Piacenza

Piacenza is a city of Emilia-Romagna, in Italy.

In the central Piazza Cavalli there are two equestrian statues and the medieval Gothic Palace.

A copper angel rotates on top of the bell tower of the Piacenza Cathedral.

The nearby Basilica of Sant'Antonino has an 8-sided tower and 17th-century frescoes, as well as a portal, called the Porta del Paradiso, with a rose window.

The Civic Museums of Palazzo Farnese house sculptures and weapons.

Piacenza is nicknamed the Primogenita because in 1848 it was the first Italian city to vote for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia with a plebiscite.

Located on the river Po at the north-western end of Emilia-Romagna, it is connected to Lombardy by four bridges over the Po: two car bridges (the one of the SS 9 Emilia and the highway on the A1) and two railways (the one on the historic Milan-Bologna and that of the high-speed line).

Populated since ancient times, the territory of Piacenza was originally inhabited by Ligurian lineages, and was conquered first by the Etruscans and then by the Celts.

Placentia, founded in 218 BC, was the first Roman colony in northern Italy, together with Cremona, as an important military outpost against Hannibal who moved from Spain to reach Italy and bring devastation there by conquering the territories of Ticino and Trebbia.

The city resisted Punic attacks and flourished as a commercial center on the Via Emilia. The Christianization of the city also occurred through the work of martyrs such as Sant'Antonino, a centurion from Piacenza killed under Diocletian. Having become the seat of a Lombard duchy, then conquered by the Franks, the city acquired greater importance around the year one thousand, being on the Via Francigena.

From 1126 it was a free municipality and fought with the Lombard League against Barbarossa in Legnano. In 1336 it was in the hands of the Visconti and remained in their domain until 1447 and then passed, in the first half of the sixteenth century, to France and later to the Papal State.

Capital of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza under the Farnese (1545), it passed to the Duchy of Milan and was returned to Ottavio Farnese in 1556.

From 1731 to 1859 it was subject to Bourbon rule, during the Napoleonic period it was aggregated to the Empire in the Department of Taro, subsequently it was attributed to Maria Luigia of Austria, who brought important modernizations to the city.

With a plebiscite of 10 May 1848, Piacenza asked for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the future Kingdom of Italy, earning the nickname of the first-born city of Italy.

Heavily affected in the World Wars, it then underwent agricultural and industrial development. Named a city of art, Piacenza today has a strong tourist vocation.

Map: Piacenza