Pavia

Comune di Pavia
Image:Pavia-Stemma.png Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province	Pavia (PV)
Mayor	Piera Capitelli (since 2005)
Elevation	77 m
Area	62 km²
Population
- Total (as of december 31, 2004)	71,486
- Density	1,146/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	45°11′N, 09°09′E
Gentilic	Pavesi
Dialing code	0382
Postal code	27100
Patron	St. Sirus
- Day	december 9
Website: www.comune.pavia.it

Pavia (population 71,000, pronounced Pavìa), the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po.

Pavia is the capital of a fertile province known for agricultural products including wine, rice, cereals, and dairy products. Some industries located in the suburbs do not disturb the peaceful atmosphere which comes from the preservation of the city's past and the climate of study and meditation associated with its ancient University. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic diocese of Pavia.

History

For the main article on the Roman city, see Ticinum.

Dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia (then known as Ticinum) was a municipality and an important military site under the Roman Empire.

Here, in 476, Odoacer defeated Flavius Orestes after a long siege. To punish the city for helping the rival, Odoacer destroyed it completely. However, Orestes was able to escape to Piacenza, where Odoacer followed and killed him, deposing his son Romulus Augustus. This was commonly considered the end of the Western Roman Empire.

A late name of the city in Latin was Papia (probably related to the Pope), which evolved to the Italian name Pavia. Sometimes it's been referred to as Ticinum Papia, combining both Latin names.

Under the Goths, Pavia became a fortified citadel and their last bulwark in the war against Belisarius.

After the Lombards conquest, Pavia became the capital of their kingdom. During the Rule of the Dukes, it was ruled by Zaban. It continued to function as the administrative centre of the kingdom, but by the reign of Desiderius, it had deteriorated as a first-rate defensive work and Charlemagne took it in the Siege of Pavia (June, 774) assuming the kingship of the Lombards. Pavia remained the capital of the Italian Kingdom and the centre of royal coronations until the diminution of imperial authority there in the twelfth century.

In the 12th century Pavia acquired the status of a self-governing commune. In the political division between Guelphs and Ghibellines that characterizes the Italian Middle Ages, Pavia was traditionally Ghibelline, a position that was as much supported by the rivalry with Milan as it was a mark of the defiance of the Emperor that led the Lombard League against the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who was attempting to reassert long-dormant Imperial influence over Italy.

In the following centuries Pavia was an important and active town. Under the Treaty of Pavia, Emperor Louis IV granted during his stay in Italy the Palatinate to his brother Duke Rudolph's descendants. Pavia held out against the domination of Milan, finally yielding to the Visconti family, rulers of that city in 1359; under the Visconti Pavia became an intellectual and artistic centre, being the seat from 1361 of the University founded around the nucleus of the old school of law, which attracted students from many countries.

The Battle of Pavia (1525) marks a watershed in the city's fortunes, since by that time, the former cleavage between the supporters of the Pope and those of the Holy Roman Emperor had shifted to one between a French party (allied with the Pope) and a party supporting the Emperor and King of Spain Charles V. Thus during the Valois-Habsburg Italian Wars, Pavia was naturally on the Imperial (and Spanish) side. The defeat and capture of king Francis I of France during the battle ushered in a period of Spanish occupation which lasted until 1713. Pavia was then ruled by the Austrians until 1796, when it was occupied by the French army under Napoleon.

In 1815, it again passed under Austrian administration until the Second War of Independence (1859) and the unification of Italy one year later.

Main sights

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Pavia's most famous landmark is the Certosa, or Carthusian monastery, founded in 1396 and located some kilometers out from the city.

Among other notable structures are:

• the Cathedral (Duomo), founded in 1488 and completed only in 1898, when the façade and the dome were completed according to the original design. The central dome has an octagonal plan, and stand at 97 m high, weighing some 20,000 tons. This dome is the third for size in Italy, after St. Peter's Basilica and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Next to the Duomo were the Civic Tower (existing at least from 1330 and enlarged in 1583 by Pellegrino Tibaldi): its fall on March 17, 1989 was the final motivating force that started the last decade's efforts to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa from a similar fate.
• the Romanesque church of San Michele Maggiore (St. Michael), an outstanding example of Lombard-Romanesque architecture in Lombardy. It is located on the site of a pre-existing Lombard church, which the lower part of the campanile belongs to. Destroyed in 1004, the church was rebuilt from around the end of the 11th century (including the crypt, the transept and the choir), and finished in 1155. It is characterized by an extensive use of sandstone and by a very long transept, provided with a façade and an apse of its own. In the church the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was incoronated in 1155.
• the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro ("St. Peter in Golden Sky", existing from the 6th century), where Saint Augustine, Boethius and the Lombard king Liutprand are buried. The current construction was built in 1132. It is similar to San Michele Maggiore, differentiating for the asymmetric façade with a saingle portal, the use of brickwork instead of sandstone, and, in the interior, the absence of matronei and the shortest transept. The noteworthy arch housing the relics of St. Augustine was built in 1362 by artists from Campione, and is decorated by some 150 statues and reliefs. The church is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the X canto of his Divine Comedy.
• the large fortified Castello Visconteo (built in 1360 by Galeazzo II Visconti).
• the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, one of the most known examples of Gothic brickwork architecture in northern Italy. It is the second largest church in the city after the Cathedral, and is on the Latin cross plan, with a perimeter of 80 x 40 meters comprising a nave and two aisles. The characteristic façade has a large rose window and seven cusps.
• the Renaissance church of Santa Maria di Canepanova, attributed to Bramante.
• Pavia's University was founded in 1361.

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Natives of Pavia

• Benedetto Cairoli, twice head of the government
• Gerolamo Cardano, scientist
• Carlo M. Cipolla, economic historian
• Tranquillo Cremona, painter
• Carlo Dossi, writer
• Claudia Muzio, opera singer

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