Bergamo

Town in Lombardy, Italy, 48 km/30 mi northeast of Milan, at the foot of the Alps between the rivers Brembo and Serio; population (2001) 113,100. Industries include printing, engineering, and the manufacture of cement, textiles (silk), and electrical goods. The Academia Carrara holds a collection of paintings.

The modern lower town, constructed between 1914 and 1934, is largely given over to commerce and industry. The upper town has 15th-century fortifications and several medieval buildings grouped together around the Piazza Vecchia, including the Colleoni Chapel (1476), the baptistry, the 12th-century church of Sta Maria Maggiore, and the cathedral.

Bergamo was once the seat of the republican government set up by Mussolini after his escape from custody in 1943. The 19th-century composer Gaetano Donizetti lived in the town, and it was the birthplace of the mercenary leader Bartolomeo Colleoni in 1470.

The commedia dell'arte (improvised comic drama), from which the Punch and Judy puppet show derived, is said to have originated in Bergamo. The town gives its name to bergamot, an oily perfume derived from the fruit of a citrus tree.