Milan Monument Tracker – Italy
Discover the Milan heritage through 55 monuments offline on your mobile. Download on App Store or Google Play.
Mediolanum « place in the middle » was founded by the Celts in the sixth century BC, conquered by the Romans in the third century, it became a strategic point of great interest, imperial residence and second city of the West after Rome.
Christianity, made ??the city one of the most important centers of this religion, but the fall of the Roman Empire also marks the decline of Milan, which ended with the Longobard invasion.
The fourteenth century sets the current image of the city, in fact, were created a system of canals for defensive purposes, but also commercial « I Navigli » that favor the start of a new period of prosperity, development of commercial and agricultural businesses.
In the sixteenth century, France and Austria are competing for Milan, which crosses one of the darkest chapter in its history marked by incessant wars and instability, the situation is worse in the early seventeenth century for a severe epidemic plague that decimated the population and prevents economic development.
With Napoleon the city ends up under French rule, and is experiencing population growth and improved living conditions. It becomes the capital of the Cisalpine Republic and reiterated its cultural and economic importance, but in the nineteenth century, the Austrian domination returns, frowned upon and not tolerated by la bourgeoisie and by people who rebelled in 1848 in a bloody conflict, « the Five Days of Milan ».
Milan aspired destination for lovers of fashion, the center of the publishing industry and Italian international city reveals its ancient past.