Lambrate originated as a
Roman vicus. The Romans conquered the area in 222 BC, after a long siege of Milan (then
Mediolanum), where Romans fought against the local
Insubres and
Boii as well as their ally
Hannibal.
Pliny the Elder mentions
mansio ad Lambrus (Lambrate) in his
Naturalis historia as a supply station; it is also likely that Lambrate served as a river port for Mediolanum. The Romans largely developed the area, both for agriculture and for navigation on the
Po River basin. Finds of the old Roman settlement of Lambrate, including a marble
sarcophagus, have been revealed in 1905 and are now exposed at the
Sforza Castle museum. The small chapel in the centre of Lambrate was supposedly one of the first places of Christian worship in the area. In the 8th and 9th century, two monasteries of the
Order of Saint Benedict were built in Lambrate. In 1162, when Milan was demolished by
Frederick I Barbarossa, Lambrate was proclaimed an "imperial borgo"; many Milanese refugees found a new home here. During Spanish rule (in the 16th century), a war factory called "Polveriera" was built in Lambrate, which played a major role in the development of the area. The Spanish transformed Lambrate into a
fief, a condition that lasted until Lombardy fell under the
Napoleonic Empire, when Lambrate became a free
comune. A few decades later, Lambrate was annexed to Milan by the French viceroy. In 1816, during the Austrian rule, Lambrate was again an autonomous comune, to be annexed to Milan once again in 1923. In the first half of the 20th century, the
Martinitt corporation was based in Lambrate. After World War II, the
Innocenti machine factory began producing in Lambrate the famous motorcycle
Lambretta, that owes its name to Lambrate. ==The Chapel==