Faenza

 

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.

 

History

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)

 

Antiquity

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.

 

The middle Ages

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.

 

From national unity to today

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.

 

Territory

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

 

Climate

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.