Milan

The Vittorio Emanuele gallery is an arcade of shops in the heart of Milan, Italy. Named after Victor Emmanuel II, first king of a united Italy in 1861, it is noted for its mosaic floor. The roof is louvred to admit natural light.

Second-largest city in Italy, sitauted in Lombardy, 120 km/75 mi northeast of Genoa; population (2001) 1,256,200. Industries include printing, engineering, and the manufacture of aircraft, cars, locomotives, chemicals, clothing, and textiles. Milan is Italy's chief commercial and industrial centre: the main stock exchange, and the headquarters of banks and insurance companies are here. It is also the country's most important publishing centre.

Features

History Settled by the Gauls in the 5th century BC, it was conquered by the Roman consul Marcellus in 222 BC. Under Diocletian, in AD 286, Mediolanum was capital of the Western Empire.

Destroyed by Attila the Hun in 452, and again by the Goths in 539, the city regained its power through the political importance of its bishops. It became an autonomous commune in 1045; then followed a long struggle for supremacy in Lombardy.

The city was taken by Frederick (I) Barbarossa in 1162, but in 1176 his forces were defeated at the Battle of Legnano. Milanese forces were again defeated by the emperor at the Battle of Cortenuova in 1237. In the Guelph-Ghibelline struggle, pro-papal and pro-imperial respectively, the Visconti family emerged at the head of the Ghibelline faction. They gained power in 1277, establishing a dynasty which lasted until 1450 when Francesco Sforza seized control and became duke. The Sforza court marked the high point of Milan as a cultural and artistic centre.

Control of the city passed to Louis XII of France in 1499, and in 1535 it was annexed by Spain, beginning a long decline. The city was ceded to Austria by the Treaty of Utrecht 1714, and in the 18th century began a period of intellectual enlightenment. In 1796 Milan was taken by Napoleon I, who made it the capital of the Cisalpine Republic in 1799, and in 1805 capital of the Kingdom of Italy until 1814, when it reverted to the Austrians. In 1848 Milan rebelled unsuccessfully (the Cinque Giornate/Five Days), and in 1859 was joined to Piedmont.

Architecture The city's layout is roughly circular, and many of the city's main thoroughfares radiate from the Piazza del Duomo, which is dominated by the cathedral. The building is decorated with over 2,000 statues, and has 135 pinnacles, on the highest of which is the gilded statue of the Madonnina. Napoleon I instructed the upper part of the facade to be added, and was crowned king of Italy in the cathedral in 1805.

Milan has many other ancient churches, including the basilica of S Ambrogio, founded by St Ambrose in the 4th century, but in its present Romanesque form dating from the 12th century; and the Dominican church of Sta Maria delle Grazie (15th century), which was damaged in World War II, but largely reconstructed. The 15th-century Sforza castle, formerly the seat of the dukes of Milan, has many medieval and Renaissance works of art; and there are further works of art in the Poldi Pezzoli museum. The Ospedale Maggiore, begun in 1457, is now the seat of one of Milan's two universities.

Population Milan's population grew from 250,000 in 1860 to 1,600,000 in 1960, particularly after 1955 with migration from the south and Sicily. The peak year was 1961, with 74,000 arrivals in the city. Policies encouraging the relocation of offices, factories, and people to the surrounding conurbation halted population growth, and by 1990 numbers had fallen by nearly 250,000.