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Art and Culture
The ancient Mediolanum, as it has been called by the Romans since the third century B.C. (a name of Celtic origin meaning "in the middle of the plains"), rose up around 400 B.C., the work of the Insubri Galles. The Romans, led by Gneo Scipio, conquered it in 222 B.C. From the fourth to the fifth century it was the capital of the Western Roman Empire, and thanks especially to Saint Ambrose, it became one of the most active centers of the new Christian world.
Around the year 1000 it was already the most heavily populated city of Italy and became the most active center of the Padana Plain because of its manufacturing of wool, silk, metals and armaments. The period between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries coincides with the consolidation of the free Commune, subsequently defeated by Frederick Barbarossa, who wanted to re-establish imperial dominion.
Centre of Fashion and Business with a gothic heart.
From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries the city came under the Signoria of the Visconti and then of the Sforza, to finally become capital of the Dukedom of Milan.
At the end of the fifteenth century Louis XII, king of France, took over the Dukedom. The French in 1535 gave way to the Spanish, who governed until the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1707 Austrian control began. With the exception of the Napoleonic interlude, the Austrians ruled until the celebrated "Five Days of Milan" (1848), a revolutionary independence movement that chased them out permanently. During the Second World War Milan was one of the cities most heavily hit by aerial bombardment.
Damages to historical monuments were especially serious; some were partially destroyed forever, but most were later restored. Since 1946 the recovery of industrial, economic and commercial activity has occurred rapidly, so that once more Milan has become the center of Italy's productive and economic life.
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