Italy, Brescia

About Brescia

Brescia (Lombard: Breha) is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 190,000.

It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital Milan.

The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with about 1,200,000 inhabitants.

The ancient city of Brixia, Brescia has been an important regional centre since pre-Roman times and a number of Roman and medieval monuments are preserved, among which is the prominent castle.

The city is at the centre of the third-largest Italian industrial area, concentrating on mechanical and automotive engineering and machine tools.

History

After the end of the Napoleonic era, Brescia was annexed to the Austrian puppet state called Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.

It distinguished for the revolt called the Ten Days of Brescia (march 1849), for which the poet Giosuè Carducci called it "Leonessa d'Italia" ("Italian Lionesse").

Brescia was annexed to Italy in 1859.

The city was awarded a Gold Medal for its resistance against Fascism, in the late World War II.

On May 28, 1974, it was the seat of the bloody Piazza della Loggia bombing.