Faenza is an Italian town of 58 915 inhabitants in the province
of Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna. The city is historically known for the
production of artistic ceramics, in particular majolica, for which
it is in fact named and recognized internationally with the term
"Faience".
Located on the Via Emilia between Imola and Forlì,
just west of the center of Romagna, it is located at the foot of the
first hills of the Faenza Apennines and is the bishopric of the
diocese of Faenza-Modigliana.
The cities of Lamone and Santerno lead the lïoncel
from the white nest, which changes part from la state to winter.
(Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto XXVII)
The origins of the city are uncertain. Some
historical chroniclers, such as Agostino Tolosano or Giulio Cesare
Tonduzzi, trace its foundation back to mythology: the Attic settlers
who, going up the Adriatic, would have founded Ravenna also went
inland, founding the settlement of Foentia. More recent studies show
that, especially in the foothills of the Faenza area, there are
traces of both Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements.
There is
no certainty as to which peoples inhabited the territory before the
Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC. Archaeological findings
indicate that, also thanks to the favorable position offered by the
crossing of the Lamone river, the salary route that carried salt
through the Apennines Etruria and Campania, and the foothills road
that the Romans would later have paved and called Aemilia, the
inhabitants of the area had contacts with Umbrian tribes, with the
Etruscans and perhaps also with the Sabines, before the invasion of
the Celts. Pliny, referring to the early republican times, speaks of
"Faenza peoples" allied to the Romans and Silio Italico in his
description of the Second Punic War (218 BC) tells how the Faenza
people, unlike the Celtic settlements in the area, supported the
Romans against the Carthaginians. What is certain is that, after the
definitive Roman conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, around 180 BC. a colony
was established in the territory which was given the auspicious name
of Faventia, which means "favorable city" or "friendly city" and
therefore this is the event that sanctions the birth of the real
city.
The settlement was ascribed to the Pollia tribe and
developed thanks to agricultural, textile and ceramic production.
Here, in 82 BC the Sillan Cecilio Metello defeated the army of
popularis Gneo Papirio Carbone, during the civil wars of the late
Roman republic. With the birth of the Roman Empire and the
subsequent administrative reorganization desired by Augustus, it
became part of the Regio VIII.
Between the first and second
century AD. the city settlement expanded, also expanding outside the
original pomerium. In this period Faventia is remembered for having
been the city of residence of one of the most important families of
the time, the gens Avidia di Gaio Avidio Nigrino, Roman consul and
grandfather of the future emperor Lucio Vero.
The first
certain testimony of a bishop from Faenza, Constantius, dates back
to the early years of the fourth century, demonstrating the presence
of the Christian religion in the city.
The city was not
excessively affected by the crises of the late imperial period,
thanks to its proximity to Ravenna, the first seat of the imperial
fleet and later the capital of the Empire. Only in the late 5th
century did the widespread decline of Roman authority in the area
begin to manifest itself concretely also in Faenza.
Following
the fall of the Western Empire, it is remembered in the chronicles
for being the place where Tufa's betrayal of Theodoric took place
during the Conquest of Italy by Theodoric and for the battle fought
in 542, in which Totila and the Ostrogothic army defeated the
Byzantines. With the subsequent reconquest of Italy by the
Byzantines to the detriment of the Goths, Faenza became part of the
Exarchate. The first city walls, built to defend the city from the
Lombards, dates back to the eighth century. Liutprando's army
besieged and conquered it in 740 and later, together with the rest
of today's Romagna, it changed hands numerous times between the
Lombards and Byzantines until the definitive descent into Italy of
Charlemagne who, at the end of the campaign against the Lombards,
nominally ceded it to the Church in 774.
At the time of the pacification of the territory by Charlemagne,
Faventia was a city prostrated by centuries of decline and further
devastated by the Lombard wars. The urban area, which at the moment
of maximum expansion in Roman times (3rd century AD) could contain
twelve thousand inhabitants, had significantly reduced and the early
medieval walls enclosed only a portion of what had been the Roman
city.
The last two centuries of the first millennium saw a
slow recovery of the city, witnessed by the construction of some
important places of worship, and a significant evolution of its
political life. Faenza was in fact under the jurisdiction of the
Holy See but over the centuries the Carolingian model of government
of the city began to evolve towards what would become the municipal
model.
In the 11th century the presence of a consul is attested for the
first time in Faenza (1045). Slightly later are the first evidence
of disagreements with neighboring cities. In fact, in 1079 the
people of Faenza, with the help of the French count of Vitry,
defeated the Ravenna inhabitants who had invaded the Faenza
territory between Albereto and Prada, driving them out.
The
figures of the consuls, chosen from among the major city families,
were later joined by a foreign mayor. In both cases, the office
lasted one year. The oldest mayor appears in a document of 1155.
Starting from the second half of the 12th century, Faenza, like
all of central-northern Italy, became a place of confrontation
between supporters of the papacy and the emperor and at the same
time the Manfredi family began to establish itself as one of the
most important families in the city. Already distinguished in some
of the now usual battles against neighboring municipalities, in the
early months of 1164 the Manfredis in fact hosted in their Faenza
houses the emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who came to Italy for a
military campaign. Later they obtained important vassal rights from
the sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire, which increased their
influence on the Romagna city.
Within a few years, however,
there were two important changes concerning Faenza politics. The
devolution of powers from the consuls to the podestà had in fact a
dramatic acceleration: on 9 February 1184 a people's uprising led to
riots and looting and, to restore order, the authority in the hands
of the consuls was attributed in full to the Milanese Podestà
Guglielmo. Butter. At the same time, moreover, Faenza had moved away
from the Ghibelline positions to get closer to the Guelph ones, so
much so that in 1175 the imperial troops tried unsuccessfully to
bring it back under imperial obedience. In 1185 the imperial legate
Berthold von Königsberg decided to take advantage of the complex
political situation in the city and brought Ghibelline armies from
Ravenna, Forlì and Forlimpopoli to the Faenza territory, but the
Faenza defeated the Ghibelline army soundly forcing the imperial
legate to make peace. The years between the end of the twelfth and
the beginning of the thirteenth century were characterized by the
stabilization of the new municipal political order, which saw the
Podestà govern the city but ensured the direct representation of the
people in public offices through the Credenza Council, and by a
certain demographic and economic growth of the city, as evidenced by
the expansion of the city walls near the monastery of Santa Maria
Foris Portam and the construction of some external canals that
surrounded and protected the entire town.
In 1226 Faenza joined the second Lombard League (the only one
among the Romagna cities). The imperial reaction was harsh:
Frederick II besieged it, but without success. In the Guelph period
the city was often opposed by the Ghibelline Forlì. In 1237
Frederick II defeated the Lombard League. Power over Faenza was
assigned to the Ghibelline family of Accarisi, who drove out the
Manfredi Guelphs. But the latter regained power. In 1239 Faenza was
the only Guelph city in Romagna.
In 1241 the city of Manfreda
returned to the emperor's sights. Frederick II put it under siege
again and took it, after an unexpected resistance of seven months.
The help of the Forlì Ghibellines and their captain, Teobaldo
Ordelaffi, proved decisive. On this occasion, Federico, found
himself short of resources, had Augustals in leather minted by the
mint of Forlì, which he then repaid in gold, after the victory over
Faenza. The merits acquired by the Forlì people from the Emperor
were however helpful to the Faenza themselves: in fact, Frederick
had already issued the order to destroy the city, when the
intercession of the Forlì people, sorry for such a fate, convinced
him to return to the his decision and to spare Faenza. However, the
Germanic emperor ordered to tear down the walls and built a new
fortress in the western part of the city.
Tebaldello, who opened Faenza when you sleep
(Inf. XXXII, 122)
In addition to Tebaldello, other characters from Faenza were
mentioned in the Divine Comedy. Faentino is, in fact, Friar Alberigo
dei Manfredi, located in the third area of the last circle of
Hell, that of the traitors of the guests, at canto XXXIII, and is
the last sinner (therefore the worst) to dialogue with Dante.
Brother Alberigo is condemned to hellish torture following the
betrayal perpetrated against his own relatives, during a dinner of
reconciliation, the famous dinner of the "Frutta del mal orto". The
honor of the city is redeemed in the XXI canto of the Paradise where
Pier Damiani appears. Other characters from Faenza are mentioned in
the 14th canto of the Purgatory.
In 1290 Faenza passed under
the power of Maghinardo Pagani, lord of Susinana, who took advantage
of the division between Guelphs and Ghibellines. Maghinardo carved
out a very important role for himself in the history of the city and
proved to be an excellent politician and a shrewd strategist. In
1313 the lordship of the Manfredi family began. The first Lord was
Francesco Manfredi (1260 ca. - 1343). Carlo II Manfredi (1439-1484)
renovated the urban center with the construction of the cathedral
and the people's palace). In the Renaissance era it became famous
for the production of ceramic objects, exported throughout Europe.
For this reason the toponym itself has become synonymous with
majolica in many languages, including French (faïance) and English
(faience).
Galeotto Manfredi, brother of Carlo II Manfredi,
who succeeded him, weapons in hand, at the helm of the city, remains
famous for the conspiracy hatched against him by his wife Francesca
Bentivoglio; tradition has it that his wife was blinded by jealousy
towards Cassandra Pavoni, Galeotto's lover. More realistically, it
is easy to think that the real reason for the murder is to be found
in the relations between Manfredi and the Lords of Bologna.
In 1500 the city was besieged by the mercenary troops of Cesare
Borgia, to which it resisted for 6 months led by the sixteen year
old Astorgio Manfredi, then captured by treason and imprisoned in
Rome by the Valentino. A few years later the body of the young lord
was found in the waters of the Tiber.
Guicciardini, who
certainly does not exalt Valentino like his friend Machiavelli,
dedicates a passage from his History of Italy to the siege of
Faenza:
The Valentino was full of great sorrow that, having
besides the Franzese forces a very flourishing army of Italian
captains and soldiers (...), and having promised, with his boundless
concepts, that neither seas nor mountains would resist him, the fame
of the princes of his militia had been obscured by a people who
lived in long peace, and who at that time had no other leader but a
child
(Francesco Guicciardini, History of Italy, 1540)
In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci arrived in Faenza at the invitation of
Borgia. The Tuscan genius created the project for a network of
underground tunnels to be used in an emergency. It is not known
whether the network was actually built. In 1503, with the death of
his father Pope Alexander VI, the ephemeral kingdom of Borgia
collapsed. Immediately afterwards, the Romagna families who were
ousted by Cesare Borgia offered to submit to the Republic of Venice
on condition that they regain their dominions over their respective
cities. The Venetian Senate accepted and the Serenissima took
possession of Rimini, Faenza and other places. The act deeply
irritated the new pontiff, the Genoese Julius II, who, having
imprisoned the Borgia, set out to re-establish the papal possession
of those lands. The pope therefore pushed on September 22, 1504
France and the Empire to make a treaty in Blois for the future
partition of the Venetian dominions.
To avoid war, Venice
offered in 1505 to return the occupied lands to the pope, with the
exception of Rimini and Faenza. The pope then asked the new Emperor
Maximilian I of Habsburg to attack Venice. Maximilian went down to
Italy on the pretext of reaching Rome for the imperial coronation.
Unexpectedly defeated, the emperor even risked losing Trieste and
Fiume and was forced to ask for a truce. When the Doge of Venice, by
virtue of his ancient episcopal prerogatives, claimed to appoint the
new bishop of Vicenza, the main European states found the casus
belli to attack the Republic, accused of overriding the right of the
Church over the bishops. On 10 December 1508, Julius II publicly
joined the League of Cambrai with France, the Empire, Spain and the
Duchy of Ferrara. Then he launched the ban on the Serenissima and
appointed Duke Alfonso I d'Este as Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman
Church. The Venetians were defeated by the French in the Battle of
Agnadello. At that point, however, the pope, worried by the growing
power of foreigners over Italy, on February 24, 1510, having
withdrawn the interdict, allied himself with Venice, excommunicating
Alfonso d'Este and calling the Swiss to help. Venice, having
survived the danger of the war of the League of Cambrai, kept aloof
from the new Italian conflicts by focusing on the Turkish threat.
When peace was restored, however, she was forced to cede the lands
of Romagna to the Papal State.
Papal dominion and the
Napoleonic parenthesis
During the Guicciardini government of
papal Romagna, the city enjoyed particular favor, so much so that
the historian stayed there for almost the whole of 1525. It was in
this period that Faenza attracted many persecuted religious from
northern and eastern Europe. The Church was not slow to take the
necessary countermeasures. In fact, after the Council of Trent,
Faenza became the seat of the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition for
Romagna.
On June 15, 1583, the construction of an underground
conduit was begun to bring water from nearby Errano to the main
square, according to an accurate project by the Dominican Father
Domenico Paganelli. The water was conveyed into a pipe made with
terracotta elements joined with a special mastic. Every 40-50 meters
there were inspection wells and, at variable intervals, thirteen
tanks were placed. The works ended in 1614. In the same period (end
of the 16th century) the military function of the walls ceased,
which was never restored. The ditches were also drained, and used as
mowing lawns.
Between 1597 and 1598 Faenza witnessed an
important dynastic change that involved nearby Ferrara. After the
death of Alfonso II d'Este, Pope Clement VIII did not recognize the
heir designated by the deceased duke, Cesare d'Este, and sent an
expeditionary force of nearly 30,000 soldiers to the Romagna city
led by his nephew, the future first legate pontifical Pietro
Aldobrandini charged with representing the Holy See, ready to
intervene to impose the will of Rome. Cesare attempted an agreement
with the pope by sending Lucrezia d'Este to parliament with
Aldobrandini, underestimating the noblewoman's hatred for the Este
and probably thinking that Lucrezia's known closeness to the Church
could help him. Then events precipitated. Cesare was excommunicated
and the meeting between the papal emissary and the ambassador
produced the Faenza Convention. This agreement granted the dominion
of Ferrara to the Holy See and Cesare was thus forced to accept all
conditions, even the most unfavorable ones, and to prepare to
abandon the ancient capital of the duchy. The devolution of Ferrara
was thus sanctioned.
In 1608, the well-known physicist and mathematician Evangelista
Torricelli, disciple of Galileo and inventor of the barometer, was
born in Rome to Faenza parents.
The eighteenth century was
characterized by intense building activity, which radically changed
the appearance of many of the major buildings, both religious and
civil. In 1752 the demolition works of the fortress were started.
The current hospital was built on the site of the fortress, which
came into operation in 1763. In the years 1759-63 the loggia in
front of the Palazzo del Podestà was built. In 1766 the construction
of the "Chiavicone dei Servi" or Porta Ponte, the first and main
modern sewer of the city, still functioning today, was contracted
out. A few years earlier (1760) the livestock market had been
transferred from the Borgo to Porta Imolese. Outside the Walls, the
eighteenth century was the century of the birth of the first suburbs
lined up along the roads leaving the city; the oldest was the one on
the right side of Corso Garibaldi, just outside Porta Ravegnana.
In the second half of the century Faenza became an important
center of Italian neoclassicism. "The highest moment in the artistic
history of Faenza is in the years between 1780 and 1815. In those
years the city of Romagna was in dialogue with the world, it was an
avant-garde hub along the European axis of the arts that had its
chronological extremes on the one hand in the Rome of the
"Goethezeit" and therefore of Kauffmann, of Füssli, of Flaxman, of
Piranesi, on the other hand in the Paris of the Revolution and of
the Empire and in the Milan of the Italian Kingdom. In those years
the small city multiplied buildings bearing the names of the local
nobility (Laderchi, Gessi, Conti, Cavina, Milzetti); palaces that
are the most exquisite neoclassical civilization has produced in
Europe ». In 1781 the city was hit by a strong seismic swarm, which
lasted for months. The earthquake did not interrupt the construction
of the new bridge over the Marzeno stream, replacing the arch bridge
which collapsed in 1521 and since then replaced by a ferry. The new
infrastructure, still known today as Ponte Rosso, was inaugurated in
1782.
On January 20, 1783, the Zanelli canal was inaugurated,
the important waterway that connects Faenza to the Reno river,
passing through Bagnacavallo. The work, 35.4 km long, was built by
the will of Count Scipione Zanelli (1722-1792) with the funds made
available by Pope Pius VI. Designed by the engineer Romoaldo
Bertaglia, it was fed by the waters of the municipal canal coming
from the Errano Lock. The main purpose of the waterway was
commercial shipping, but at the same time it fed mills, hemp
macerators, piles to clean rice and other factories. The canal had a
flow rate of 2 cubic meters per second; navigation was carried out
by draft animals, which pulled the boats along the banks, suitably
shaded by thousands of poplars. The naviglio canal remained the
primary infrastructure for transporting goods for almost two hundred
years, until the opening of the Castelbolognese-Ravenna railway line
(1863).
The Book of Exercises, and Arts (1795) provides an
exhaustive picture of the commercial and craft activities present in
Faenza at the end of the eighteenth century. At the time, 375
businesses were registered. The most numerous categories were
carpenters (56), shoemakers (36), tailors (28) and blacksmiths (26).
The most prestigious activities were concentrated around the square:
goldsmiths, watchmakers, apothecaries, carvers, booksellers and
printers.
In 1797, near Faenza, on the Senio river, the
decisive battle (but with a predictable outcome) was fought between
the papal militias and Napoleon's army. We have a pleasant account
of the battle in the memoirs of Monaldo Leopardi, Giacomo's father:
All the papal militias numbered about ten thousand men [says
Leopardi senior], and a quarter of these people gradually gathered
in Faenza. Imola, because it was too close to Bologna, was
abandoned, and the resistance had to be made on the river [Senio]
which runs between the two aforementioned cities. (...) On February
2, 1797, in the morning, the French attacked, about ten thousand
strong. The bridge guns fired, and some Frenchmen died. Soon,
however, the enemy set about fording the river; and when the
commoners saw that the French were not afraid of getting their feet
wet: "Goodbye", they shouted in the field. "Save whoever can" and
they all fled for two hundred miles, nor did they stop as far as
Fuligno. I am not exaggerating, but I tell nakedly those events
which happened in my time, and of which I saw no part. A certain
Bianchi, an artillery major, was accused of having loaded the
cannons with the beans. I have read your printed defense, and it
seems sufficiently sculpted; but the fact of the beans was true, and
this machine gun figured in the war between the Pope and France.
(Monaldo Leopardi, Autobiographies, 1833)
Under the
Napoleonic occupation Faenza was the seat, between 1803 and 1815, of
the only high school in the Rubicon department, which included the
whole of Romagna, thanks to the commitment of the Faentine
intellectual Dionigi Strocchi (who directed from 1806 to 1809) and
of his friend Vincenzo Monti.
In 1881, out of 36,042 inhabitants there were five accountants,
eight doctors and six lawyers residing in Faenza. In 1891 Pietro
Nenni was born, historical leader of Italian socialism, considered
one of the fathers of the republic.
In 1895, Count Carlo
Zucchini, tireless soul of Faenza's Catholic associations for many
years, led the Catholic and liberal political forces to lead the
city, establishing such a preponderance that for Faenza the
expression "white island" was coined, to distinguish it from rest of
the "red" Romagna where the socialist and republican forces
prevailed.
The point of greatest splendor of post-unification
Faenza was reached in 1908 with the Torricelliana Exposition, an
imposing event that was visited and inaugurated by the King himself,
bringing Faenza to the national limelight. The exhibition brought
together contemporary ceramic products (from all over Europe) in the
rooms of the former convent of San Maglorio. Together with them,
many examples produced by ancient Italian furnaces have been
exhibited. After the Exposition, thanks to the gifts of the
exhibitors, the International Museum of Ceramics was born.
As
proof of the influence of Faentine art, on 18 August 2006 the
Premier of Québec Jean Charest announced the discovery of the first
French colony in Canada, that of Charlesbourg-Royal, and that a
fragment of a decorated plate made in Faenza was found there.
between 1540 and 1550, certainly owned by the aristocratic commander
of the colony.
During the Second World War Faenza was bombed
several times: the first attack occurred on May 2, 1944. On May 13 a
second attack was carried out. During that very hard year, the city
was hit about a hundred times. Two thirds of the town were
destroyed. The bishop, Msgr. Antonio Scarante.
The city was
liberated by the New Zealand troops (2nd New Zealand Division) on
December 16, 1944. In the partisan struggle they particularly
distinguished themselves:
Benigno Zaccagnini, who will be the
secretary of the Christian Democrats from 1975 to 1980;
Silvio
Corbari, who gave birth in 1943 to a partisan formation, which went
down in history as Banda Corbari; following the killing of Gustavo
Marabini, consul of the fascist militia, Silvio Corbari was captured
and later hanged in Castrocaro.
the footballer Bruno Neri, gifted
sportsman and courageous fighter, who died in the mountains of
Tredozio, near the hermitage of Gamogna.
The municipality of Faenza is located in the
south-western part of the province of Ravenna, on the Lamone river
and on the Via Emilia, between Imola to the west and Forlì to the
east, both about 15 km from the city center. From Ravenna it is 35
km away, while from Bologna (regional capital), it is 55 km away.
The urban area is distributed on the border between the Po
Valley and the first hills of the Faenza Apennines.
The
official altitude of the city is 35 meters above sea level, while
for the municipal area there are substantial variations from the
plain to the north (Granarolo Faentino at 16 m a.s.l.) to the hills
to the south (Oriolo dei Fichi at 141 m a.s.l.).
The
territory of Faenza has an agricultural environment, divided between
the vineyards of the hill slopes and the cultivated ones, with
traces of the ancient Roman centuriation in the plain.
Seismic classification: zone 2
Given its position, Faenza has a sub-continental temperate climate with significant annual rainfall, mainly Padano (Continental with hot summer and cold-humid winter) with influence of Middle Adriatic climate (Mediterranean with hot summer and cool-humid winter), characteristic of the adjacent hilly areas.