Monza

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Monza
coat of arms
Monza (Italy)
Monza
Country Italy
region Lombardy
province Monza and Brianza  (MB)
Local name Mùnscia
Coordinates 45 ° 35 '  N , 9 ° 16'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 35 '5 "  N , 9 ° 16' 25"  E
height 162  m slm
surface 33.03 km²
Residents 124.051 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 3,756 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 20900
prefix 039
ISTAT number 108033
Popular name Monzesi
Patron saint San Giovanni Battista and San Gerardo dei Tintori
Website www.comune.monza.it

Monza [ ˈmontsa ], in the local Lombard dialect Monscia [ˈmũːʃa] , Latin Modoetia , German obsolete: Montsch , is an Italian community with 124,051 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) northeast of Milan in Lombardy and the capital of the province of Monza and Brianza . After Milan and Brescia , Monza is the third largest city in the Lombardy region.

geography

location

The city lies in the Lombardy alluvial plain on the southern edge of the hilly moraine landscape of the Brianza at an altitude of 162 m. The center of Milan is about 20 kilometers to the south-west. The Lambro River flows through Monza from north to south . On the northern edge of the city center, the river was artificially divided in the 14th century for defense purposes, the branch Lambretto reunites with the Lambro on the southern edge of the city. Another artificial waterway is the Canale Villoresi, dug in the 19th century, which crosses the city from west to east.

climate

The maxima rarely exceed 30 ° C, the minima are at −2 ° C. Compared to the Po Valley , Monza has a slightly cooler climate and a lower humidity of around 70%. In 2000 the average annual temperature was 11.6 ° C. (In spring: 14 ° C - in summer: 18.9 ° C - in autumn: 9.7 ° C - in winter: 4 ° C)

history

The settlement of Moguntiacum is attested in Roman times , other authors mention the vicus Modicia . Traces of settlement go back much further. Monza was on Via Spluga or Via Aurea , a consular road that led via Como and the Splügen Pass into the Rhine Valley . The city flourished in the 7th century when it became the summer residence of the Longobard Empire (with the capital Pavia ). Monza received city rights in 700.

The city came under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire , with a large margin of relative autonomy, and in the 11th century came under the spell of the Duchy of Milan. In the 13th century Monza was a relatively independent city-state, in the 14th the city fell to the Visconti . They shared their fate when it fell under Spanish rule and was then incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In 1859 Monza became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia , which in 1861 became the Kingdom of Italy . The first railway line built in northern Italy ran from Milan to Monza . It was opened on August 17, 1840, and the line was electrified in 1899.

King Umberto I and Queen Margarethe in a horse-drawn carriage in Monza around 1900

On the evening of July 29, 1900, King Umberto of Italy was murdered in Monza by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci .

The Visconti Tower

Almost all historical buildings from the early days and the Middle Ages have disappeared. One of the few remains is the Visconti Tower (Torre Viscontea), built in the early 14th century together with the city walls and the castle of Galeazzo Visconti . The fort was razed in 1807 , the course of the city walls can only be read from the plan of the old town. The tower on the Lambro bank is well preserved, the openings for the drawbridge, a biforium and a Spanish coat of arms can still be seen .

coat of arms

The city's coat of arms consists of a blue Samnite shield with the iron crown and the cross of Berengar above it. The writing in an oval reads: Est Sedes Italiæ Regni Modœtia Magni (Monza is the seat of the great Italian empire). The decoration below consists of olive and oak branches, connected with a blue ribbon. The city crown is located above the coat of arms.

administration

Until 2004 Monza belonged to the province of Milan; since June 11th 2004 Monza is the capital of the new province Monza and Brianza . Until this decision came into full effect in 2009, however, Monza was mostly still treated as part of the province of Milan .

Monza is divided into five administrative districts ("Circoscrizioni"):

  • Circoscrizione 1: Center, San Gerardo and Cristo Re-Libertà
  • Circoscrizione 2: Cederna, Sobborghi-Sant'Ambrogio, Sant'Albino and San Donato-Regina Pacis
  • Circoscrizione 3: San Rocco and Sant'Alessandro
  • Circoscrizione 4: San Giuseppe, San Carlo, Triante and San Fruttuoso
  • Circoscrizione 5: San Biagio and Cazzaniga

economy

The metropolitan area north of Milan, especially between Monza and Lissone , has always been the traditional center of furniture construction. Many small craftsmen have settled here for generations. There is also a dense network of small and medium-sized businesses, many of which produce as highly specialized suppliers for furniture construction, mechanical engineering, the Turin auto industry ( Fiat ) and the textile industry.

traffic

The inner-city public transport is handled exclusively by buses (a total of seven lines). The network of cycle paths is rudimentary and the volume of motorized traffic is extremely high.

The "Superstrada" SS36 runs along the western edge of Monza from Milan to Lecco ; the A51 motorway (“Serenissima” from Turin to Venice) touches the southern edge of Monza, and a tangent was built in the southwest of Monza to relieve it.

The railway line Milan-Monza-Chiasso (the Gotthard line to Zurich) branches in Monza: One branch leads via Lecco to Valtellina and ends in Sondrio , another line leads via Carnate to Bergamo . Until the death of Umberto I, a train station for the royal family was operated directly opposite the Villa Reale (see sights).

Until the 1960s, the place was also the center of a network of tram lines to the surrounding areas. They were all abandoned between 1917 and 1966.

Culture

education

Monza has seven libraries that belong to the “BrianzaBibliotece” network. The University of Milan-Bicocca in Milan runs the Faculties of Medicine and Sociology in Monza.

Significant structures

Monza Cathedral
The Corona ferrea (Iron Crown) of the Lombards
Villa Reale in Monza

The oldest surviving building is the so-called Arengario , a representative building from the 13th century used for public events (court hearings, council meetings, markets, promulgations of city decrees, etc.).

The Monza Cathedral dates from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century. The cathedral treasure is kept in the cathedral museum . The iron crown of the Longobard Empire , today in the altar tabernacle of the Chapel of Theudelinde ( Cappella di Teodolinda ), is considered a historical treasure . The Lombard kings were crowned in Monza with the crown, which can also be seen in the city's coat of arms . Napoleon I , who had a sense of symbolic actions, adorned himself with it in 1805 - as he had already done a year earlier in Notre Dame de Paris with the French crown. With the Gospel Book of Queen Theudelinde from 603 AD, another major work of Lombard handicraft is in the cathedral treasury.

The Royal Villa of Monza ( Villa Reale ) is a palace built in the classicist style by the imperial builder Giuseppe Piermarini between 1777 and 1780 on behalf of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa . It was initially used by her son, the Governor General of Lombardy, Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este, in addition to the residence in Milan as a country residence (1780–1796). Later it was the main residence of the Napoleonic viceroy of Italy and, together with the park, a popular refuge for the Italian kings from 1861. The architect and designer Gualtiero Galmanini was the author of the city maps of Monza in the 20th century.

Museums

  • Cathedral Museum
  • Musei Civici: The collections are currently (as of 2018) brought together in the new “Casa degli Umiliati” museum and include the works of the Municipal Art Gallery and the Arengario Museum.
  • Ethnological Museum Monza e Brianza (MEMB)
  • Mulino Colombo (a former mill on Lambro)

Parks and leisure

The Park of Monza is one of Europe's surrounded by a wall park, or at least the largest in Italy. It has a size of 685 hectares and stretches far north from the Villa Reale. With its size it dwarfs all Roman parks and even the famous Central Park in New York , it is more than two and a half times the size. A road crosses the park from west to east. It will be closed to traffic on Sunday when day trippers from all over the Milan metropolitan area flood the park.

History of the park

The park was laid out as an extension of the “Giardini Reali” (royal gardens) on behalf of Eugène de Beauharnais , Napoleon's stepson and Viceroy of Italy. The landscape architect was Luigi Canonica; the work lasted from 1806 to 1808 . After Napoleon's fall, the park became the property of the Austrian state, and with the unification of Italy it became the property of Italy. King Umberto I often resided here, but after his assassination avoided the Savoy villa and park. This was left to the "Opera Nazionale Combattenti", the relief organization for veterans of the First World War. In 1920, the ONC transferred the park to a consortium consisting of the city of Monza, the city of Milan and the Società Umanitaria. In the following years some concessions for sports facilities were granted, in 1922 the autodrome was built, in the same year a hippodrome, which no longer exists, and a golf course in 1928.

Inside the park there are a number of smaller villas (including the classicist Villa Mirabello), the Lambro flows in meanders through the park, crossed by four bridges.

Sports

Floor plan of the Autodrom, which was changed again and again, here from 2018

In the park of Monza is the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza race track , which has hosted the Italian Grand Prix since 1922 , which has been part of the Formula 1 World Championship since 1950 . The noise footprint in the densely populated area extends over an area with a radius of around 10 km. The DKW Monza and the Opel Monza were named after this racetrack. On the weekends, even amateurs can do laps and find out how fast they are; on many other days there are no less vocal tire and engine tests. In 2017 the Autodromo was renamed the Monza ENI Circuit.

The city's largest football club, AC Monza Brianza , currently plays in the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione .

The other main sports played in clubs are:

  • Volleyball (2 clubs in series A1).
  • Hockey (one team in Serie A1)
  • Equestrian sport (in the park of Monza)
  • Golf (a 36-hole golf course in Monza Park)
  • basketball
  • Polo (a polo field in the park)
  • rugby
  • fencing

and other

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Commons : Monza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ^ Johann Georg Graevius : Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae: Ligurum et Insubrum, see Genuensium et Mediolanensium , Utrecht 1694–1699.