Murano is usually described as an island in the Venetian Lagoon, although like Venice itself it is actually an archipelago of islands linked by bridges. It lies about a mile north of Venice and is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking.

Murano was settled by the Romans, then from the sixth century by people from Altino and Oderzo. At first, the island prospered as a fishing port and through production of salt. It was also a centre for trade, through the port it controlled on Sant'Erasmo. From the eleventh century, it began to decline as islanders moved to Dorsoduro. It had a Grand Council, like that of Venice, but from the thirteenth century Murano was ultimately governed by a podestà from Venice. Unlike the other islands in the Lagoon, Murano minted its own coins.

In 1291, all the glassmakers in Venice were forced to move to Murano due to the risk of fires. In the following century, exports began, and the island became famous, initially for glass beads and mirrors. Aventurine glass was invented on the island, and for a while Murano was the main producer of glass in Europe. The island later became known for chandeliers. Although decline set in during the eighteenth century, glassmaking is still the island's main industry.

In the fifteenth century, the island became popular as a resort for Venetians, and palaces were built, but this later declined. The countryside of the island was known for its orchards and vegetable gardens until the nineteenth century, when more housing was built.

Attractions on the island include the Church of Santa Maria e San Donato, known for its twelfth century Byzantine mosaic pavement and said to house the bones of the dragon slain by Saint Donatus, the Church of San Pietro Martire with his splendid chapel of the Ballarin family build in 1503 and the Palazzo da Mula. Glass-related attractions include the many glassworks, some Mediaeval and most open to the public, and the Glass Museum, housed in the large Palazzo Giustinian.

Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction to the city’s mostly wood buildings, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291. Murano glass is still interwoven with Venetian glass.

Murano's glassmakers were soon the island’s most prominent citizens. By the 14th century, glass makers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice’s most affluent families. Of course there was a catch: glassmakers weren't allowed to leave the Republic. However, many craftsmen took this risk and set up glass furnaces in surrounding cities and as far afield as England and the Netherlands.

Murano’s glassmakers held a monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries, developing or refining many technologies including crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. Today, the artisans of Murano are still employing these century-old techniques, crafting everything from contemporary art glass and glass jewelry to Murano glass chandeliers and wine stoppers.

Today, Murano is home to the Museo Vetrario or Glass Museum in the Palazzo Giustinian, which holds displays on the history of glassmaking as well as glass samples ranging from Egyptian times through the present day.

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).

Murano un'isola situata a nord-est di Venezia, lungo il canale dei Marani. totalmente urbanizzata, escludendo la Sacca S. Mattia tuttora in fase di bonifica. Ospita circa 6000 abitanti. composta da sette isole minori divise da canali e rii ma collegate tra loro da ponti.

Il suo nome deriva a Ammuratium, uno dei quartieri di Altino, ma a differenza delle altre tre isole in cui si stanziarono gli altini, Murano molto vicina a Venezia. Questa la penultima isola della laguna veneta prima delle Fondamente Nuove. In effetti se si prende il vaporetto, prima si potrebbe ammirare l'isola di San Michele, poi Murano. La Fondamenta dei Vetrai la pi antica "via" dove vennero erette le vetrerie. Le vetrerie di Venezia vennero portate sull'isola a cavallo fra il X e l'XI secolo, perch all'epoca i palazzi di Venezia erano principalmente di legno e spesso le fiamme che potevano sfuggire dai forni necessari alla produzione del vetro potevano essere fatali per i palazzi attigui. Un altro motivo della presenza delle vetrerie a Murano era la volont della Serenissima di difendere l'arte veneziana per antonomasia. In effetti i mastri vetrai erano obbligati a vivere sull'isola e non potevano lasciare Venezia senza un permesso speciale. Molti fuggirono ed insegnarono le tecniche vetraie all'estero. La pi importante crisi che colp quest'arte si ebbe nel XV secolo quando nacquero i cristalli di Boemia: ebbe inizio una vera e propria guerra industriale fra i due stati, tanto che poi un veneziano riusc a carpirne i segreti. Ma la vera rivoluzione avvenne grazie ad un mastro vetraio che invent in quel periodo i famosi lampadari in vetro di Murano. Una curiosit: solo i mastri vetrai, fra i non nobili, potevano sposare figlie di patrizi.

Tra i monumenti pi importanti ci sono la chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato di stile veneto-bizantino costruita nel VII secolo e rifatta nel XII e la chiesa di San Pietro Martire eretta nel XV-XVI secolo, contenente dipinti di Paolo Veronese e Giovanni Bellini. Nell'ala destra si pu ammirare la splendida cappella della famiglia Ballarin di Murano. Da non dimenticare il Museo del vetro, dove si pu vedere una collezione prestigiosa di vetri artistici risalenti ad epoche antiche in cui la lavorazione del vetro iniziava ad affermarsi. Il Palazzo della Mula vicino alla chiesa di San Pietro Martire ricorda ad alcuni il Cremlino: in effetti fu un architetto italiano ad erigere il monumento russo.

nota in tutto il mondo per la produzione di vetro soffiato. Grazie all'artigianato e grazie a questo l'isola gode di un notevole flusso turistico. Il vetro di Murano come molta produzione italiana spesso oggetto di imitazioni, per lo pi di qualit scadente.

L'isola ha dato i natali ai comici cabarettisti Carlo e Giorgio e l'attore Lino Toffolo.