Bergamo


Bergamo is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and approximately from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como and Iseo, and 70 km from Garda and Maggiore. The Bergamo Alps begin immediately north of the city.
With a population of approximately 122,000, Bergamo is the fourth-largest city in Lombardy. Bergamo is the seat of the Province of Bergamo. The metropolitan area of Bergamo extends beyond the administrative city limits, spanning over a densely urbanized area with slightly fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. The Bergamo metropolitan area is part of the broader Milan metropolitan area, home to more than eight million people.
The city of Bergamo is composed of an old walled core, known as Città Alta, nestled within a system of hills constituting a regional park, and the modern expansion in the plains below. The upper town is encircled by massive Venetian that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 9 July 2017.
Bergamo is well connected to several cities in Italy, thanks to the motorway A4 stretching on the axis between Turin, Milan, Verona, Venice, and Trieste. The city is served by Il Caravaggio International Airport, the third-busiest airport in Italy with 13.9 million passengers in 2019. Bergamo is the second most visited city in Lombardy after Milan.

History

Antiquity

Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement by the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, containing c. 10,000 inhabitants at its peak. An important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century.

Middle Ages

From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento, and Cividale del Friuli: its first Lombard duke was Wallaris.
After the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus. An important Lombardic hoard dating from the 6th to 7th centuries was found in the vicinity of the city in the 19th century and is now in the British Museum.
From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent commune, taking part in the Lombard League which defeated Frederick I Barbarossa in 1165. The local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively.
Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north, but he returned to Bergamo in the later 13th century to organize the city's couriers: this would eventually lead to the Imperial Thurn und Taxis dynasty generally credited with organizing the first modern postal service.

Early modern

After a short period under the House of Malatesta starting from 1407, Bergamo was ceded in 1428 by the Duchy of Milan to the Republic of Venice in the context of the Wars in Lombardy and the aftermath of the 1427 Battle of Maclodio.
Despite the brief interlude granted by the Treaty of Lodi in 1454, the uneasy balance of power among the Northern Italian states precipitated the Italian Wars, a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, also the Papal States, France, and the Holy Roman Empire.
The wars, which were both a result and cause of Venetian involvement in the power politics of mainland Italy, prompted Venice to assert its direct rule over its mainland domains.
As much of the fighting during the Italian Wars took place during sieges, increasing levels of fortification were adopted, using such new developments as detached bastions that could withstand sustained artillery fire.
The Treaty of Campo Formio formally recognized the inclusion of Bergamo and other parts of Northern Italy into the Cisalpine Republic, a "sister republic" of the French First Republic that was superseded in 1802 by the short-lived Napoleonic Italian Republic and in 1805 by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

Late modern and contemporary

The 1815 Congress of Vienna assigned Bergamo to the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire. The visit of Emperor Ferdinand I in 1838 coincided with the opening of the new boulevard stretching into the plains, leading to the railway station that was inaugurated in 1857.
The Bergamasques welcomed Austrian rule at first, but later challenged it in Italian independentist insurrections in 1848.
Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Bergamo in 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence. As a result, the city became part of the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Italy founded in 1861.
Due to its contribution to the Italian unification movement, Bergamo has become known as Città dei Mille, because a significant part of the rank-and-file supporting Giuseppe Garibaldi in his 1860 Expedition of the Thousand against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies came from Bergamo and its environs.
During the twentieth century, Bergamo became one of Italy's most industrialized areas.
In 1907 Marcello Piacentini devised a new urban master plan that was implemented between 1912 and 1927, in a style reminiscent of Novecento Italiano and Modernist Rationalism.
The 2017 43rd G7 summit on agriculture took place in Bergamo, in the context of the broader international meeting organized in Taormina. The "Charter of Bergamo", an international commitment signed during the summit, aims to reduce hunger worldwide by 2030, strengthen cooperation for agricultural development in Africa, and ensure price transparency.
In early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Bergamo's healthcare system was overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There were reports of doctors confronted with ethical dilemmas with too few ICU beds and mechanical ventilation systems. Morgues were overwhelmed, and images of military trucks carrying the bodies of COVID-19 victims out of the city were shared worldwide. Doctors pleaded with the rest of Italy, Europe and the world to take the spreading virus pandemic seriously.

Geography

Climate

Bergamo has a humid subtropical climate.

Cityscape

The town has two centres: Città alta, a hilltop medieval town, surrounded by 16th-century defensive walls, and the Città bassa. The two parts of the town are connected by funicular, roads, and footpaths.

Upper city

The upper city, surrounded by Venetian walls built in the 16th century, forms the historic centre of Bergamo. Notable buildings within the upper city include:
The lower city is the modern centre of Bergamo. At the end of the 19th century Città Bassa was composed of residential neighborhoods built along the main roads that linked Bergamo to the other cities of Lombardy. The main boroughs were Borgo Palazzo along the road to Brescia, Borgo San Leonardo along the road to Milan and Borgo Santa Caterina along the road to Serio Valley. The city rapidly expanded during the 20th century. In the first decades, the municipality erected major buildings like the new courthouse and various administrative offices in the lower part of Bergamo in order to create a new center of the city. After World War II many residential buildings were constructed in the lower part of the city which are now divided into twenty-five neighborhoods:
Boccaleone, Borgo Palazzo, Borgo Santa Caterina, Campagnola, Carnovali, Celadina, Centro-Papa Giovanni XXIII, Centro-Pignolo, Centro-Sant'Alessandro, Città Alta, Colli, Colognola, Conca Fiorita, Grumello del Piano,,, Malpensata, Monterosso, Redona, San Paolo, San Tomaso de' Calvi, Santa Lucia, Valtesse-San Colombano, Valverde con Valtesse-Sant'Antonio, Villaggio degli Sposi
The most relevant sites are:

Demographics

In 2010, there were 119,551 people residing in Bergamo, located in the province of Bergamo, Lombardia, of whom 46.6% were male and 53.4% were female. Minors totalled 16.79 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 23.61 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 17.88 percent and 20.29 percent.
The average age of Bergamo residents is 45 compared to the Italian average of 43. In the eight years between 2002 and 2010, the population of Bergamo grew by 5.41 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 5.77 percent.
The city has sizable immigrant populations in its' bustling industrial economy. They include those from Albania, Romania, Bolivia, China, the Arab World and Sub-Saharan Africa. About 10% of Bergamo residents are born outside Europe.

Economy

Bergamo is situated in Lombardy, Italy's northern region where about a quarter of the country's GDP is produced.
Nowadays, the city has an advanced tertiary economy focussed on banking, retail, and services associated to the industrial sector of its province. Corporations and firms linked to the area include UBI banking group, Brembo, Tenaris, ABB, S. Pellegrino, Italcementi and Riva-Ferretti.
Bergamo produces the Denominazione di origine controllata wines Moscato di Scanzo and Valcalepio.

Culture

Notable natives

Bergamo was the hometown and last resting place of Enrico Rastelli, a highly technical and world-famous juggler who lived in the town and, in 1931, died there at the early age of 34. There is a life-sized statue of Rastelli within his mausoleum. A number of painters were active in the town as well; among these were Giovanni Paolo Cavagna, Francesco Zucco, and Enea Salmeggia, each of whom painted works for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Sculptor Giacomo Manzù and the bass-baritone opera singer Alex Esposito were born in Bergamo.
The American electrical engineer and professor Andrew Viterbi, inventor of Viterbi's algorithm, was born in Bergamo, before migrating to the US during the Fascist era because of his Jewish origins. Designers born in Bergamo include the late Mariuccia Mandelli, the founder of Krizia and one of the first female fashion designers to create a successful line of men's wear.

Sports

Transportation

Airport

Bergamo is served by Il Caravaggio International Airport south-east of the town. The city is also served by Milan Linate Airport south-west of Bergamo.

Motorway

Motorway A4 is the main axis connecting the city with the east and the west of the country, to cities such as Milan, Turin, Verona, Venice and Trieste.

Railway

is connected to Milan, Lecco, Cremona, Treviglio, Brescia and Monza with regional trains operated by Trenord.
The city is also served by two daily Frecciargento services to Rome operated by Trenitalia.

Urban transport

Transport within Bergamo is managed by ATB and includes a network of bus lines together with two funicular systems opened in 1887 and in 1912. The Bergamo–Albino light rail was inaugurated in 2009.
Two light rail lines are currently in the planning stage:

Twin towns − sister cities

Bergamo is twinned with:
Bergamo has a partnership with:
Bergamo is home to the following consulates: