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A region of northern Italy bordering on Switzerland. First inhabited by a Gallic people, it became the center of the kingdom of the Lombards in the sixth century A.D. and part of Charlemagne's empire in 774. The Lombard League of cities defeated Emperor Frederick I in 1176.
For more information on Lombardy, visit Britannica.com.
Land and Economy
Lombardy has Alpine peaks and glaciers in the north, several picturesque lakes, and upland pastures that slope to the rich, irrigated Po valley in the south. The Valtellina valley is in the northeast. Rice, cereals, forage, flax, and sugar beets are the main crops of Lombardy, and the mulberry is extensively cultivated for use in sericulture. Milan is the chief commercial, industrial, and financial center in Italy, and Lombardy is the country's leading industrial region. Manufactures include textiles, clothing, iron and steel, machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, furniture, and wine. There are universities at Milan and Pavia.
History
The Lombard plain, located in the central part of Lombardy at the confluence of several Alpine passes, has for centuries been a much coveted and frequently invaded area, and it has been a battlefield in many wars. First inhabited by a Gallic people, the region became (3d cent. B.C.) part of the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul. It suffered heavily during the barbarian invasions that took place toward the end of the Roman Empire. In A.D. 569 the region was made the center of the kingdom of the Lombards, for whom it was named. Lombardy was united in 774 with the empire of Charlemagne.
After a period of confusion (10th cent.), power gradually passed (11th cent.) from feudal lords to autonomous communes, and a general economic revival occurred. Trade between N Europe and the E Mediterranean was largely carried on via the Po valley, and Lombard merchants and bankers did business throughout Europe. In the 12th cent. several cities united in the Lombard League in order to defy Emperor Frederick I, who wanted to assert his authority over the communes, and defeated him at Legnano (1176). The 13th cent. was marked by struggles between Guelphs (pro-papal) and Ghibellines (pro-imperial), which resulted in wars among cities and rivalries between families within cities. In the 11th–12th cent. there was a characteristic Lombard Romanesque architecture, and during the Renaissance Lombardy had a flourishing school of painting whose leading figures were Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari.
Except for Mantua (ruled by the Gonzaga family), Lombardy fell (14th–15th cent.) under the sway of the Visconti family and the Sforza dukes of Milan. However, Bergamo and Brescia (1428) and Cremona (1529) were lost to Venice and the Valtellina valley was taken by the Grisons (1512). After the end (mid-16th cent.) of the Italian Wars, the rest of Lombardy followed the fortunes of Milan. Spanish rule (1535–1713) was followed by that of Austria (1713–96) and of France (1796–1814). The Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was established under Austrian rule in 1815. Lombardy briefly ousted the Austrians in 1848–49; in 1859 they were permanently removed and the kingdom was dissolved.
[LOM-buhr-dee] An important wine-producing region in northern Italy, located between piedmont on the western edge and trentino-alto adige to the east. Lombardy's capital city is Milan, which is Italy's most populated and industrialized area. Lombardy (Lombardia, in Italian) has almost 70,000 vineyard acres, two docgs, and fourteen docs; it produces over 47 percent of the region's total wine production. The DOCGs are franciacorta and valtellina superiore the DOCs include Botticino, Capriano del Colle, Cellatica, Garda, Garda Colli Mantovani, Lambrusco Mantovano, Lugana, oltrepo pavese, Riviera del Garda Bresciano, San Colombano al Lambro, San Martino della Battaglia, terre di franciacorta, valcalepio, and valtellina. The grape varieties grown in this region for red and rosé wines include barbera, bonarda, cabernet franc, merlot, nebbiolo and Pinot Nero (pinot noir). Those used for white wines are chardonnay, cortese, Pinot Bianco (pinot blanc), Pinot Gigio (pinot gris), Riesling Renano (riesling), and Riesling Italico (welschriesling).
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| Map highlighting the location of Lombardy in Italy | |
| Capital | Milan |
|---|---|
| President | Roberto Formigoni (Forza Italia-House of Freedoms) |
| Provinces | 12 |
| Comuni | 1546 |
| Area | 23,861 km² |
| - Ranked | 4th (7.9 %) |
| Population (2006 est.) | |
| - Total | 9,475,202 |
| - Ranked | 1st (16.1 %) |
| - Density | 397/km² |
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.) |
|---|---|
| Milan | 1,308,735 |
| Brescia | 191,059 |
| Monza | 121,961 |
| Bergamo | 116,197 |
| Sesto San Giovanni | 83,556 |
| Como | 83,002 |
| Varese | 82,809 |
| Busto Arsizio | 79,552 |
| Cinisello Balsamo | 73,770 |
| 71,313 | |
| Pavia | 71,064 |
| Vigevano | 59,714 |
| Legnano | 56,622 |
| Rho | 50,623 |
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| Regions of Italy | |
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| Abruzzo · Aosta Valley · Apulia · Basilicata · Calabria · Campania · Emilia-Romagna · Friuli-Venezia Giulia · Lazio · Liguria · Lombardy · Marche · Molise · Piedmont · Sardinia · Sicily · Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol · Tuscany · Umbria · Veneto |
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Wine Lover's Companion. Wine Lover's Companion. Copyright © 2003 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lombardy". Read more |
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