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Pavia, city, Lombardia (Lombardy) region, northern Italy, on the left bank of the Ticino River, above its junction with the Po, 20 mi (32 km) south of Milan, with which it is connected by the Naviglio di Pavia (Pavia Canal).
Pavia originated as Ticinum, a settlement of the Papiria tribe, which was conquered by Rome c. 220 bc and later became a key point in the Roman defense of upper Italy. Pillaged by the barbarians Attila in ad 452 and Odoacer in 476, it later became an important centre of Gothic resistance against the Byzantine Empire. From the 6th century, under the Lombards, it was a leading city of Italy, even after it fell to the Franks in 774. After a series of wars with Milan from the 11th to the 13th century, it was finally subdued by the viscounts of Milan and the Visconti of Brittany in the 14th century and became the political centre of Italy under Gian Galeazzo II Visconti, who founded the University of Pavia. The park of the Visconti Castle north of Pavia was the scene in 1525 of the defeat and capture of the French king Francis I by the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, aided by the Pavians and by Swiss militia; this battle demonstrated the superiority of firearms over cold steel and revolutionized military tactics. During the 18th century, Pavia was occupied by the Austrians, French, and Spaniards. It was one of the leading cities of Venetian Lombardy in the campaigns of the Risorgimento (movement for Italian political union) and was joined to the Kingdom of Italy in 1859.
The city still retains the ancient plan of the Roman castrum (fortified place), with main crossroads and a network of streets for centuriae (companies of soldiers). At its centre is the cathedral with its vast cupola; begun in 1488 by Cristoforo Rocchi and completed in 1898 according to his still extant model, the building has the form of a Latin cross. Among numerous other churches the most notable are S. Michele (1155, on the remains of a 7th-century foundation), the ancient Lombard cathedral where the medieval “kings of Italy” were crowned; S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro (consecrated 1132), mentioned by the writers Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, with a marble tomb (1362) containing the bones of St. Augustine of Hippo; S. Teodoro (12th century), decorated with 13th-century frescoes; and the Gothic churches of the Carmine (14th century) and S. Francesco (begun 1288). Secular buildings include the 12th- and 16th-century Broletto, or town hall; the Visconti Castle (1360–65) containing valuable artistic collections; and beautiful cloisters and palaces, one of which (Palazzo Malaspina) houses the Pinacoteca (art gallery). North of Pavia on the extreme boundary of the park of the Visconti is the Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery, the most celebrated religious monument in Lombardy; it was begun in 1396 by Bernardo da Venezia and continued by other notable artists in a transitional style between Gothic and Renaissance.
The University of Pavia, founded in 1361, is linked with the ancient law school, which dates back to 825. The colleges of Ghislieri and Borromeo, founded in the 16th century by Pope Pius V and St. Charles Borromeo, with the addition of the Cairoli, Castiglioni-Brugnatelli, Fraccaro, and Afro-Asiatic colleges, made Pavia the Oxford of Italy. It is particularly noted for the study of law, science, medicine, and surgery and has a central library of more than 400,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts.
A centre of communications, agriculture, and industry, the city manufactures sewing machines and has mechanical-engineering, ferrous-metalworking, chemical, and textile industries. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 71,067.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.