Pavia is a city in Lombardy, the capital of the Pavese area. Capital
of the Lombard kingdom and seat of one of the oldest Italian
universities, Pavia is undoubtedly a city with an important past, of
which large traces are preserved. Among the churches, San Michele
Maggiore is considered one of the masterpieces of Lombard Romanesque,
equally Romanesque is San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, which houses the relics
of St. Augustine. Santa Maria del Carmine is instead Gothic, while the
Cathedral is from the Renaissance period. Other noteworthy monuments are
the Covered Bridge over the Ticino and the Visconteo Castle.
Geographic hints
Pavia is located in the lower-middle Po Valley, also
called Bassa del Po di Lombardia, 35 km south of Milan.
The city
is bathed by the Ticino river, connected to Milan by the Pavia canal.
Spring is undoubtedly the best season to visit the city. Autumn is often rainy, and temperatures can be very cold in winter. In summer, on the contrary, the heat reigns supreme. Furthermore, with the arrival of the heat, mosquitoes also make their appearance, numerous and ruthless. If you intend to visit the city during the summer months, it is strongly recommended to bring an effective repellent.
The historic center of Pavia is bordered by a ring road and most of
the areas have a square plan, which makes it easy to navigate
With your back to the central station and continuing straight for about
200 meters (you are going in the right direction if at one point you see
the large statue of Minerva) you will arrive at the beginning of Corso
Cavour, one of the main streets in the centre.
Continuing on
Corso Cavour you will arrive in Piazza della Vittoria, the large square
of the city. Going straight on, Corso Cavour becomes Corso Mazzini,
which will take you in front of the Town Hall up to the Botanical
Gardens, on the edge of the historic centre.
Between Piazza della
Vittoria and Corso Mazzini you will meet Corso Strada Nuova, the ancient
Roman cardo that crosses the center from north to south.
From
Strada Nuova, going left you will arrive at Castello Visconteo, passing
in front of the University headquarters; continuing to the right,
however, you will arrive in front of the Ticino, right at the Covered
Bridge.
By plane
Pavia is about 40 km from Milan Linate airport, and about
60 from Malpensa.
Autoservizi Migliavacca
(http://www.migliavaccabus.it/) provides a bus connection service
between Pavia and Linate, at a cost of €15 (€9 for students).
Malpensa, on the other hand, is not directly connected with the city,
and it is necessary to go through Milan.
On the train
Mainly
regional trains pass through Pavia station, but there are also some
connections with Genoa (via Intercity) and
Rome (via Frecciabianca), as
well as with Vercelli and Alessandria.
Fortunately, the proximity
to Milan makes it easy to reach the city: regional and Intercity trains
leave for Pavia about every half hour from Milan Central Station, with
journey times ranging from 30 to 35 minutes.
By bus
The bus
station is 50m from the train station, exiting from the front, on the
left.
The city is mainly connected with the other Lombard
municipalities, but there is also a useful direct connection with Milan
Famagosta.
By public transport
Line S.p.A., ☎ +39 800 111717, fax: +39 0371
449184, info@lineservizi.it. hourly ticket: €1.25; daily tourist ticket
€3.50.
By taxi
Taxi Consortium Pavia, Via Vigentina, 17, ☎ +39
0382 576576.
By car
e-go. Car sharing in Pavia, rental by the
hour for members. Documents and a credit card are required to register.
Europcar, Via Porta Salara, 6/10, ☎ +39 0382 301169, fax: +39 0382
25979.
The streets and squares of Pavia present various historical and architectural evidences of both a religious and civil nature. Much of Pavia's artistic-architectural heritage is located in the historic centre, which maintains, from an urban point of view, the orthogonal layout established in the 1st century BC. when the city was founded, partly taken up also in the areas of the center that developed in the Middle Ages outside the walls of the classical age.
Basilica of San Michele Maggiore
Basilica of San Michele Maggiore,
is the most famous and important medieval religious monument of the
city. A masterpiece of Lombard Romanesque style, the church collects
numerous testimonies of the period in which Pavia was the capital of the
Italian kingdom. A first church of San Michele was originally built in
the Lombard period (the lower part of the bell tower dates from this
period), but was destroyed by fire in 1004; the current construction
began in the first quarter of the 12th century (to which the crypt,
choir and transepts date), probably following the earthquake of 1117,
and was probably completed around 1155. The basilica of San Michele is
considered the prototype of the numerous medieval churches in Pavia:
however, it differs from the other city churches for the extensive use,
both for the structure and for the decorations, of the fragile sandstone
instead of terracotta, and also for the particular and complex
architectural conformation, which provides a in the form of a Latin
cross with three naves with women's galleries and a particularly
developed transept, with its own independent façade on the northern
side. Over the centuries, the basilica hosted sumptuous ceremonies and
coronations, including the coronation of Federico I Barbarossa, in 1155.
Cathedral of Pavia
Cathedral of Pavia, dedicated to Santa Maria
Assunta and Santo Stefano (protomartyr), is an imposing building with a
Greek cross plan. The building site for the cathedral was opened (with
the demolition of the two original 11th and 12th century basilicas) in
1488 on the orders of bishop Ascanio Maria Sforza Visconti: the
structure remained incomplete for centuries, until the end of the 19th
century, when they were completed the dome and the facade, respectively
in 1885 and 1898, according to the original project by Giovanni Antonio
Amadeo. The central dome, whose design is attributed to Bramante, with
an octagonal plan, with a height of 97 meters, a span of 34 and a weight
in the order of 20,000 tons, is the fourth largest in Italy. After
almost 17 years of restoration work and making the dome safe, the church
was reopened to the faithful in 2013. Next to the Cathedral was the
Civic Tower, which has been mentioned since 1330 and which was further
raised in 1583 by Pellegrino Tibaldi. The tower collapsed suddenly on
the morning of March 17, 1989 of unknown causes, killing four and
injuring 15, and has not been rebuilt since.
Basilica of San
Pietro in Ciel d'Oro
Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, whose
origins are to be found at the beginning of the eighth century, was,
according to tradition, founded by King Liutprando. Rebuilt starting
from the 11th century, the modern building was consecrated in 1132. The
facade, dome and mosaic floor are similar to San Michele Maggiore, but
without the characteristic sculptures. San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, which
together with San Michele is the most spacious of the Romanesque
basilicas in Pavia, nevertheless differs from the other construction due
to the intensive use of terracotta instead of sandstone, for the visibly
asymmetrical facade only one portal, and internally due to the absence
of galleries and the shorter transept, not protruding from the
rectangular plan of the temple. The exterior is decorated with Islamic
ceramic basins.
Inside, walled up in the last pillar of the right
aisle, is the tomb of the Lombard king Liutprando (744 m.), whose bones
were found in 1896. The church also houses the relics of Saint
Augustine, brought here by Liutprand from Sardinia. The relics of the
Saint are kept in the famous Ark of Saint Augustine, whose marble mass
is visible on the high altar. The Ark was built by the Maestri
Campionesi in 1362 and is decorated with at least 150 statues and
bas-reliefs. The church is also mentioned by Dante Alighieri, who, in
canto X of Paradise, vv.127-129 (in the Divine Comedy), reports these
verses: The body from which she was hunted lies / down in Ciel d'Auro,
and it as a martyr / and as an exile he came to this peace; it refers to
the soul of Severino Boezio, a Roman adviser to the Ostrogothic king
Theodoric, executed by him on charges of treason. Even the body of
Severino Boezio is in fact preserved in the Basilica, and precisely in
the crypt.
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
Church of Santa
Maria del Carmine, is one of the best known examples of brick Gothic
architecture in northern Italy. The construction of the grandiose
building began between 1370 and 1390, to reach completion, with the
facade, after about a century. It is, after the Cathedral, the largest
church in the city, with a rectangular perimeter of 80 x 40 meters,
within which there is a bold Latin cross structure with three naves
flanked by chapels. The facade is characterized by the large rose window
and the seven spiers. The elegant bell tower, over seventy meters high,
is considered the largest and most beautiful in the city. It was
restored between 2006 and 2010.
Church of San Gervasio and
Protasio
Church of Saints Gervasio and Protasio, according to the
chronicler Opicino De Canistris, this is the oldest church in the city,
founded in Roman times around the fourth century, and housed the body of
San Siro, founder of the first Christian community, for more than six
hundred years Pavese and the church, lived in the first half of the 4th
century AD. It was dedicated to the saints Gervasio and Protasio,
martyrs of the third century, for the custody of their relics,
discovered in Milan by Sant'Ambrogio in 386 and brought to Pavia by
Sant'Invenzio, who was the third bishop of Pavia after San Siro and San
Pompey. In this church, in addition to the holy bishops Siro and Pompeo,
the Lombard king Clefi was buried in 574 and, subsequently, his son,
king Autari; it was managed by the clerics of the monks of San Colombano
di Bobbio. Over the years, the presence of Benedictine monks has been
witnessed since the 12th century, and of a hospice for pilgrims,
established in 1366 and rebuilt towards the end of the 16th century,
when it was entrusted to the Franciscan Third Order. It was again the
Franciscans, between 1712 and 1718, who rebuilt the church as we see it
now, reversing its orientation. Following this transformation, the
Romanesque façade, replaced by the current apse, and the original apse,
replaced by the new classical style façade, were demolished. In 2004, in
the chapel of San Siro, a cycle of frescoes from the 16th century was
found, the restoration of which was completed in 2009, which makes it
possible to qualify it as the most important historical-artistic find of
the century in Pavia.
Church of San Teodoro
Church of San
Teodoro, is a late Romanesque church located in the historic center of
Pavia. Dating back to the 12th century, the original appearance was
restored with the restorations carried out at the turn of the 20th
century. It houses cycles of frescoes representing the Stories of
Sant'Agnese and San Teodoro and two important frescoes attributed to
Bernardino Lanzani with views of Pavia from the 16th century.
Church of Santa Maria di Canepanova
Church of Santa Maria di
Canepanova, Renaissance work, which according to an ancient tradition
was designed by Bramante, and certainly built by Amadeo from 1500 to
1507. The church was built to celebrate a fifteenth-century fresco
considered miraculous by tradition, depicting the Madonna del Latte
which was located on the facade of a house in Viscardo belonging to the
noble Canepanova family, who partially subsidized the work, also giving
the church its name. With a square plan, the internal decoration was
carried out at the beginning of the seventeenth century by various
painters of the Baroque school.
Church of San Francesco, from the thirteenth century, has a
noteworthy façade, peculiar for the presence of the central double
portal. The very large church has a Latin cross layout, with a wooden
trussed roof in the central nave and a vault in the chevet. Although
relatively less known than the places of worship described above, San
Francesco is, in terms of size, the third church in the city after the
Duomo and Santa Maria del Carmine.
Church of San Giovanni Domnarum,
founded by Queen Gundemperga in 654, is located in the historic center,
incorporated in a courtyard of civilian houses, it houses an early
medieval crypt discovered in 1914.
Church of San Giorgio in
Montefalcone from the medieval period (perhaps founded in the Lombard
age) in the historic center stands on a kind of fortress which probably
dominated the course of the Ticino at the time. Attached to the church
there is an ossuary in sight.
Church of Santi Primo e Feliciano, the
external part has Romanesque forms such as the brick facade restored in
1940. In the 16th century the interior of the church was reduced to a
single nave and completely re-adapted in Baroque style.
Church of
Santa Maria in Betlem, was built in 1130 on the site where a Carolingian
oratory already stood, the remains of which are preserved under the
floor of the current church. The church, which housed a hospital that
provided assistance and care to pilgrims heading to the Holy Land and to
the sick, was dependent on the bishop of Bethlehem and has Romanesque
forms.
Church of Santa Maria Teodote. The church was part of the
monastery of Santa Maria Teodote, also known as Santa Maria della
Pusterla, which was one of the oldest and most important female
monasteries in Pavia. Founded between 679 and 700 by King Cunipert, it
was suppressed in 1799 and has housed the diocesan seminary since 1868.
Chapel of San Salvatore, on the eastern side of the Renaissance cloister
of the monastery of Santa Maria Teodote (current seminary of the diocese
of Pavia) is the small chapel with a central plan built in the last
twenty years of the fifteenth century and richly frescoed by Bernardino
Lanzani between 1506 and the 1507.
Church of San Luca, oratory of the
Confraternita dei Disciplini, was consecrated on 21 December 1609. It is
located in the eastern part of the city centre, along the important road
leading to Piacenza and Cremona. The facade is located to the north
along the current Corso Garibaldi to attest to the importance of the
road.
Church of Sant'Eusebio, had a 7th century building[90] as its
crypt, still preserved and can be visited in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, a
very rare example of Lombard architecture.
Church of San Lazzaro,
founded in 1157 by Gislenzone Salimbene, and by his sons Siro and
Malastreva, together with the homonymous hospital, the current building
was built in Romanesque style in the first half of the thirteenth
century. The facade is enriched by ceramic basins of Byzantine origin,
while some capitals date back to the Carolingian age. The interior,
restored in the 1930s, retains vast traces of 13th century frescoes. In
the 16th century, the church and the adjoining hospital passed under the
control of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, under which it
remained until the mid-19th century.
San Pietro in Verzolo, cloister
The church of Santa Maria in Betlem
Monastery and church of San
Pietro in Verzolo, built (perhaps on a previous building from the
Lombard age) in the 10th century as a Benedictine monastery. In 1486 the
Cistercians of Chiaravalle took over the Benedictines, until 1798, when
the monastery was suppressed, while the church, as a parish, survived. A
large part of the structure of the church and of the annexed buildings,
such as the small cloister, are structured on 11th century masonry, made
with many salvaged Roman bricks and river pebbles, as well as salvaged
appears to be one of the capitals, from the Lombard age, inserted in the
Romanesque mullioned windows of the cloister. The facade was rebuilt in
the second half of the sixteenth century, while the interior of the
church was modified in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Monastery and church of San Salvatore, whose origins date back to the
7th century, was in fact founded by King Aripert I in 657 and rebuilt by
Amadeo in the 15th-16th century
Church of San Lanfranco, dating back
to the 12th century, contains the tomb of Bishop Lanfranco Beccari (d.
1189), built in 1498 by the sculptor and architect Giovanni Antonio
Amadeo (1447-1552), born in Pavia. Inside the church there is a fresco,
one of the oldest in the city (13th century), discovered in 1930 under
the plaster, depicting the assassination of Tommaso Becket. The scene
portrays the bishop wearing the chasuble being shot by five assassins.
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, from the seventeenth century, has
the dignity of a minor basilica
Church of Santa Maria in Corte
Cremona, The name of the church (documented since at least 1232) derives
from the fact that in its vicinity stood the palace (court) where the
bishop of Cremona stayed when, in the early Middle Ages, he arrived in
Pavia (then capital of the kingdom of Italy) on the occasion of placits,
coronations and high events that took place in the city.
Church of
Santa Maria di Caravaggio. Located on the western outskirts of the city,
the church was built to a design by Giovanni Muzio in 1956.
In the second half of the eighteenth century there were over 140
churches and chapels in the city and its suburban areas, a
disproportionate number for a center the size of Pavia. This phenomenon
was mainly due to the role of capital covered by the city from the
Lombard age until 1024, in fact, only between 569 and 774 at least 21
churches and monasteries were founded (but the number could be higher,
given that other buildings also urban religious buildings are
traditionally believed to date from the Lombard age, even in the absence
of documentary or archaeological evidence), most of them were
established by sovereigns and the major aristocracies of the kingdom,
above all with the aim of transforming them into mausoleums. Starting
from the reign of Joseph II (as in the rest of Austrian Lombardy) and up
to the entire Napoleonic age, a large part of these churches and
religious bodies were suppressed and their buildings were destined for
public use (mainly barracks, universities, colleges and schools) or sold
to private individuals, who very often had them demolished to replace
them with civilian homes.
Church of San Colombano Maggiore. The
church of Lombard origin, equipped with a xenodochium for pilgrims,
managed by the monks of San Colombano di Bobbio, is attested by
documents since the 9th century; among the published sources of a
general nature, the parish is mentioned in 1250 in documents concerning
the Pavia appraisal of the XIII century; it is listed among the parishes
of Porta Palacensis in the Rationes decimarum of 1322-1323; appears in
the deeds of the episcopal chancellor Albertolo Griffi of the years
1370-1420; it is still mentioned in the records of the pastoral visit
carried out in 1460 by Amicus de Fossulanis. The parish of San Colombano
was suppressed in 1565 and united with the parish of Santi Giacomo e
Filippo concentrating income and rights. Converted to warehouse use, it
retains most of its framework, with the central nave and the left one
divided by pillars. The facade is largely intact, and reveals new
elements with respect to the previous series of Romanesque basilicas in
Pavia. In 1963 the remains of the presbytery and the central apse were
destroyed, while the right aisle has been missing for some time.
Church of San Felice. The female Benedictine monastery of San Felice was
founded in the Lombard age and endowed, in the following centuries, by
kings and emperors with large land holdings. Suppressed in 1785, it
became an orphanage. It is currently the seat of the Department of
Economics and Business. It preserves the ancient church, whose
structures date back to the 11th century, inside which there is the
early medieval crypt and some tombs dating back to between the 8th and
9th centuries. The cloister was rebuilt between the end of the 15th
century and the beginning of the 16th century.
Church of San Marino.
The church of San Marino, with the annexed Benedictine monastery, was
founded in the 8th century by the Lombard king Astolfo, who was buried
inside. The structure underwent alterations in the 12th century and
then, more consistently, between the 16th and 17th centuries. Inside
there is an altarpiece by Giampietrino.
Church of Santa Maria delle
Caccia. Founded in the eighth century, perhaps by king Rachis or
Desiderio, it was a female Benedictine monastery, then suppressed in
1799. The monastic building was rebuilt in the sixteenth century and is
currently used as a school building, while the church was rebuilt in the
seventeenth century, elements, such as the crypt, of the primitive
building of the Lombard age
Church of Saints James and Philip,
Francesco Maria Richino, 1626.
Church of San Maiolo. The monastery of
San Maiolo was founded in the year 967 by the judge Gaidolfo, who
donated it to the abbot of Cluny San Maiolo. Soon the monastery became
the main center of diffusion of the Cluniac reform in Northern Italy. In
the 13th century the decline of the monastery began, which became a
commendam in 1380 and was finally suppressed in 1564 and entrusted to
the Somasca Congregation. In 1596 the medieval church was rebuilt in
Mannerist style. In 1790 the house was suppressed and passed into
private hands. Purchased by the Italian State in the 1960s, it now
houses the State Archives of Pavia. Noteworthy is the fifteenth-century
cloister, which preserves traces of the Romanesque church.
St. Thomas
Church. The female Benedictine monastery of San Tommaso is mentioned for
the first time in an imperial diploma by Arnolfo dated 889. The church
was rebuilt in 1213 and in 1302 it became the seat of the Dominican
friars. Work began in 1320 on the construction of the new and larger
church, however, due to numerous interruptions, the construction site
was completed only in 1478. In 1786 the monastery was suppressed by
Joseph II and transformed into the General Seminary for Austrian
Lombardy. Giuseppe Piermarini, in charge of adapting the complex to the
new destination, heavily modified the church. A few years later, in
1791, the seminary was closed and the complex became a barracks, and
remained so until the 1980s, when it was sold to the University of
Pavia.
Church of San Pietro in Vincoli. It is located in an alley in
the historic center (Via Cravos) from which the forms of the facade can
be seen. It was built over the ruins of a pagan temple and the original
church dates back to the Lombard era. The church later took the name of
San Sebastiano, after the transfer of a relic (an arm) of the saint who,
according to tradition, managed to stop a plague epidemic that broke out
in the city in the 7th century. The religious function of the building
ceased in 1788, when it was transformed into homes and warehouses.
Church of Santa Mostiola, documented since 925, was rebuilt around the
XII century, was granted in 1254 to the Hermit monks of Sant'Agostino,
who built a convent around it. In 1566 it passed to the Benedictine nuns
of Monte Oliveto and was suppressed in 1799.
Church of Santa Maria
Gualtieri, whose facade is located on the eastern side of the central
Piazza della Vittoria. The original nucleus dates back to the 10th
century; it was deconsecrated in 1789 and incorporated into residential
buildings. In 1991, very long restorations were completed which partly
led to isolating the building again. The southern apse contains the
oldest evidence of Romanesque pictorial remains in Pavia. It is now used
as a meeting room of the Municipality.
Church of Sant'Epifanio. Built
in the 5th century by Bishop Epifanio, it was rebuilt in 1239 and in
1451 was entrusted to the Lateran Canons. It was deconsecrated in 1773
and became the seat of the Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia.
Church of San Francesco di Paola. Designed by the architect Giovanni
Antonio Veneroni, it was built next to the convent of the Minimi Fathers
of San Francesco di Paola in 1715 and was finished in 1738.
Deconsecrated in 1805, it is now the Aula Magna of the Ghislieri
College.
Saints James and Philip. Already existing as the church of
San Filippo in 1250, it was rebuilt in 1626, in 1680 it was entrusted to
the Lazarist Missionaries of San Vincenzo and, between 1887 and 1928 to
the Stigmatine fathers, it is now the university seat.
Church of
San Nicolò della Moneta. Already mentioned in 1250, it was located near
the mint. The church was rebuilt in 1609 and was deconsecrated in 1789.
Oratory of Saints Quirico and Giulitta, documented in 929, was
suppressed in 1574. In 1733 Carlo Ambrogio Mezzabarba commissioned the
architect Giovanni Antonio Veneroni to build a new place of worship next
to the sumptuous residence of the Pavia family (palazzo Mezzabarba), not
far from the place where the previous church was.
Church of Santa
Clara. The first news of the building dates back to 1244, when the
church was part of the female Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de
Ortis , in 1474 the observed Franciscan nuns settled in the monastery.
The institution was suppressed in 1782 and transformed, first into a
boarding school and then into barracks. In 1935 the complex was
purchased by the municipality of Pavia and restoration is underway.
Church of San Zeno. Already documented in 1187, on the basis of the
reorganization plan of the urban parishes of 1788, it was suppressed
and, in 1794, it was purchased by the Marquis Luigi Malaspina and
largely demolished to make room for his palace. Inside it kept the tomb
of Francesco Petrarca's nephew, whose epigraph, dictated by his
grandfather, is now kept in the Civic Museums.
Oratorio del
Crocifisso, This is a very small sixteenth-century oratory with elegant
terracotta mouldings.
Church of San Lanfranco.
Church of San
Giuseppe. Initially dedicated to Saints Cosma and Damiano, it already
existed from the 13th century and was radically rebuilt in 1572.
Church of San Giacomo della Vernavola. The church already existed in the
12th century, and was officiated by the Benedictines stationed in the
adjoining monastery. In 1421 the Friars Minor of San Francesco took
over, and in 1458 they rebuilt the church. The monastery was suppressed
in 1805, the church was demolished a few years later, while the complex
and its garden were used as the seat of the University Agricultural
Garden, while now it is the barracks of the Carabineri Forestry Unit of
the province of Pavia.
Church of Santa Chiara la Reale. Founded by
Bianca di Savoia in 1380, who installed the Poor Clares in the annexed
monastery. In 1789 the church and the monastery were suppressed and in
1803 the church was demolished, while the sixteenth-century cloister and
part of the monastic structures were preserved.
Church of Santa
Maria d'Ognissanti. mentioned in the fourteenth century as Sant'Agostino
in Porta Marenga by Opicino de'Canistris, it belonged to the order of
the Umiliati. In 1568 it passed to the Carthusians and in 1803 it was
suppressed.
Church of the Holy Trinity, which forms the southern side
of the square overlooked by the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, was
founded around 996 by Count Bernardo and his wife Roglinda. The facade
overlooks the open space that opens at the end of the square.
Church
of Sant'Antonio da Padova. The church was built in the 16th century by
the Capuchins and now, after various passages, was acquired in the 20th
century by the Borromeo college, which transformed it into a teaching
hall.
Church of the Pia Casa de 'povera derelitti di Gesù Cristo,
built in 1726 on a project by Giovanni Antonio Veneroni near the Pia
Casa dei derelitti, in 1790 it was suppressed and, two years later,
transformed into barracks.
Church of Santo Spirito and Gallo. Founded
by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1395 as compensation for the church of San
Gallo demolished by his father Galeazzo II to make room for the
construction of the castle, it housed a Benedictine monastery, which was
suppressed in 1799.
Church of Santa Maria Annunciata. Built in the
15th century in the Augustinian convent of the same name, it was
suppressed in 1799 and is now used as a conference room.
Oratory of
the Confraternity of San Rocco and Mercy which was responsible for
assisting those sentenced to death in the last hours. It is located in
the current Via Venti Settembre, after having housed a cinema for years
and now a bookshop.
Pavese Autumn, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Viale Europa, 12, autumn pavese@pv.camcom.it. Autumn Pavese is a must for lovers of good food and wine. During the event, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni is filled with stands of typical products, and food and wine-themed workshops and tastings are organised.
The main shopping streets are Corso Cavour and Corso Strada Nuova,
where you can find the most famous chain stores, and Corso Garibaldi,
the most sought after boutique and shopping street.
Parnaso
bookshop, Via Teodolinda, 23, ☎ +39 0382 35930. Monday afternoon to
Saturday, 09:00-12:00, 15:00-19:00. Book lovers will spend hours in this
bookstore specializing in old and used books. The volumes are
meticulously organized by topic, starting from comics to get to
philosophy treatises. The choice is really vast and the selection well
curated.
Carlo Paveri, Corso Garibaldi, 5/B, ☎ +39 0382 302015.
Wonderful (and expensive) boutique specializing in women's clothing and
home accessories. It sells dresses and accessories with flowing and
elegant lines.
Hi-Cube Store, Via Cardano, 23, ☎ +39 0382 061360.
Useful and less useful objects, but certainly curious and fun. In this
shop you will find everything from colorful plate sets to hi-tech
accessories.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays there is the market in Piazza Petrarca,
and the "zero km" Coldiretti agricultural market in Piazza del Carmine.
Bolis Vini, Via Bernardo da Pavia, 9/11 (from the station or piazza
Minerva, exit onto c.so Manzoni, on the left). Well stocked wine cellar
Enoteca Castello, Viale Argonne 20 (behind the castle, after the
railway). Wine shop where to find OltrePò wines without going to OltrePò
Janko, Strada Nuova,19b (Piazza Duomo, corner of via dei Liguri), ☎ +39
0382 32289, +39 0382 21365. Roasting with sale and tasting of fine
coffee blends, "slow shopping" between colors and aromas, selected food
delicacies .
Modest prices
McDonald's Pavia, Via Alessandro Brambilla 34, ☎ +39
0382 28650. Restaurant: Mon-Sun: 10:30-23:00; McDrive: Mon-Sun:
08:30-23:00; McCafé: 07:00-23:00. The services are McDrive and McCafé.
Average prices
1 At Drago Marino, corso Alessandro Manzoni 58, ☎
+30 0382 20641, info@dragomarino.it. Tue-Sun 11:30-14:30 and
18:00-23:00. Historic restaurant and pizzeria in the city, opened in
1971. Particular is the dragon-shaped oven (hence the name) that
overlooks the entrance to the restaurant. The kitchen specializes in
fish and Roman-style pizzas.
2 Verdesalvia (Verdesalvia Pizza
Gourmet), Via San Michele, 4, ☎ +39 0382 26048,
info@verdesalviagourmet.it. Tue-Sun 11:30-14:00 and 19:00-23:00. Local
that reinterprets the traditional concept of pizza thanks to a "secret"
dough resulting from years of research and experimentation.
Average prices
1 Agriturismo Cascina Mora, Strada Mora 800 (Follow
the SS526 state road, via Abbiategrasso, in the direction of Bereguardo
up to the junction for strada Mora), ☏ +39 0382 526081, fax: +39 0382
526081, info@cascinamora.it. Check-in: 16:00 to 20:00, check-out: 07:30
to 10:00. The farmhouse, immersed in the tranquility of the Ticino Park,
has eight rooms and a conference room where you can organize small
events or training courses. The location is excellent for those who need
to reach the center of Pavia, a city rich in cultural attractions, its
university campus or the hospital complex, just a few minutes away by
car or bicycle. It will also be possible in a few minutes to reach the
Certosa, a Renaissance architectural jewel, or to be able to explore the
territories of Lomellina and Oltrepo.
In Roman times Pavia was called Ticinum; only in the Lombard age did it begin to be called Papia, a toponym from which the modern name of the city derives, which could come from a name of a Roman gens, perhaps Papiria, and would therefore mean "land of the gens Papiria". According to some hypotheses, the name Papia derives from the Greek Papìas ("guardian of the palace"), a name that was given to it by Byzantine soldiers who came to fight the Goths with reference to a Royal palace of Theodoric, but the hypothesis is unlikely . According to Gian Piero Bognetti the toponym derives from the Goto term papan, "bishop", because in the final part of the Greek-Gothic war Pavia was one of the last cities to fall under the control of the Byzantines and was therefore perhaps the seat of the last bishop of the Arian Gothic church in northern Italy, but this proposal has also been rejected by most scholars. In reality, the origin of the toponym Papia still remains a mystery, one can only observe that, unlike the vast majority of Roman municipia on the Italian peninsula, Pavia is perhaps the only case of an inhabited center which, although not experiencing phases of abandonment, it radically changed its name during the early Middle Ages. Ticinum, on the other hand, clearly derives from the Ticino river, called Ticinus by the Romans, a name of pre-Latin origin and uncertain etymology.
The first settlement in the Pavia area is due to ancient populations
of Transpadana Gaul, perhaps the Levi, the Marici or the Insubri, who
created the primitive settlement in the area, previously inhabited by
populations belonging to the Golasecca culture, where Belloveso defeated
the Etruscans around 600 BC In 218 BC. the Romans, led by Publius
Cornelius Scipio, built a bridge over the Ticino where Pavia now stands,
which they destroyed after the defeat suffered by Hannibal in the battle
of the Ticino. The city was founded by the Romans, to whom we owe the
plan of the city, which has remained intact (together with the sewage
system) until today, as a Roman castrum (military camp); the city had
the name of Ticinum and was elevated to municipium in 89 BC. In the
winter of 9 B.C. the emperor Augustus and his wife Livia went as far as
Ticinum (Pavia) to meet the son of Livia, Tiberius, who had just
returned from the campaigns of Dalmatia and Pannonia. Here the dramatic
news reached them of the very serious accident that happened to Drusus,
Livia's second son, while he was conducting military operations on the
Rhine front. Sent in haste by the emperor, Tiberius managed to collect
the brother's last sigh; he then took care of its transport to Pavia
always preceding it on foot, and from here with the emperor followed the
funeral journey to Rome.
In 271 the first of the battles
involving the city or its immediate vicinity was fought (Battle of
Pavia). The Roman emperor Aurelian definitively defeated the Alemanni
who, after a series of victories, were fleeing along the Via Emilia
after the defeat suffered in the battle of Fano. Aurelian's victory was
complete, with the entire Alemannic army destroyed and the booty of
their raids recovered.
From Aurelian to Constantine I, it was
also the seat of an important mint, beating coins both during the period
of the Illyrian emperors and during the tetrarchy and the subsequent
civil war. Ticinum was the arrival point of an important Roman road
coming from Gaul and, thanks to the port on the Ticino, it was a
fundamental junction in the fluvial communications between the Adriatic
and Lake Maggiore. The city, already home to important military
quarters, in the 4th century AD. it grew in importance and also became
the site of a state-owned bow factory.
Also in the 4th century
AD. Christianity began to establish itself (according to tradition
thanks to the preaching of San Siro), and the first churches arose, such
as that of Saints Gervasio and Protasio or that of Saints Nazario and
Celso, founded by the third bishop of Pavia, Evenzio, between 381 and
397. San Martino also grew up in the city, who, following his father, a
Roman officer who moved around 325 AD. with his ward from Pannonia to
Pavia, and here he was educated. In 350 the Gallic usurper Magnetius,
descending into Italy, clashed in turn with the forces of Constantius II
in Pavia, reporting a partial victory before the failures in Pannonia
irreversibly marked the decline of his fortunes. Despite military
failures, Magnetius was finally able to defeat Constantius II again at
Pavia in 352.
Stilicho (between 406 and 407), in the military
operations against Alaric, transferred part of the army to Pavia,
highlighting the change of role assumed by Ticinum, from a subordinate
center to Milan to the main stage of northern Italy. 476 AD marks an
epochal date for the city and beyond. Orestes, pressed by the rebellion
of Odoacre, took refuge there, since he trusted in the mighty
fortifications of the city, but Pavia was besieged and conquered,
marking, with the death of Orestes and the deposition of his son Romulus
Augustulus, the end of the Roman empire of West.
During the struggles between Theodoric and Odoacer for control of
Italy, the former, in the winter between 489 and 490, shut himself up in
Pavia, where he was besieged by Tufa. In the first months of 490, thanks
to the arrival of relief sent by the Visigoths, Theodoric was able to
break the siege. Probably, also thanks to the relationships that were
established during the siege between the city, and in particular its
bishop Epiphanius, and Theodoric and also given the easily defensible
position of Pavia, also connected to Ravenna and the Adriatic by
waterways, they pushed the Ostrogothic ruler to create a royal palace in
the city, thus making the city, together with Ravenna and Verona, a of
the three seats of the kingdom. In the first thirty years of the sixth
century in the city there are in fact documented several building
interventions promoted by the Ostrogothic monarchy relating to the Regio
palace, the walls, the baths (which in the seventh century would become
the only ones still functioning in Europe outside the Roman Empire of
East) and the amphitheater. In 538 the Byzantines besieged Pavia, where
King Vitige was imprisoned, but the siege failed. From 540 the city
became the seat of the court and the royal treasury and here the kings
Ildibado, Erarico and Totila were elected. In the difficult two-year
period 552-553 Pavia distinguished itself as the most important military
center of the Ostrogothic kingdom: here the last Gothic king Teia was
elected and Pavia was the last Gothic city to fall into the hands of the
Byzantines.
It was conquered by the Lombards in 572 who made it
the capital of their kingdom, with the name of Papia, hence the modern
name. The main consequences that the role of capital brought to Pavia,
i.e. the "specificity" of the capital compared to the other cities of
the kingdom, were in particular the residence of the king in the city
and the functioning of the Regio palace. The role of capital entailed
the annual convocation of the assemblies of the Longobard exercitales,
during which the edict of Rotari and, subsequently, the other Longobard
laws were promulgated in 643. Unlike the Frankish kings, the Lombards
had permanent residence in the Royal palace: this strengthened the royal
authority given that every year, around March 1st, a large assembly was
held at the palace where laws were issued and major issues were debated
of the kingdom. However, it was also a very delicate moment, given that,
as happened several times, if a faction hostile to the sovereign managed
to occupy the palace and the royal treasury, it could in fact take
possession of the kingdom: for the Lombards, the sovereign's authority
it could only be exercised if he had full control of the palace. The
residence in the city of the aristocratic elites of the kingdom
contributed to making Pavia not only the main urban center, but also the
point of reference for the entire population of the kingdom. The royal
residence in Pavia also greatly influenced the events of the episcopal
seat of the capital, which, since its foundation in the fourth century,
was subject to the authority of the Milanese metropolis. The dependence
of the bishop of Pavia on that of Milan went into crisis with the
arrival of the Lombards. In fact, between the end of the 7th and the
beginning of the 8th century, the bishop of Pavia, as prelate of a
capital city of the kingdom, was directly subjected to the Roman see and
made autonomous by the authority of the Milanese metropolitan (this
"independence" lasted until the modern age). The city underwent profound
changes in the urban topography, such as the abandonment of the forum of
the classical age and the creation of new Christian cult buildings. The
main phenomenon that affected the urban topography of Pavia in the
Lombard age consisted in the foundation of ecclesiastical buildings.
Until the middle of the 6th century, only two Christian churches are
attested in the city, while, between 569 and 774, at least 21 churches
and monasteries were founded. Eight are royal foundations, 4
aristocratic and only 1 episcopal. The creation of ecclesiastical
buildings by the sovereigns was decisive: the foundation of a church,
often intended for the burial of the founder, became in fact from the
7th century the main act with which the Lombard monarchy demonstrated
its belonging and adherence to the Christian world. The Lombard kingdom
lasted for two centuries, until 774, when it was conquered by
Charlemagne.
Pavia remained the capital of the Kingdom of Italy
even during the Carolingian and Ottonian period: in the church of San
Michele Maggiore in Pavia, Berengar of Friuli and his successors up to
Berengar II and Adalberto II, were crowned King of Italy. The city was
the seat of the Royal Palace, of the highest tribunal of the kingdom and
of the main royal mint until 1024. Furthermore, on 25 May of the year
825, Emperor Lothair I with the capitulary of Corteolona founded the
Schola Papiense at the Royal Palace , school of law, rhetoric and
liberal arts, to which all students from Milan, Brescia, Lodi, Bergamo,
Novara, Vercelli, Tortona, Acqui, Genoa, Asti and Como had to go. During
the Ottonian period Pavia enjoyed a period of prosperity and
development. The ancient Lombard capital distinguished itself from the
other cities of the Po Valley for its fundamental function as a
crossroads for important trade, both in foodstuffs and luxury items.
Commercial traffic was favored above all by the waterways used by the
emperor for his travels: from Ticino the Po was easily reached, a direct
axis with the Adriatic Sea and maritime traffic. Furthermore, with the
advent of the Ottos (Otto I married Adelaide of Burgundy in Pavia in 951
and the couple resided for a long time, at various times, in the city),
Milan again lost its importance in favor of Pavia, whose pre-eminence
was sanctioned, among the other, from the coinage of the Pavia mint. The
importance of the city in those centuries is also highlighted by the
account of the Arab geographer Ibrāhīm al-Turtuši, who traveled in
central-western Europe between 960 and 965 and visited Verona, Rocca di
Garda and Pavia, which he defined as the main city of Longobardia, very
populous, rich in merchants and, like Verona, entirely built, unlike
other centers of the region, in stone, brick and lime.
Still
between the 10th and 11th centuries, the city gave birth to Liutprand of
Cremona, bishop, chronicler and diplomat in the service of Berengar II
first and then of Otto I and Otto II and of Lanfranco of Canterbury, a
close collaborator of William the Conqueror and, after the Norman
conquest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, reorganizer of the English church.
In 1018 Pope Benedict VIII convened a council in Pavia where the
condemnation against simony and ecclesiastical concubinage was renewed,
a new council, always convened by Pope Benedict VIII and by the emperor
Henry II, took place in Pavia in 1022 and determined heavy measures
aimed at repressing Nicolaitanism and simony. In 1037, with the Pavia
militias, the emperor Conrad II besieged Milan, although the siege was
then lifted, the operations of devastation of the Milanese countryside
continued until 1039. The rivalry between Pavia and Milan turned into a
war in 1056, which continued for a long time with ups and downs (Battle
of Campomorto (1061)) and Pavia called the emperors to help. In 1076,
during the struggles between the emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII,
Guiberto da Parma, archbishop of Ravenna, convened a council in Pavia
together with the bishops and deacons dissident towards the pontiff,
during which they excommunicated Pope Gregory VII .
During the
wars between the German emperor Federico Barbarossa (who was crowned
king of Italy in the basilica of San Michele Maggiore in 1155) and the
municipalities of the Lombard League, Pavia (with Como) was loyal to the
imperial army. Overall, Barbarossa resided in Pavia for 13 years in
different periods. Therefore, the entire imperial court stopped in the
ancient early medieval capital. The long residence of the emperor and
his entourage in Pavia was characterized by a series of explicit
references to the role and memory of the city in the past, connoting the
second half of the 12th century as a real revival of the glories of the
capital of the kingdom . Frederick also issued many diplomas to the
wealthy royal monasteries of Pavia, useful allies in the control of the
territory and in the emperor's ecclesiastical policy. Furthermore, with
the imperial decree of 8 August 1164, Barbarossa completely eliminated
all palatine authority from the city government and recognized the
citizenry's right to the free election of consuls with the sole clause
that they swear and make the people swear allegiance to the Empire and
received from the Emperor the investiture and confirmation of the
office. The emperor also granted Pavia dominion over a vast district
which, in the diploma of 1164, embraced not only the current Lomellina
and Oltrepò, with the lands between Pavia and Milan, but also a large
part of the Tortona area.
Frederick II entered Pavia for the
first time in 1212 and his entry into the city was celebrated
triumphantly. As had already happened with Federico I, the stay of the
Swabian in the city meant the revival of ancient royal traditions
typical of the early medieval capital. As usual, the sovereign issued
diplomas to local ecclesiastical bodies and stayed in the palace at the
monastery of S. Salvatore.
Pavia supported Frederick II against
the second Lombard League, and his forces participated in the battle of
Cortenuova, the siege of Parma and numerous other military operations,
obtaining in 1212 at Casei Gerola a great victory over the Milanese and
their allies. In 1219 Frederick II confirmed once again what his
grandfather had granted to Pavia for the loyalty shown in supporting the
Empire's reasons on the battlefield. In addition, Frederick II granted
the municipality greater autonomy in the city's self-government, in the
jurisdictional power and in the taxation capacity.
Starting from
the second half of the thirteenth century, the city was devastated by
the struggles between the Guelph faction, headed by the counts of
Langosco, and the Ghibelline faction, led by the Beccarias who finally,
after ups and downs, managed to take control of Pavia around 1327.
In 1329, with the Treaty of Pavia, Emperor Louis IV granted the
Electorate of the Palatinate to the descendants of his brother Duke
Rudolf during his stay in Pavia, thus dividing the Wittelsbach dynasty
into two branches.
Around the middle of the fourteenth century,
although the Beccaria regime (officially Pavia was still a free
municipality, but in fact the Beccarias and the family groups that
supported them dominated every aspect of the city's political life) was
allied with the Visconti, the aims of the Milanese dynasty towards Pavia
they became more and more explicit. In 1356, Galeazzo II besieged the
city both from land and from Ticino, but the people of Pavia, aided by
the Marquis of Monferrato and spurred on by Iacopo Bussolari, an
Augustinian preacher from the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro,
heavily defeated both and the Visconti fleet.
Thanks to the
victory obtained, Iacopo Bussolari led a revolt that led to the
expulsion of the Beccarias (who immediately allied themselves with the
Viscontis) and established a popular government in Pavia, with
institutions and magistracies similar to those experimented, a few years
earlier, in Rome by Cola di Rienzo. However, the peace did not last
long: in 1358 the war against the Viscontis broke out again and in April
1359, Galeazzo II, helped by the Beccarias, who in the meantime had
taken control of a large part of the Pavia district, managed to besiege
Pavia with a large army. Also this time, led by Bussolari, the
inhabitants of Pavia tenaciously resisted the Visconti, but finally, not
having received help from John II of Monferrato, they had to surrender
on November 13, 1359.
After the conquest, Galeazzo II, eager to
achieve greater autonomy from his brother Bernabò, and, above all,
carrying out a precise political plan aimed at basing and legitimizing
his power by appropriating the memories of early medieval royalty that
Pavia preserved, placing himself in direct continuity with the Longobard
kings (from whom the Viscontis began to claim to descend) and early
medieval kings who had had their headquarters in the Royal Palace of the
city, decided to abandon Milan and bring the court to Pavia. It was
probably a project that Galeazzo II had already meditated on for a long
time, so much so that just a few months after the capture of Pavia he
started the construction site of the Visconteo castle, the future seat
of his new court. The same "royal dream" (and the continuous call of the
Lombard monarchy and the kingdom of Italy) was carried forward, with
greater vigor, by his son Gian Galeazzo, who continued to reside,
mainly, in the castle of Pavia and the same did Filippo Maria Visconti
until 1413. Under the Milanese dynasty, the importance of Pavia was
highlighted by the creation of the county of Pavia (1396) destined for
the eldest son (which was celebrated by Gian Galeazzo with an
enthronement ceremony in the basilica of San Michele which followed the
royal coronations), the foundation of the university, of the immense
Visconteo park, the duplication of the capital and of the seats of the
court (Milan and Pavia), the foundation of the Certosa as a dynastic
pantheon and the establishment of a bureaucratic and chamber structure
which it doubled the Milanese institutions (only in the 15th century
under the Sforzas was this duality overcome, but archives, library,
relics and courtly residential structures remained in Pavia). The dual
seat of the court between Milan and Pavia gave the latter a distinct
role, a strong and prestigious identity within the domain and with
respect to the other cities, to the detriment of the Milanese
centrality. Under the Viscontis first and then the Sforzas, the
transformation of the city, the territory and urban society had
something grandiose: from 1359 to 1402, Pavia (a city already quite rich
and prosperous despite the crisis of the century) made considerable
progress under the shadow of principles, accelerating the transformation
of its institutions, social hierarchies, cultural environment,
monumental aspect and forma urbis. In addition to the properly ducal
buildings, the monasteries of the Annunciata and Santa Chiara la Reale
were founded in the city, the large square was built (now Piazza
Vittoria), and the central streets (Strada Nuova) were redesigned. Some
Gothic buildings were completed, such as the church of San Francesco,
the Carmine and San Tommaso, with the contribution of Visconti
architects, and construction sites were opened which contributed to the
renewal of the urban architectural language. At the time of Gian
Galeazzo new noble residences were flourishing for the members of the
dynasty and for the courtiers, such as the large house of Azzone
Visconti (later incorporated into the central university building), the
new Court of Bianca di Savoia, the palace of Caterina Visconti , the
palaces of secretaries and magistrates such as Pasquino Capelli, Nicolò
Diversi (Palazzo dei Diversi), Francesco Barbavara, Pasino Eustachi
(Casa degli Eustachi) and Nicolò Spinelli. The Visconti and Sforza
called famous professors to teach in Pavia, such as the jurist Baldo
degli Ubaldi, Lorenzo Valla or Giasone del Maino.
Gian Galeazzo
Visconti also created the post of captain of the fleet, the headquarters
was in Pavia and he had to deal not only with the military aspects
related to the ducal naval squadron, but also with public order, the
collection of duties, the maintenance of the embankments and bridges and
of the provisioning of the cities on all the rivers, watercourses and
lakes of the Duchy of Milan. This charge will disappear only after the
fall of Ludovico il Moro. Furthermore, even earlier, in 1378 Galeazzo II
had the dock built (later enlarged in 1392, 1435 and 1451) where the
boats of the ducal fleet were built, repaired and kept which, still in
1494 consisted of 33 galleons. The dock, which was a usual visit
destination for guests of the ducal court, such as the Florentine
ambassador Giovanni Ridolfi in 1480, was destroyed by French artillery
during the siege of 1524-25 and was located where the Horti Borromaici
now extend .
Again under the government of Gian Galeazzo, in 1387
the first Jewish community was established in the city which, during the
Sforza period, grew and prospered, and which also included doctors and
intellectuals, such as Elia ben Shabbetai, personal physician of Filippo
Maria Visconti and professor at the University, and above all the great
scholar and Talmudist Joseph Colon, so much so that in 1490 a Hebrew
course was also activated at the university.
Occupied by the French in 1499, in 1512 in the battle of Pavia, under
the command of Matteo Schiner, the Swiss and Venetian infantry drove the
French garrison out of the city and sacked Pavia. Back under Sforza
control, in 1522 it was besieged by Odet de Foix, Count of Lautrec.
Although the situation in Pavia was desperate, because a large part of
the imperial garrison had had to leave the city to relieve Milan, which
was also besieged by the French, and, furthermore, Federico II Gonzaga,
who led the defense of Pavia, had only about 1,500 foot soldiers and 300
cavalry, while the army of the king of France consisted of nearly 20,000
men, the siege failed. The strong resistance put up by the armed
citizens, who had reformed the urban militia, and by the imperial
garrison, linked to the arrival of Habsburg reinforcements, forced the
French to flee.
In October 1524, the French king Francis I, at
the head of an army made up of over 23,000 infantry, 3,200 cavalry and
53 cannons, besieged Pavia, however, despite the disproportion of forces
(the city was defended by Antonio de Leyva with about 6,000 infantrymen,
including landsknechts and Spaniards, and from the urban militia) the
Oxidation operations went for a long time, thus allowing the imperials
to send, in February 1525, an army, led by Charles of Lannoy, Charles of
Bourbon and Fernando Francesco d'Avalos and made up of almost 20,000
infantry, 2,300 cavalry and 17 cannons, to help Pavia. The arrival of
these forces gave rise to one of the most important episodes of the
Italian wars: the battle of Pavia, in which the king of France was
soundly defeated and taken prisoner. From the point of view of military
history, the battle is important because it demonstrated the
overwhelming superiority of the Imperial infantry and above all of its
formations of Spanish (tercios) and German (Doppelsöldner) pikemen and
arquebusiers who destroyed the famous French heavy cavalry with the fire
of their weapons , decimating an entire generation of French
aristocratic great lords.
Linked to the battle is the story of
Zuppa alla Pavese, a simple soup with dry bread, eggs, cheese and
butter, cooked by a peasant woman for the king who had just been taken
prisoner. It is said that the king liked it so much that he had it
included in the menu of court with the name of soupe à la pavoise.
However two years later, in 1527, the French, led by Odet de Foix,
besieged Pavia again and, after having conquered it, eager to take
revenge for the defeats of 1522 and 1525, subjected it to a very heavy
looting that lasted seven days. Furthermore, during the siege, the
Visconti Castle lost (due to the French artillery) the north wing - the
most beautiful, because it contained the ducal apartments, with rooms
frescoed by Pisanello - and the two north-west and north-east towers,
while the countryside around the city was devastated and some suburban
churches, or near the walls, were destroyed or damaged. After the
looting, the French left a weak garrison in the city, so small that, in
May 1528, after a brief siege, the imperials retook the city, which was
sacked again. However, in September of the same year, for the umpteenth
time, the French army besieged and occupied Pavia, however the
permanence of the soldiers of the king of France in the city did not
last long, in October 1529 the men of Charles V squeezed Pavia and
managed to drive out the French definitively.
In the same
tormented years Girolamo Cardano was trained at the University, while,
probably in 1511, Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy together with Marco
Antonio della Torre, professor of anatomy at the university.
From
the second half of the 16th century the production of majolica
flourished in the city, which led Pavia to be, until the 18th century,
one of the main centers of production of such artifacts in northern
Italy. But the city had, as in the past, an above all commercial
importance: the goods that passed from Milan and the rest of Lombardy to
Genoa passed through Pavia and, above all, the salt, salt, necessary not
only for food preservation, but also for many activities, such as the
dairy one. The salt, from Pavia, was then distributed to Milan and a
large part of western Lombardy and Piedmont.
However, in these
decades, above all by the will of the kings of Spain, the inquisition
was strengthened (which was based in the Dominican church of San Tommaso
and which was only removed in 1774 by the Empress Maria Teresa) which
began to keep the university environment and also the Jewish community,
which in 1597, by order of King Philip II, had to leave Pavia.
In
1655 Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy attacked Pavia with an army of
20,000/25,000 French, Piedmontese and Duke of Modena soldiers, while the
city was defended by Galeazzo Trotti who had only 3,000 Spanish
infantry, about 900 Spanish cavalry and a few thousand men of the urban
militia. However, Tommaso Francesco di Savoia failed to conquer Pavia
and had to retreat after a siege that lasted 52 days.
In 1706,
after a brief siege, it was occupied by the Austrians, who kept control
of the city until 1796, despite, during the wars of the Polish
Succession first and then the Austrians, Pavia was occupied in 1733 by
the French, in 1743 by the French and the Spanish , only to be
definitively resumed in 1746 by the Austrians. In the second half of the
eighteenth century, thanks to both Maria Teresa and Giuseppe II, the
university experienced a great development, famous professors were
called, such as Alessandro Volta, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Antonio Scarpa,
Giuseppe Frank, Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Samuel -Auguste Tissot and
Lorenzo Mascheroni and the university became one of the main ones in
Europe. Furthermore, in Pavia, in 1777, Maria Pellegrina Amoretti
graduated, the first woman with a law degree in Italy.
In May
1796 Napoleon punished the city for an insurrection against French
forces by condemning it to a three-day pillage. However, Napoleon soon
decided to exploit the University, the libraries and the skills present
in the city, creating the Military School for Infantry Officers and, in
1803, the Artillery School, with an annexed foundry of bronze cannons.
Even the university went through a happy period, the Napoleonic age in
fact saw the teachings of Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo on the chair of
eloquence, Gian Domenico Romagnosi of civil law and Vincenzo Brunacci of
mathematics.
In 1814 it returned to the Austrians. In 1818 the
works of the Naviglio Pavese were completed: the canal, conceived as a
waterway between Milan, Pavia and the Ticino and as an irrigation canal,
contributed to the development of the city, so much so that just a few
years after its construction, in 1821, Borgo Calvenzano arose behind the
castle, a long series of porticoed buildings where there were
warehouses, inns, shipping and customs offices, hotels, stables, all in
support of inland navigation. In 1820 the first steamers began to
operate in the Pavia docks and, between 1854 and 1859, Lloyd Austriaco
organized a regular shipping line, again using steamers, between Pavia,
Venice and Trieste. In 1859 Pavia became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia
(future Kingdom of Italy) together with the rest of Lombardy. In the
nineteenth century, the university experienced a strong growth in the
number of enrolled students and equipped itself with new departments,
laboratories, classrooms and, between 1819 and 1850, it enlarged its
headquarters and created a new, and larger, great hall. During the
century, teachers of great fame taught in Pavia, such as, just to name a
few, the anatomist Bartolomeo Panizza, Luigi Porta, the physiologist
Eusebio Oehl, Paolo Mantegazza, Giulio Bizzozero, the botanist Santo
Garovaglio, the mathematician Francesco Brioschi, the physicist Giovanni
Cantoni, the geologist Torquato Taramelli, the philosopher Carlo
Cantoni, the historian Giacinto Romano and it was the first Italian
university to receive the Nobel Prize in the person of the doctor and
histologist Camillo Golgi. In 1883 with the annexation of the
municipality of Corpi Santi, the area of the municipality expanded, in
the same years important industries began to arise, such as Necchi,
while in 1905 Snia Viscosa was established, the first large Italian
factory of artificial silk and fabrics synthetic, followed by many
others, so much so that in the first decades of the twentieth century
there were 16,000 workers in the city. In 1895 the families of Jakob and
Hermann Einstein, the uncle and father of sixteen-year-old Albert
Einstein, moved to Pavia, where since 1894 they had founded the
Einstein-Garrone National Electrotechnical Workshops along the Naviglio
Pavese.
In the autumn elections of 1920, the Socialist Party
achieved an extraordinary electoral result obtaining 156 out of 220
mayors in the province and 56 out of 60 seats in the provincial council,
the fascist reaction was immediately unleashed and the socialist mayors
were expelled one after the other with violence.
The taking of
Pavia by the fascists took place precisely in the crucial days of the
march on Rome and was coordinated by Angelo Nicolato. He established his
headquarters in the Tre Re inn in Cava Manara, where the fascist forces
converged. The operation began on the morning of 28 October 1922, when
the fascist squads entered Pavia and headed towards the prefecture,
without encountering any resistance from the military garrison of the
city and in a few hours they took control of the crucial points of
Pavia. The black shirts then broke into the town hall, Palazzo
Mezzabarba. The socialist mayor, Alcide Malagugini, convened the
municipal council which was dissolved on 29 October. The office of mayor
was assumed by the fascist leader Cesare Forni, an expression of the
toughest wing of the party, linked to the large landowners.
However, some anti-fascists remained active in the city, such as Giorgio
Errera, professor of chemistry at the university. In 1923, he refused
the position of rector, which had been proposed to him by the minister
Giovanni Gentile, of whom he was a friend, and in 1931 he was one of the
twelve Italian university professors (out of 1,255) who refused to swear
allegiance to fascism and was for this retired.
After 8 September
1943, Pavia was occupied by the German army. In September 1944, the US
air forces carried out several bombing raids on the city with the aim of
destroying the three bridges over the Ticino, strategic for supplying
men, weapons and provisions to the German units engaged along the Gothic
line. These operations led to the destruction of the covered bridge and
caused the death of 119 civilians.
The battle for the liberation
of Pavia took place in the night between 25 and 26 April 1945, the day
in which, after the German garrison had abandoned the city, the
remaining fascist forces surrendered to the partisans. On April 27, the
National Liberation Committee took possession of the prefecture and on
April 30, the first allied troops entered the city.
The first
municipal elections after the dictatorship were held on 7 April 1946.
The most voted party was the Christian Democrats which obtained 32.8% of
the votes. The first elected mayor was the socialist Cornelio Fietta. In
the institutional referendum of 2 June 1946, Pavia assigned 67.1% of the
votes to the Republic, while the monarchy obtained only 38.2%.
Pavia rests on a terrain of fluvio-glacial origin, formed by alluvial
deposits dating back to the Pleistocene with variously frequent
alternations, both horizontally and vertically, of permeable (gravel and
sand) and impermeable (silt and clay) lithological types, and this makes
the formation of numerous aquifers is possible and ensures a very high
water supply to the area.
The city occupies an area of 62.86 km²
to the west of Lombardy, located along the so-called "resurgence belt",
where there is a meeting, underground, between geological layers with
different permeability, an aspect that allows deep waters to resurface
to the surface.
Pavia stands on the edge of the powerful alluvial
shelf that extends between the Ticino and the Olona, a short distance
from the confluence of the Ticino and the Po. This shelf is deeply
affected by other minor watercourses. The alluvial shelf on which Pavia
rests appears engraved, in correspondence with the urban aggregate, by
two deep furrows due to the erosive action of two post-glacial rivers,
represented today by the Navigliaccio (which flows in the bed formerly
occupied by the Calvenza) and by the Vernavola. The two valleys tend to
converge right behind the city site, so that primitive Pavia found
itself on an almost isolated and difficult to reach trunk or stump of
terrace, almost triangular in shape, which had the Ticino to the south,
the Calvenza and then the Navigliaccio to the north-west and the
Vernavola to the north-east. From an altimetric point of view, the city
has various heights. The highest point is located in the area of the
Visconti castle, about 80 meters above sea level, and then slowly
declines. From an altitude of 80 metres, you reach 77 meters in around
500 metres. Downstream from Piazza Vittoria, where the cardo and the
decumanus of the Roman city met, the slope becomes steeper, reaching
just under 60 meters above sea level near the Covered Bridge.
Pavia has a warm temperate climate, permanently humid, with very hot
summers (Köppen-Geiger classification Cfa) typical of the Po Valley. In
winter the climate is harsh and humid with the formation of fog on the
ground due both to the presence of numerous ditches and canals - and the
Ticino river - and to poor ventilation. Snow episodes that occur during
cold waves or due to the formation of a cushion of cold, stagnant air on
the ground (thermal inversion) are not uncommon. Autumn and spring are
the rainiest seasons while summer is hot and muggy with frequent and
sudden thunderstorms that quickly - albeit briefly - cool the air.
The average maximum temperature is recorded in July with 29.8 °C,
the lowest in January with -2.0 °C. The rainiest month is October with
88 mm of rain; the less July with 48 mm. The average annual rainfall is
between 750 and 800 mm, distributed on average over 81 days.
Since the 1980s, Pavia has undergone a notable demographic decline
due to the transfer of many families within the municipalities
immediately bordering the capital. Within the urban agglomeration of the
city of Pavia, according to calculations carried out by applying the
international criterion of Functional Urban Areas, approximately 121,000
inhabitants reside. The percentage of elderly population residing in the
city is, according to ISTAT data, very high, with an old age index
higher than the Italian average: 245.6 against 148.7 and with 32.5% of
families made up of single elderly people (Italian average 27.1%). The
average level of education is very high: 73.1% of residents have a
diploma or degree (Italian average 55.1%, Lombard average 56%), while
the rate of mobility for study is lower than the Italian average or
unusual work and the rate of material and social vulnerability.
Foreign ethnic groups and minorities
As of 31 December 2022, the
foreign population was 10,379 people, equal to 14.53% of the population.
The first religious confession in Pavia is the Catholic one, which,
unlike other areas of Lombardy, is of the Roman rite, with the
exclusion, within the city, of the church of San Giorgio in
Montefalcone, entrusted to the Ukrainian community of the Greek rite
-Catholic. The second religious community is the Orthodox one, such as
the Romanian one in via Repubblica and the Greek Orthodox church of
Sant'Ambrogio, in via Olevano. Then there is the Muslim one, which is
found in two Islamic cultural centers (via San Giovannino and Via
Pollack), while for some time in Pavia there have been buildings of
worship for Protestants, such as the Waldensian Church in via Alessandro
Rolla, the Evangelical Church of the Assemblies of God in via Angelo
Ferrari, the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation, in viale Cremona, the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in via Grevellone and the
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in via Langosco.
Languages
and dialects
In addition to the Italian language, the Lombard
language in its Pavia dialect variant is relatively widespread in the
city of Pavia. Pavia is commonly considered a variety of the Lombard
language, although from a phonetic point of view it has many features in
common with the Piedmontese dialects and, above all, with the nearby
Piacenza dialect, so much so that some scholars lump Pavia with the
Emilian dialects. Over the centuries, Pavia was also able to establish
itself among the population as a cultural language; through poems,
dictionaries, magazines and theatrical works that became bearers of the
numerous social issues of the city and its inhabitants. Among the
authors who have contributed most to the Pavia literary panorama, it is
worth mentioning the poets Siro Carati and Giuseppe Bignami.
Pavia does not have legal recognition (law nº 482 of 1999) and is not
subject to protection by the Italian Republic, while the Lombard
language is unofficially recognized with Recommendation nº 928 of 7
October 1981 of the Council of Europe. A notable approximation of the
dialect to Italian took place, especially during the 20th century, also
due to the acquisition of vocabulary from the national language (for
example salümè compared to püstè "salumiere", etc.), a phenomenon quite
understandable if it is thought that those who speak Pavia generally
also speak Italian.
One of the oldest Pavia traditions is the Feast of the Holy Thorns
which falls on the day after Pentecost and in which the three thorns,
kept inside the cathedral of Pavia, considered part of the crown placed
on the head of Jesus, are carried in procession through the city during
the Passion. The thorns were originally part of the collection of relics
collected by the Viscontis inside the chapel of the Visconti castle and
were transported to the cathedral in 1499, since, following the fall of
Ludovico il Moro, it was feared that they could be taken by the French.
The festival was established by bishop Giovanni Battista Sfondrati in
1645 and, in addition to religious celebrations, sees the presence of
markets and amusement parks in the city.
From May to September
the Ticino Festival is held in the city, dedicated to the river that
crosses and gave life to Pavia. For around 100 days the city comes alive
with exhibitions, meetings, concerts, markets and tastings and ends with
a fireworks display over the waters of Ticino.
In the month of
June the Palio del Ticino is held which commemorates the river battle of
Cremona in 1431 in which the Visconti fleet, led by Pavia's Pasino
Eustachi and composed mainly of Pavia galleons and navaroli, heavily
defeated the Venetian fleet, thus saving the duchy of Milan from the
enemy invasion. The palio begins inside the Visconteo castle, where the
court of Filippo Maria Visconti is recreated, from here the procession,
made up of hundreds of armed figures, equipped and dressed as in the
fifteenth century, descends to the basilica of San Michele, where they
are blessed the flags and then up to the banks of the Ticino and here
various teams compete for the banner of the Palio in archery and rowing
competitions with barcé, typical river boats.
Now part of the
traditions of Pavia is the Pavese Autumn, which has been taking place
since 1948 and culminates in the month of October, when a taste salon
dedicated to the many food and wine and artisanal products of the
province of Pavia is held in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.