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Milan
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Milan (Milano in the Italian language, and Milán in
Milanese dialect, from Latin, Mediolanum with the meaning
of 'in the middle of the plain') is the main city in northern
Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most
developed Italian regions. It has about 1.3 million inhabitants,
but the urban area totals about 4.5 million and the Metropolitan
Area about 7.5 million. It is the capital of the region and
is the economic capital of Italy. It has for many centuries
been recorded as Mailand, which is still the German name of
the city today. Milan is the heart of the 3th most rich area
of Europe, after London and Paris.
A vegetable shop in central Milan with a sign in Milanese,
the local dialect, claiming to be 'the oldest vegetable-seller
of Milan' (l'ortolán püsee vêcc de Milan)Its
province lies in the western part of Lombardy; it covers an
area of 1,982 sq. km and has a population of 3,707,210 (2001
census); in 1991 the population was 3,738,685. The province
comprises 188 communes, ranging in population (2001) from
(obviously) Milan (1,256,211) to Nosate (638); the commune
of Milan has lost 113,084 inhabitants (8,3%), from 1991 to
2001.
The town is famous for fashion firms and shops (via Montenapoleone)
and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele on the Piazza del Duomo,
reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. Another famed
product of the city is the traditional sweet cake called panettone.
Commerce and Industry
Milan is the centre of many financial businesses, and its
hinterland is an avant-garde industrial area. the Fair of
Milano is one of the most important in the world. Today there's
a new Fair under construction in the north-western suburb
of Pero and Rho. the new Fair will be opened in the May 2005:
it will be the bigger in the world.
Famous companies in Milan:
Alemagna
Alfa Romeo
Luxottica
Motta
Pirelli
Telecom Italia
Mediaset
Allianz Italia
ENI
Ferrovie Nord Milano
Banca Intesa
Mediobanca
ItalCementi
S.A.Serravalle
Ente Fiera di Milano
Armani
Dolce & Gabbana
Versace
Prada
Autobianchi
Innocenti
Bugatti
Isotta Fraschini
Corriere della Sera/RCS
Feltrinelli Editore
Mondadori Editore
Culture and Sport
Milan is the most important town in the world for Opera lirica,
with its famous Teatro alla Scala (La Scala, theatre). The
Biblioteca Ambrosiana contains drawings and notebooks by Leonardo
da Vinci among its vast holdings of books, manuscripts and
drawings, one of the main repositories of European culture.
The city is also the home of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
The Bocconi University was founded in Milan in 1902. Today
there are many University in the Great Milano:
Università Statale I°
Università Statale II° - Bicocca
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Università Bocconi
Scuola Superiore di Direzione Aziendale - Bocconi
Università I.U.L.M.
Università C.Cattaneo L.I.U.C.
Università San Raffaele
L.U.C. Beato Angelico
Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera
Conservatorio Superiore di Milano
I.S.E.F. Milano
Istituto Europeo di Design
The main monuments and museums include the Gothic cathedral
(the famous Duomo di Milano), the Romanesque church of Sant'
Ambrogio (St. Ambrose, patron saint of the city), the church
of Santa Maria delle Grazie (where Leonardo's Last Supper
fresco is located), the Sforza Castle, the Brera Museum, the
Poldi-Pezzoli Museum and the Central Station.
SPORTS The city is home to two of the most famous football
teams in the world, A.C. Milan and Internazionale F.C., and
the famous Monza Formula One circuit is located in the suburbs.
The Olimpia Milano is one of the most European glorious teams
of Basketball; it won 3 European Cups, 1 World Cups, 3 Cup
Winners' Cups, 2 Korac Cups and 25 National Championship.
Also Rugby and Ice Hockey are popular in Milano. The Amatory
Rugby Club Milano won 18 National Championship. Different
Teams of Milano won 29 National Chapionship of Ice Hockey.
Transport
Milan has 4 subway lines (red, green, yellow and blue line)
called Milan Metro for more than 80 km. there is a Light Metro
called Metrò San Raffaele. from December 2004 will
open the new Suburban Railway Service in the Milano Metropolitan
Area, called "S" Lines. there will be 10 lines,
(the service will be similar to French R.E.R. and German S-Bahn)
that will run in the Great Milano (more than 7 Millions of
inhabitants). Extension of line 1, 2 and 3 are under construction
for totally more than 15 km with 10 new stations. the line
5 will be built from the first half of 2006. a 6th line is
under project. Milano have also one of the most exstensive
system of Tramway of all the World with more than 286,8 Km.
Milan has a large international airport known as Malpensa
International Airport, which is located in Varese, Italy.
It also has the Linate Airport in the actual city limits,
and the Orio al Serio International Airport in Bergamo, for
Europe traffic. The system of the 3 Milano's Airport is the
most trafficated and crowded of Italy with more than 29 Millions
of passengers.
History
It is presumed Milan was originally founded by the Celts of
Northern Italy around 600 BC and was conquered by the Romans
around 222 BC, who gave it the name of Mediolanum. In the
4th century A.D., at the time of the bishop Saint Ambrose
and emperor Theodosius I, the city became for a short time
the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
After the Ostrogothic and Lombard periods, the city re-gained
its importance in the 11th century and led other Italian cities
in gaining semi-independence from the Holy Roman Empire. During
the Plague of 1349 Milan was one of the few places in Europe
that was not touched by the epidemic. During the Renaissance
Milan was ruled by dukes of the Visconti and Sforza families,
who had artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante at their
service. After trying to conquer the rest of northern Italy
in the 15th century, Milan was conquered by France, and then
by Spain, in the early 16th century.
In the 18th century Austria replaced Spain as Milan's overlord,
but during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars,
which saw the city annexed into the French satellite states
of the Cisalpine Republic, which itself became the Kingdom
of Italy. After the end of the wars, the city became one of
the main centers of Italian nationalism, reclaiming independence
and the unification of Italy.
In 1859 (after the second of the Wars of Italian Independence)
Austrian rule was ended by the kingdom of Sardinia (which
transformed into the kingdom of Italy in 1861).
Being a critical industrial centre of Italy, Milan was target
of continuos carpet bombing during World War II. The city
was bombed even after Pietro Badoglio surrendered to the allied
forces in 1943. In fact Milan was part of Mussolini's puppet
state Italian Social Republic and an important command centre
of the German Army stationed in Italy. When war in Italy was
finally over, August 25, 1945, Milan was heavily damaged and
entire neighborhoods like Precotto and Turro were radically
destroyed. After the war the city was reconstructed and became
again an important financial and industrial centre of Italy.
See also: Rulers of Milan
Monuments
Principal Churches:
Duomo
Sant'Alessandro
Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
San Babila
San Bernardino alle Ossa
Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio
Basilica di San Lorenzo
San Marco
Santuario di Santa Maria dei Miracoli
Santa Maria del Carmine
Santa Maria delle Grazie
Basilica di San Nazaro Maggiore
Santa Maria presso San Satiro
San Sebastiano
San Simpliciano
Santo Stefano Maggiore
Principal Architectures:
Colonne di S. Lorenzo
Roman amphitheatre (scant remains)
Archi di Porta Nuova
Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle)
Ospedale Maggiore, Ca' Granda (now University)
Leonardo da Vinci's Horse Statue at Hippodrome
Palazzo della Ragione
Teatro alla Scala
Palazzo Serbelloni
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II°
Torre Velasca
Pirelli Tower
Principal Museums:
Pinacoteca di Brera
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
Museo di Arte Moderna
Triennale di Milano
Musei del Castello
Egyptian Museum
Padiglione di Arte Contemporanea
Museo di Storia Naturale
Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia
Galleria Vinciana
Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Museo Bagatti Valsecchi
Art
In the church Santa Maria delle Grazie one of the most famous
paintings of Leonardo da Vinci The Last_Supper (Leonardo)
can be found.
Twinning
Milan is twinned with :
Birmingham, England
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Lyon, France
This article is licensed
under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"moscow'.
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