiche

Milan (Italian: Milano; Lombard: Milan (listen)) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. The city proper (Comune di Milano) has about 1,308,735 inhabitants (2004). The population of the urban area (Greater Milan La Grande Milano), comprising the core of Lombardy, is estimated, as of 2006, to be about 4,280,820 people. Finally, the official population of Milan Metro Area counts around 7,400,000 residents (2006). Milan has become one of the most highly developed urban centers in Europe.

By population, Milano is Italy's first and Europe's third metropolitan area. Municipal borders wrap a relatively small area—about one-eighth that of Rome—because of the historical high density of population centers in agriculturally rich Lombardy. The heavily urbanized area centered in Milan includes some Swiss territories in southern Canton Ticino: this does not imply any kind of administrative unity, though. Milan is an alpha world full service city in GaWc inventory.

The city is one of the world's major commercial and financial centers, and one of the wealthiest cities in the European Union. Milan is one of the world capitals of fashion—along with New York City and Paris.[1] Indeed the English word milliner is derived from the name of the city. The Lombard metropolis is famous for fashion firms and shops (via Montenapoleone) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo, reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. Another famed Milanese product is the traditional Christmas sweet cake, called Panettone. Milan is also famous for the Alfa Romeo motorcar and for its silk production; but on the whole relies on its directional functions for the whole of Lombardy, its once proud and strong industrial base having been externalized throughout the region in the 60s-70s of the last century. The city hosted among other events the World Exposition in 1906, the FIFA World Cup in 1934 and 1990, the UEFA European Football Championship in 1980, and has submitted a bid to BIE to host the Universal Expo 2015.

Inhabitants of Milan are referred to as "Milanese" (Italian: Milanesi or informally Meneghini or Ambrosiani).


History


Around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres inhabited Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered this settlement, which had the Celtic name ‘’Mediolanum’’.

After several centuries of Roman control, Milan was declared capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 293. In the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians. The city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, and the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. Fifty years later (in 452), the Huns overran the city. In 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan in the course of the so-called Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. Milan became part of the Frankish Empire in 774. Subsequently it was part of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the Middle Ages, Milan prospered as a centre of trade due to its command of the rich plain of the Po and routes from Italy across the Alps. The war of conquest by Frederick I Barbarossa against the Lombard cities brought the destruction of much of Milan in 1162. After the founding of the Lombard League in 1167, Milan took the leading role in this alliance. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan became a duchy. In 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti became duke of Milan. In 1450, Milan passed to the noble House of Sforza, who made Milan one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.

The French king Louis XII first laid claim to the duchy in 1492. At that time, Milan was defended by Swiss mercenaries. After Louis’s victory over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano, the duchy was promised to French king Francis I. When the Habsburg Charles V defeated Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, northern Italy, including Milan, passed to the House of Habsburg. In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand I. Charles’s Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand’s Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire.

However, in 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of Charles II. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the occupation of all Spanish possessions by French troops backing the claim of the French Philippe of Anjou to the Spanish throne. In 1704, the French were defeated in Ramillies and Turin and had to yield northern Italy to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Spain’s Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.

Napoleon conquered Lombardy in 1796, and Milan was declared capital of the Cisalpine Republic. After Napoleon’s occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, including Milan, and Venetia to Austrian control in 1815.

On March 18, 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, and Field Marshall Radetzky was forced to withdraw from the city temporarily. However, after defeating Italian forces at Custoza on July 24, Radetzky was able to reassert Austrian control over Milan and northern Italy. However, Italian nationalists, championed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, called for the removal of Austria in the interest of Italian unification. Sardinia and France formed an alliance and defeated Austria at the Battle of Solferino in 1859. Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon gained control of most of Italy and in 1861 was rechristened as the Kingdom of Italy.

The political unification of Italy cemented Milan’s commercial dominance over northern Italy. It also led to a flurry of railway construction that made Milan the rail hub of northern Italy. Rapid industrialization put Milan at the centre of Italy’s leading industrial region. Meanwhile, as Milanese banks came to dominate Italy’s financial sphere, the city became the country’s leading financial centre. Milan’s economic growth brought a rapid expansion in the city’s area and population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In Milan, in 1919, Benito Mussolini organized the Blackshirts, who formed the core of Italy’s Fascist movement. In 1922, Mussolini started his March on Rome from Milan. Milan suffered severe damage from bombing in 1944 during World War II.

During the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of Italians, particularly from southern Italy, moved to Milan seeking jobs in the city’s growing economy. However, between 1971 and 2001, Milan’s population dropped from 1,723,000 to 1,256,000. Most of this population was lost to the belt of suburbs and small cities surrounding Milan, where many moved to escape Milan’s high housing costs. However, Milan’s population seems to have stabilized, and there has been a slight increase in the population of the city since 2001.


Culture and art


Milan is one of the major artistical centres of northern Italy. An incomplete list of landmarks include:

- The Duomo, the second largest cathedral of the world and the world's largest collection of marble statues.
- The Castello Sforzesco
- The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
- The Palaeo-Christian Basilica of San Lorenzo
- The Biblioteca Ambrosiana, containing drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci among its vast holdings of books, manuscripts, and drawings, and is one of the main repositories of European culture. The city is also the home of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
- The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, housing one of the most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper
- The Pinacoteca di Brera, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Poldi Pezzoli, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum and the Musei del Castello galleries, which host a great number of pictorial masterpieces

Milan is also one of the most important centres in the world for Opera lirica, with its famous Teatro alla Scala (La Scala).