History of Lodi

The marble busts placed on either side of the municipal building, depicting the two founding fathers of the city: on the left Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, on the right Frederick Barbarossa

The history of Lodi, a city and commune in Lombardy, Italy, draws its origins from the events related to the ancient village of Laus Pompeia, so named from 89 BC in honor of the Roman consul Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.[1]

The settlement was founded by the Boii in a territory inhabited since the Neolithic period by the first nomadic farmers and breeders;[2] in later eras, the town became a Roman municipium (49 B.C.), a diocese (4th century) and finally - after coming under the control of the Lombards and the Franks - a free commune (11th century).[3] In the Middle Ages, by virtue of its privileged geographical position and the resourcefulness of its inhabitants, the township undermined the commercial and political supremacy of nearby Milan; the tension between the two municipalities resulted in a bitter armed conflict, in the course of which Ambrosian militias destroyed Laus twice.[4]

The city was refounded at the initiative of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa on August 3, 1158, a day remembered as the birth date of the new Lodi.[5] Due to the lordships and protection of the emperors, the municipality remained independent until 1335, when it fell under the rule of the Visconti, becoming one of the major centers of the Duchy of Milan.[6] In the mid-15th century it hosted the important negotiations between the pre-unitary Italian states that led to the Peace of Lodi (April 9, 1454); in the following decades - by virtue of the contributions of numerous artists and intellectuals - it experienced a season of great cultural splendor.[7]

Between the end of the sixteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century, the people of Lodi endured foreign occupations: the Spanish period was a phase of decadence, during which the town was transformed into a fortress; under Austrian rule, on the other hand, the city experienced an era of decisive economic expansion and urban renewal; the Battle of Lodi (May 10, 1796) opened the parenthesis of the Napoleonic twenty-year period.[8]

The decades following Italian unification saw the birth of the first factories as well as a resurgence of cultural life and civic activism.[9] Lodians also played an important role during the Resistance.[10] Since March 6, 1992, the city has been the capital of an Italian province.[11]

  1. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 15–19).
  2. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 15–16).
  3. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 17–26).
  4. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 17–30).
  5. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 30–31).
  6. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 37–47).
  7. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 55–59).
  8. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 59–86).
  9. ^ Bassi (1977, pp. 100–106).
  10. ^ Ongaro & Riccadonna (2006, p. 3).
  11. ^ Decreto legislativo 6 marzo 1992, n. 251, articolo 2.