Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia is a town of northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 140,000 inhabitants and is the main comune (municipality) of the Province of Reggio Emilia.

The town is also named, more officially, Reggio nell'Emilia. The inhabitants of Reggio nell'Emilia (called Reggiani) usually call their town by the simple name of Reggio. In some ancient maps the town is also named Reggio di Lombardia.

The old town has an hexagonal form, which derives from the ancient walls, and the main buildings are from XVI - XVIII centuries. The commune's territory is totally on a plain, crossed by the Crostolo stream.

The town is also known for the Reggio Emilia approach in children's education.

History

Ancient and early Middle Ages Reggio

Though not Roman in origin, Reggio began as an historical site with the construction by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus of the Via Aemilia, leading from Piacenza to Rimini (187 BCE). Reggio became a justice's administration centre, with a forum called at first Lepidi, then Lepidum Regium, end in the end simply Regium, whence the city's current name.

During Roman age Regium is cited only by Festus and Cicero, as one of the military stations on the Via Aemilia. It was a flourishing city anyway, a Municipium with statutes, magistrates and art collegia of its own.

Apollinaris of Ravenna brought Christianity in the 1st century CE. The sources confirm the presence of a bishopric in Reggio after the Edict of Milan (313). In 440 the Reggio's diocesis was submitted to Ravenna by Western Roman Empire Valentinianus III. At the end of the 4th century, however, Reggio had decayed so much that Saint Ambrose include it among the dilapidated cities. Damages were increased the Barbarian invasions. At the fall of the Western Empire (476), Reggio was part of the Odoacer's reign. In 489 it was in the Ostrogothic kingdom; later (539) it belonged to the Exarchate of Ravenna, but was conquered by Alboin's Lombards in 569. Reggio was chosen as Duchy of Reggio seat.

In 773 the Franks subjected Reggio, and Charlemagne gave the bishop royal authority over the city and established the diocesis' limits (781). In 888 Regio was handed over to the Kings of Italy. In 889 the Magyars heavily damaged it, killing bishop Azzo II. In this occasion new walls were built. On October 31, 900, emperor Louis III issued the permission to erect a castrum (castle) in the city's centre.

In 1002 the Reggio's territory, together with the ones of Parma, Brescia, Modena, Mantova and Ferrara, were merged into the mark of Tuscany, later held by Matilde of Canossa.

Reggio as a commune

Reggio became a free commune around the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. In 1167 it was a member of the Lombard League and took part to the Battle of Legnano. In 1183 the city signed the Treaty of Konstanz, from which the city's consul, Rolando della Carità, received the imperial investiture. The following peace spurred a period of prosperity: Reggio adopted new statutes, had a mint, schools with celebrated masters, and developed its trades and arts. It also increasingly submitted the castles of the nearby land.

The 12th and 13th century, however, were also a period of grevious inner struggles, with parties of Scopiazzati and Mazzaperlini, and later those of Ruggeri and Malaguzzi, facing sharply in the streets. In 1152 Reggio also warred with Parma and in 1225 with Modena, in the course of the general struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy. In 1260 25,000 penitents, led by a Perugine hermit, entered the city, and this event calmed the situation for a while, spurring a momentanous flourishing of religious fervour. But disputes soon regained paced, and as early as 1265 the Ghibellines killed Guelph's leader, Caco da Reggio, and gained preeminence. Disputes however continued against the bishop and two new parties formed, the Inferiori and Superiori. Final victory went to the latter.

To thwart the abuses of powerful families such as Sessi, Fogliani and Canossa, the Senate of Reggio gave the city's rule for three years to the Este member Obizzo d'Este. This chose marked the future passage of Reggio under the seignory of that family, as Obizzo continued to rule de facto after his mandate has ceased. His son Azzo was expelled by the Reggiani in 1306, creating a republic ruled by 800 common people. In 1310 the emperor Henry VII imposed marquis Spinetto Malaspina as vicar, but he was soon driven out. The republic disappeared in 1326 as cardinal Bertrando del Poggetto annexed Reggio to the Papal States.

The city was subsequently under the suzerainty of John of Bohemia, Nicolò Fogliani and Martino della Scala, who in 1336 gave it to Luigi Gonzaga. Gonzaga built a citadel in the St. Nazario quarter, and destroyed 144 houses. In 1356 the Milanese Visconti, helped by 2,000 exiled Reggiani, captured the city, starting a confused period fo shared power with the Gonzaga. In the end the latter sold Reggio to the Visconti for 5,000 ducats. In 1405 Ottobono Terzi of Parma seized Reggio, but was killed by Michele Attendolo, who handed over the city to Nicolò III d'Este, who therefore became seignor of Reggio. The city however maintained a relevant autonomy, with laws and a coin of its own. niccolò was succedeed by his illegittimate son Lionello, and, from 1450, by Borso d'Este.

The Duchy of Reggio

In 1452 Borso obtained from Ferdinand III the title of Duke of Reggio and Modena. Borso's successor, Ercole I, imposed heavy bills over the city and named the poet Matteo Maria Boiardo as its governor, with the task of exterminate the bandits ruling in the countryside. Later another famous Italian writer, Francesco Guicciardini, held the same charge.

In 1513 Reggio was handed over to Pope Julius II. The city was returned to the Este after the death of Hadrian VI (September 29, 1523). In 1551 Ercole II d'Este destroyed the suburbs of the city in his program of reconstruction of the walls. At the end of the century the famous city's Basilica della Ghiara was begun. The Este rule continued until 1796, with short interruptions in 1702 and 1733-1734.

The Napoleonic age and the Restoration

The arrive of the republican French troops was greeted with enthusiasm in the city. On August 21, 1796, the ducal garrison of 600 men was driven away, and the Senate claimed the rule of Reggio and its duchy. On September 26, the Provisional Government's voluntaries pushed back an Austrian column, in the battle of Montechiarugolo. Though small, this clash is considered the first one of the Italian Risorgimento. Napoleon himself awarded the Reggiani with 500 rifles and 4 guns. Later he occupied the Emilia and formed a new province, the Cispadane Republic, whose esistence was proclaimed in Reggio on January 7, 1797.

The Treaty of Vienna returned Reggio to Francesco IV d'Este (1815). In 1831 Modena revolted against him, and Reggio followed its example organizing a corps under the command of general Carlo Zucchi. However, on March 9, the duke conquered the city with his escort of Austrian soldiers.

In 1848 duke Francesco V left his state fearing a revolution. Reggio proclaimed its annexion to Piemonte. The latter's defeat at Novara brought the city back under the Estense sway. In 1859 Reggio, under dictator Luigi Carlo Farini, united again to ^*] and, with the plebiscite of March 10, 1860, definitively enter the new unified kingdom.

Contemporary years

Reggio experimented subsequently an economical and population growth, which led from 1873 to the destruction of the ancient walls. In 1911 it had 70,000 inhabitants. A strong socialist tradition grew, whose deep roots were shown by the heavy repression under the Fascist period. On July 26, 1943, the régime's fall was cheered with entusiasm by the Reggiani. In the city's countryside numerous partisan bands were formed.

The first city's elections after World War II were won by the Italian Communist Party. Local administration subsequently were included amont the wisest of the whole Italy, and Reggio could face without too much problems the quick economical and industrial rise, as well as the reception of great numbers of immigrants coming from Southern Italy.

Main sights

Religious buildings

The Cathedral (9th-12th century). It was reconstructed in the second half of the 16th century. It has three naves with works by Guercino, Palma the Younger and Alessandro Tiarini.
The Basilica di San Prospero. Built in the 10th century, it was reconstructed by Luca Corti and Matteo Fiorentini between 1514 and 1523. The façade, with eleven statues of saints and patrones, was redesigned by Giovan Battista Catani in mid-18th century. It includes a pleasant belfry/tower, begun in 1535, with an octagonal plant. The interior of the church has a Latin cross plant, with three naves. The apse houses the splendid cycle of Last Judgement, frescoed by the Bolognese artist Camillo Procaccini. Also noteworthy are the wood choir from 1546 and the Assumption altarpiece by Tommaso Laureti and Ludovico Carracci (1602).
The Baroque Basilica della Ghiara (1597), the most important church of the city.
The Christ's Oratory
The church of St. Augustine
The church of St. Peter, designed by Giulio della Torre and built in 1625-1629. A belfry tower was added in 1765 and a façade added in 1782, while the cloister was constructed in the 16th century. The interior is in Latin cross shape with a single nave. It house notable Baroque paintings by Tiarini, Pietro Desani, Camillo Gavasetti and Paolo Emilio Besenzi.
The church of St. Francis
The church of St. Stephen, cited in the 11th century as a Templars' church
The church of St. Giovannino (c. 1200). It houses Baroque paintings by Sisto Badalocchio, Lorenzo Franchi, Tommaso Sandrini, Paolo Guidotti and Alessandro Tiarini.
The Synagogue (1672, rebuilt in 1848)

Palaces and other buildings

Palazzo Ducale (18th century)
Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo (1280, restored in 1432, has typical Ghibelline merlons. The façades show crests of ancient Reggio's Captains and Communities. In the interior is the Sala dei Difensori, "Defenders' Room"), a wide hall once used for the council of the Reggiani people.
Palazzo Comunale (began in 1414), with the Tricolore's Room and the Museum of the Italian Flag. The Torre del Bordello ("Brothel's Tower"), built in 1489, houses a museum of the Reggiani's deeds of 1796-1831.
Palazzo Magnani
The Neo-Classical Teatro Municipale

Sister cities

External links

Towns in Emilia-Romagna

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