Mantua

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For other uses, see Mantua (disambiguation).

Comune di Mantova
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province	Mantua (MN)
Mayor	Fiorenza Brioni (since April 18, 2005)

Elevation	19 m
Area	63 km²
Population
- Total (as of December 31, 2004)	46,372
- Density	736/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	45°10′N 11°21′E
Gentilic	Mantovani
Dialing code	0376
Postal code	46100
Frazioni	Castelletto Borgo and Formigosa
Patron	Anselm of Lucca, the Younger
- Day	March 18
Website: www.comune.mantova.it

Mantua (in Italian Màntova, in the local dialect of Lombard language Mantua) is an important city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name.

Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century.^[1] These receive the waters from the Mincio, which descend from Lake Garda. The three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore ("Superior", "Middle," and "Inferior" Lakes).^[2] A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which once completed a defensive water ring of the city, dried up at the end of the 18th century.

Mantua is mentioned in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In this Romeo is sent into exile for killing Tybalt Capulet in a swordfight. Romeo subsequently leaves Mantua and returns to Verona when he hears his love, Juliet, has died.

Piazza Sordello in Mantua.

1 History
2 Main sights
3 Trivia
4 Twin cities
5 Transportation
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

The town was founded, probably around 2000 BC, on the banks of the Mincio, on a sort of island which provided natural protection. In the 6th century BC it was an Etruscan village which, in Etruscan tradition, was re-founded by Ocno. The name derives from the Etruscan god Mantus, of Hades. After being conquered by the Cenomani, a Gaul tribe, the Romans conquered it between the first and second Punic wars, confusing its name with Manto, a daughter of Tyresia (Tiresias). The new settlement was populated by veteran soldiers of Augustus. Mantua's most famous ancient citizen is the poet Publius Virgilius Maro, Virgil (Mantua me genuit), who was born near the city in 70 BC.

Mantua.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Mantua was invaded by Goths, Byzantines, Longobards and Franks. In the 11th century it became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, marquis of Toscana. The last ruler of the family was the countess Matilde of Canossa (d. 1115), who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious "Rotonda di San Lorenzo" (1082).

After the death of Matilde of Canossa, Mantua became a free commune, and strenuously defended itself from the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1198 Alberto Pitentino optimised the course of the Mincio, creating what Mantuans call "the four lakes" to reinfore the city's natural protection.

During the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, Pinamonte Bonacolsi took advantage of the chaotic situation to seize power in 1273. His family ruled Mantua for the next century, making it more prosperous and artistically beautiful. On August 16, 1328, the last Bonacolsi, Rinaldo, was overthrown in a revolt backed by the House of Gonzaga, a family of officials, namely the 60-year-old Luigi and his sons Guido, Filippino and Feltrino. Luigi Gonzaga, who had been podestà of the city in 1318, was elected "People's Captain". The Gonzaga built new walls with five gates and renovated the architecture of the city in the 14th century, but the political situation in the city did not settle until the third Gonzaga, Ludovico I of Gonzaga, eliminated his relatives, seizing power for himself.

A sight in the Medieval quarter of the city.

Through a payment of 120,000 golden florins in 1433, Gianfrancesco I of Gonzaga was appointed marquis of Mantua by Emperor Sigismund, whose daughter Barbara of Brandenburg he married. In 1459 Pope Pius II held a diet in Mantua to proclaim a crusade against the Turks. Under Francesco II of Gonzaga the famous Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna worked in Mantua as court painter, producing some of his most outstanding works.

The first duke of Mantova was Federico II of Gonzaga, who acquired the title from Emperor Charles V in 1530. Federico commissioned Giulio Romano to build the famous Palazzo Te, in the periphery of the city, and profoundly improved the urbanistic asset of the city. About Mantua, the poet Torquato Tasso in 1586 wrote:

This is a very beautiful city and one worth travelling a thousand miles to see.

In 1624 Francesco IV moved the duke's seat to a new residence, the Favorita, designed by the architect Nicolò Sebregondi.

Ludovico Gonzaga receiving the news of his son Francesco being elected cardinal, fresco by Andrea Mantegna in the Stanza degli Sposi of Palazzo Ducale.

In 1627, the direct line of the Gonzaga family came to an end with the vicious and weak Vincenzo II, and the town slowly declined under the new rulers, the Gonzaga Nevers, a cadet French branch of the family. The War of the Mantuan Succession broke out, and in 1630 an Imperial army of 36,000 Landsknecht mercenaries besieged Mantua, bringing the plague with them. Mantua never recovered from this disaster. Duke Ferdinand, an inept rler whose only aim was to hold parties and theatrical representations, allied with France in the Spanish Succession War. After the latter's defeat, he took refuge in Venice, carrying with him a thousand pictures. At his death, in 1708, he was declared deposed and his family lost Mantua forever in favour of the Habsburgs of Austria.

Under Austrian rule, Mantua enjoyed a revival, and during this period the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, the Scientific Theatre, and numerous Palaces were built.

On June 4 1796, during the Napoleonic Wars, Mantua was sieged by Napoleon as a move againts Austria, who joined the First Coalition. Austrian and Russian attempts to break the siege failed, but spread the French thin enough to abandon the siege on 31 July to fight other battles. The siege resumed on August 24. In early February the city surrendered and the region came under French administration.

After the brief French rule, Mantua returned to Austria in 1814, becoming one of the Quadrilatero fortress cities in northern Italy. Agitation against Austria culminated in a revolt which lasted from 1851 to 1855, and was finally suppressed by the Austrian army. One of the most famous episodes of Italian Risorgimento took place in the small valley of Belfiore, when a group of rebels was hung by the Austrians.

In 1866, Mantua was incorporated in united Italy by the king of Sardinia.

See also:

Duchy of Mantua.

Palazzo Ducale.

Palazzo Bonacolsi.

Rotonda di San Lorenzo.

Palazzo Vecchio, Mantua.

Palazzo della Ragione, Mantua.

Porto Catena, the fluvial port of Mantua.

[edit] Main sights

The Gonzaga protected art and culture, and hosted several important artists like Leone Battista Alberti, Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano, Donatello, Luca Fancelli and Nicolò Sebregondi. Though many of the masterworks have been dispersed, the cultural value of Mantua is nonetheless outstanding. Many monuments furnish examples of unique patrimony in patrician buildings and Italian architecture.

Main monuments include:

The Palazzo Te (1525-1535), a creation of Giulio Romano (who lived in Mantua in his final years) in the style of mature Renaissance and with some hints of a certain post-Raphaelian mannerism. It was the summer residential villa of Frederick II of Gonzaga. It hosts the Museo Civico (with the donations of Arnoldo Mondadori, one of the most important Italian publishers, and Ugo Sissa, a Mantuan architect who worked in Iraq from where he brought back important Mesopotamian artworks)
The Palazzo Ducale, famous residence of the Gonzaga family, made up by a number of buildings, courtyards and gardens gathered around the Palazzo del Capitano, the Magna Domus, and the Castle of St. George.
The Basilica of Sant'Andrea
The Duomo
The Rotonda di San Lorenzo
The Bibiena Theater
The church of San Sebastiano
The Palazzo Vescovile ("Bishops Palace")
The Palazzo degli Uberti
The Torre della Gabbia ("Cage Tower")
The Palazzo del Podestà
The Palazzo della Ragione with the Tower of the Clock
The Palazzo Vecchio that hosts the museum of Tazio Nuvolari
The Palazzo Bonacolsi

[edit] Trivia

An annual survey of Legambiente (an ecologist movement of Italy) in 2005 declared Mantua the most liveable city of the country. The study was based on levels of pollution, quality of life, traffic of cars, and public transportation, among other criteria. [1]
In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo spends his period of exile - his punishment for killing Tybalt - in Mantua. Also, in his play Taming of the Shrew, the schoolmaster who pretends to be Lucentio’s father, Vincentio, is from this city.
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto (Based on Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse) is set in Mantua. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Venice forced him to move the action from France to Mantua.
Since 1996 Mantua has hosted the Festivaletteratura, one of the most renowned literary events in Europe.

[edit] Twin cities

[edit] Transportation

Mantua lies across the Milan-Codogno-Cremona-Mantova. By car, it can be reached through the A4 (Milan-Venice) Highway to Verona, and from there Highway A22 (Brennero-Modena). Otherwise, through the State road 415 (Milan-Cremona) to Cremona, and from there State road 10 (Cremona-Mantova).

The closest airport is Verona-Villafranca.