Celtic era artifacts from the period before the Roman conquest (3rd–2nd centuries BC), preserved in the
Civic Archaeological Museum of Milan Around 590 BC Medhelanon, in particular, was developed around a
sanctuary, which was the oldest area of the village. The sanctuary, which consisted of a wooded area in the shape of an ellipse with a central clearing, was aligned according to precise astronomical points. For this reason, it was used for religious gatherings, especially in particular celebratory moments. The sanctuary of Medhelanon was an ellipse with axes of and located near
Piazza della Scala. The Romans eventually
conquered the entirety of the region, calling the new
province "
Cisalpine Gaul" ()—"Gaul this side of the Alps"—and may have given the city its Latinized name of Mediolanum: in
Gaulish *medio- meant "middle, centre" and the name element
-lanon is the Celtic equivalent of Latin
-planum "plain", thus
*Mediolanon (Latinized as
Mediolānum) meant "(settlement) in the midst of the plain". and
Licinius issued the
Edict of Milan. located inside the
Civic Archaeological Museum of Milan The ancient Celtic settlement was, from a
topographic point of view, superimposed and replaced by the Roman one. The Roman city was then gradually superimposed and replaced by the medieval one. The urban center of Milan has therefore grown constantly and rapidly, until modern times, around the first Celtic nucleus. The original Celtic toponym Medhelanon then changed, as evidenced by a graffiti in Celtic language present on a section of the Roman walls of Milan which dates back to a period following the Roman conquest of the Celtic village, in Mesiolano. In 286, the Roman Emperor
Diocletian moved the capital of the
Western Roman Empire from Rome to Mediolanum. Diocletian himself chose to reside at
Nicomedia in the Eastern Empire, leaving his colleague
Maximian at Milan. During the Augustan age Mediolanum was famous for its schools; it possessed a theatre and an
amphitheatre (129.5 x 109.3 m), the third largest in
Roman Italy after the
Colosseum in Rome and the vast amphitheatre in
Capua. A large stone wall encircled the city in Caesar's time, and later was expanded in the late third century AD, by Maximian. Maximian built several gigantic monuments including the large
circus (470 × 85 metres) and the
thermae or
Baths of Hercules, a large complex of imperial palaces and other services and buildings of which few visible traces remain. Maximian increased the city area to 375 acres by surrounding it with a new, larger stone wall (about 4.5 km long) with many 24-sided towers. The monumental area had twin towers; the one included later in the construction of the convent of
San Maurizio Maggiore remains 16.6 m high. It was from Mediolanum that the
Emperor Constantine issued what is now known as the
Edict of Milan in AD 313, granting tolerance to all religions within the Empire, thus paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion of the Empire. Constantine was in Mediolanum to celebrate the wedding of his sister to the Eastern Emperor,
Licinius. In 402, the
Visigoths besieged the city and the
Emperor Honorius moved the Imperial residence to
Ravenna. In 452,
Attila besieged the city, but the real break with the city's Imperial past came in 539, during the
Gothic War, when
Uraias (a nephew of
Witiges, formerly King of the
Italian Ostrogoths) carried out a
siege of Milan, and after capitulation, according to
Procopius, 300,000 male citizens were executed and the women sold to the allies of the Goths for assisting in the siege. The
Lombards took
Ticinum as their capital in 572 (renaming it
Papia – the modern
Pavia), and left
early-medieval Milan to the governance of its
archbishops.
Middle Ages is one of the city's three medieval gates that still exist in modern Milan. was the heart of the city in the Middle Ages. After the siege of the city by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence moved to Ravenna. Attila, King of the
Huns,
sacked and devastated the city in 452 AD. In 539 the
Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against
Byzantine Emperor
Justinian I. In the summer of 569 the Lombards (from whom the name of the Italian region
Lombardy derives), conquered Milan, overpowering the small
Byzantine garrison left for its defence. Some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to
Charlemagne and the
Franks in 774. The 11th century saw a reaction against the control of the
Holy Roman Emperors. City-states emerged in northern Italy, an expression of the new political power of the cities and their will to fight against all feudal powers. Milan was no exception. It did not take long, however, for the Italian city-states to begin fighting each other to try to limit neighbouring powers. The Milanese destroyed Lodi and continuously warred with Pavia, Cremona and Como, who in turn asked
Frederick I Barbarossa for help. In a sally they captured
Empress Beatrice and forced her to
ride a donkey backward through the city until getting out. Frederick I Barbarossa brought the destruction of much of Milan in 1162. A period of peace followed and Milan prospered as a centre of trade due to its geographical position. During this time, the city was considered one of the largest European cities. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the
Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan returned to the commune form of local government first established in the 11th century. (1395–1447 and 1450–1796) at the time of
Gian Galeazzo Visconti's death in 1402. The
Golden Ambrosian Republic (1447–1450) briefly existed between the end of the
Visconti period in 1447 and the start of the
Sforza period in 1450. In 1395,
Gian Galeazzo Visconti became the first
Duke of Milan upon receiving the title from
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans. In 1447,
Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, died without a male heir. Following the end of the Visconti line, the
Ambrosian Republic was established; it took its name from St. Ambrose, the popular patron saint of the city. Both the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions worked together to bring about the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. In 1450, the Republic collapsed when Milan was conquered by
Francesco I of the
House of Sforza, which made Milan one of the leading cities of the Italian
Renaissance. Under the House of Sforza, Milan experienced a period of great prosperity, which in particular saw the development of mulberry cultivation and silk processing. Following this economic growth, works such as the
Sforza Castle (already existing in the Visconti era under the name of Porta Giovia Castle, but re-adapted, enlarged and completed by the Sforza family) and the
Ospedale Maggiore were completed. The Sforzas also managed to attract to Milan personalities such as
Leonardo da Vinci, who redesigned and improved the function of the
navigli and painted
The Last Supper, and
Bramante, who worked on the
church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, on the
basilica of Sant'Ambrogio and to the
church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, influencing the development of the
Lombard Renaissance.
Early modern encircling the city , highlighted in yellow '' on
Corso Venezia Milan's last independent ruler,
Lodovico il Moro, requested the aid of
Charles VIII of France against the other
Italian states, eventually unleashing the
Italian Wars. The king's cousin,
Louis of Orléans, took part in the expedition and realized most of Italy was virtually defenseless. This prompted him to come back a few years later in 1500, and claim the Duchy of Milan for himself, his grandmother having been a member of the ruling
Visconti family. At that time, Milan was also defended by
Swiss mercenaries. After the victory of Louis's successor François I over the Swiss at the
Battle of Marignan, the duchy was promised to the French king
François I. When the Emperor
Charles V defeated Francis I at the
Battle of Pavia in 1525, French rule in the Duchy of Milan came to an end. In 1535, the Sforza line went extinct. In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son
Philip II and his brother
Ferdinand I. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and the line of the Spanish Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire. The
Great Plague of Milan in 1629–31, that claimed the lives of an estimated 60,000 people out of a population of 130,000, caused unprecedented devastation in the city and was effectively described by
Alessandro Manzoni in his masterpiece
The Betrothed. This episode was seen by many as the symbol of Spanish bad rule and decadence and is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long
pandemic of plague that began with the
Black Death. In 1700, the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of
Charles II. After his death, the
War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701. In 1706, the French were defeated in
Ramillies and
Turin and were forced to yield northern Italy to the
Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713 and 1714, the Treaties of
Utrecht and
Rastatt formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Habsburg Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.
Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared capital of the
Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan capital of the
Kingdom of Italy and was crowned King of Italy in the cathedral. After Napoleon's occupation ended, the
Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy and Milan to Austrian control in 1815.
Late modern and contemporary " (18–22 March 1848) uprising against Austrian rule On 18 March 1848, Milan effectively rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "
Five Days" (), that forced Field Marshal
Radetzky to temporarily withdraw from the city. The bordering
Kingdom of Piedmont–Sardinia sent troops to protect the insurgents and organised a
plebiscite that ratified by a huge majority the unification of Lombardy with Piedmont–Sardinia. But just a few months later the Austrians were able to send fresh forces that routed the Piedmontese army at the
Battle of Custoza on 24 July and to reassert Austrian control over northern Italy. About ten years later, however, Italian nationalist politicians, officers and intellectuals such as
Cavour,
Garibaldi and
Mazzini were able to gather a huge consensus and to pressure the monarchy to forge an alliance with the new
French Empire of
Napoleon III to defeat Austria and establish a large Italian state in the region. At the
Battle of Solferino in 1859, French and Italian troops heavily defeated the Austrians that retreated under the
Quadrilateral line. Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into Piedmont-Sardinia, which then proceeded to annex all the other Italian statelets and proclaim the birth of the
Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861. in Milan The political
unification of Italy enhanced Milan's economic dominance over northern Italy. A dense rail network, whose construction had started under Austrian patronage, was completed in a brief time, making Milan the rail hub of northern Italy and, with the opening of the
Gotthard (1882) and
Simplon (1906) railway tunnels, the major South European rail hub for goods and passenger transport. Indeed, Milan and Venice were among the main stops of the
Orient Express that started operating from 1919. Abundant hydroelectric resources allowed the development of a strong steel and textile sector and, as Milanese banks dominated Italy's financial sphere, the city became the country's leading financial centre. In May 1898, Milan was shaken by the
Bava Beccaris massacre, a riot related to soaring cost of living. destroyed by
Allied bombings, 1943 Milan's northern location in Italy closer to Europe, secured also a leading role for the city on the political scene. It was in Milan that
Benito Mussolini built his political and journalistic careers, and his fascist
Blackshirts rallied for the first time in the city's Piazza San Sepolcro; here the future
Fascist dictator launched his
March on Rome on 28 October 1922. During the
Second World War Milan's large industrial and transport facilities
suffered extensive damage from Allied bombings that often also hit residential districts. When Italy
surrendered in 1943, German forces occupied and plundered most of northern Italy, fueling the birth of a massive resistance guerrilla movement. On 29 April 1945, the American
1st Armored Division was advancing on Milan but, before it arrived, the Italian resistance seized control of the city and
executed Mussolini along with his mistress and several regime officers, that were later hanged and exposed in
Piazzale Loreto, where one year before some resistance members had been executed. at left and
La Rinascente department store at right During the post-war economic boom, the reconstruction effort and the
Italian economic miracle attracted a large wave of internal migration (especially from rural areas of
southern Italy) to Milan. The population grew from 1.3 million in 1951 to 1.7 million in 1967. During this period, Milan was rapidly rebuilt, with the construction of several innovative and modernist skyscrapers, such as the
Torre Velasca and the
Pirelli Tower, that soon became the symbols of this new era of prosperity. The economic prosperity was, however, overshadowed in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the so-called
Years of lead, when Milan witnessed an unprecedented wave of street violence,
labour strikes and
political terrorism. The apex of this period of turmoil occurred on 12 December 1969, when
a bomb exploded at the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, killing 17 people and injuring 88. , which took place in Milan In the 1980s, with the international success of Milanese houses (like
Armani,
Prada,
Versace,
Moschino and
Dolce & Gabbana), Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The city saw also a marked rise in
international tourism, notably from America and Japan, while the stock exchange increased its market capitalisation more than five-fold. This period led the mass media to nickname the metropolis
"Milano da bere", literally "Milan to be drunk". In the 1990s, Milan was badly affected by
Tangentopoli, a political scandal in which many politicians and businessmen were tried for corruption. The city was also affected by a severe financial crisis and a steady decline in textiles, automobile and steel production. Two new business districts,
Porta Nuova and
CityLife, were built in the space of a decade, radically changing the skyline of the city. Its exhibition centre moved to a much larger site in
Rho. The long decline in traditional manufacturing has been overshadowed by a great expansion of publishing, finance, banking, fashion design, information technology, logistics and tourism. The city's decades-long population decline seems to have partially reverted in recent years, as the gained about 100,000 new residents since the last census. The successful re-branding of the city as a global capital of innovation has been instrumental in its successful bids for hosting large international events such as
2015 Expo and
2026 Winter Olympics. == Geography ==