Piacenza

Piacenza, a city of Northern Italy, on the right bank of the Po, a little below its confluence with the Trebbia, by rail 43 miles SE. of Milan and 35 NW. of Parma. Situated at the end of the Via Emilia and at the last convenient crossing-place eastwards on the Po, it has always been an important city, both strategically and commercially, since its foundation (as Piacentia) by the Romans in 219 B.C. It is defended with bastioned walls and an outer ring of forts. Its streets are broad and regular, but many of them unfrequented and grass-grown. The cathedral, in the Lombard-Romanesque style (1122-1233), has an immense crypt, a campanile 223 feet high, and paintings by L. Carracci, Guerzino, and others. The church of Sant' Antonino, the original cathedral, was founded in 324, but has been several times rebuilt. The church of Santa Maria della Campagna is adorned with fine frescoes by Pordenone; and it was for San Sisto that Raphael painted the celebrated Sistine Madonna, sold in 1754 by the monks to Frederick Augustus of Saxony. Among the other buildings are the Palazzo Farnese (1558), once a sumptuous edifice, but since 1800 in use as barracks; the communal palace (1281), its lower story built of marble and the upper of brick; the palace of justice, and others. A couple of miles to the east of the city is the theological seminary founded by Cardinal Alberoni. The municipal library contains 120,000 volumes. The principal square is adorned with colossal bronze equestrian statues of Alessandro and Ranuccio Farnese. Manufactures of silks, cottons, pottery, hats, &c. are carried on. The more notable facts in the history of Piacenza have been its capture by the Gauls in 200 and by Totila in 546, the meeting here of two church councils in 1095 and 1132, its active zeal as a member of the Lombard League in the 12th century, the sacking of it by Francesco Sforza in 1447, and its union with Parma (q.v.). Pop. (1897) 35,500.—The province has an area of 950 square miles and a pop. of 230,000.