Treviso

Treviso (Italian pronunciation: [treˈviːzo] ( listen), Venetian: Trevixo) is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants (as of November 2010):[1] some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls (le Mura) or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper while the city hinterland has a population of approximately 170,000. The city is home to the headquarters of clothing retailer Benetton, Sisley, Stefanel, Diadora and Lotto Sport Italia, appliance maker De’Longhi, and bicycle maker Pinarello.

Treviso is also known for being the original production area of the Prosecco wine, and being the town where popular Italian dessert Tiramisu was created.

Venetian rule
After a Scaliger domination in 1329–1339, the city gave itself to the Republic of Venice, becoming the first notable mainland possession of the Serenissima. From 1318 it was also, for a short time, the seat of a university. Venetian rule brought innumerable benefits, however, Treviso necessarily became involved in the wars of Venice. From 1381–1384, the city was captured and ruled by the duke of Austria, and then by the Carraresi until 1388. Having returned to Venice, the city was fortified and given a massive line of walls and ramparts, still existing: these were renewed in the following century under the direction of Fra Giocondo, two of the gates being built by the Lombardi. The many waterways were exploited with several waterwheels which mainly powered mills for milling grain produced locally. The waterways were all navigable and “barconi” would arrive from Venice at the Port of Treviso (Porto de Fiera) pay duty and offload their merchandise and passengers along Riviera Santa Margherita. Fishermen were able to bring fresh catch every day to the Treviso fish market, which is held still today on an island connected to the rest of the city by two small bridges at either end.

French and Austrian rules
Treviso was taken in 1797 by the French under Mortier, who was made duke of Treviso. French domination lasted until the defeat of Napoleon, after which it passed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The citizens, still at heart loyal to the fallen Venetian Republic, were displeased with imperial rule and in March 1848, drove out the Austrian garrison. However, after the town was bombarded, the people were compelled to capitulate in the following June. Austrian rule continued until Treviso was annexed with the rest of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

Modern era
During World War I, Treviso held a strategic position close to the Austrian front. Just north, the Battle of Vittorio Veneto helped turn the tide of the War. During World War II, one of several Italian concentration camps was established for Slovene and Croatian civilians from the Province of Ljubljana in Monigo, near Treviso. The camp was disbanded with the Italian capitulation in 1943. At the end of the war, the city suffered an Allied bombing on 7 April 1944 (Good Friday). A large part of the medieval structures of the city center were destroyed—including part of the Palazzo dei Trecento, later rebuilt—causing the death of about 1,000 people. In January 2005, a bomb enclosed in a candy egg and attributed to the so-called Italian Unabomber detonated on a Treviso street.

Main sights

• The Late Romanesque–Early Gothic church of San Francesco, built by the Franciscan community in 1231–1270. Used by Napoleonic troops as a stable, it was reopened in 1928. The interior has a single nave with five chapels. On the left wall is a Romanesque-Byzantine fresco portraying St. Christopher (later 13th century). The Grand Chapel has a painting of the Four Evangelists by a pupil of Tommaso da Modena, to whom is instead directly attributed a fresco of Madonna with Child and Seven Saints (1350) in the first chapel on the left. The next chapel has instead a fresco with Madonna and Four Saints from 1351 by the so-called Master of Feltre. The church, among others, houses the tombs of Pietro Alighieri, son of Dante, and Francesca Petrarca, daughter of the poet Francesco.
• The Loggia dei Cavalieri, an example of Treviso’s Romanesque influenced by Byzantine forms. It was built under the podestà Andrea da Perugia (1276) as a place for meetings, talks and games, although reserved only to the higher classes.
• Piazza dei Signori (Lords’ Square), with the Palazzo di Podestà (later 15th century).
• Church of San Nicolò, a mix of 13th-century Venetian Romanesque and French Gothic elements. The interior has a nave and two aisles, with five apsed chapels. It houses important frescoes by Tommaso da Modena, depicting St Romuald, St Agnes and the Redemptor and St Jerome in his Study. Also the Glorious Mysteries of Santo Peranda can be seen. Noteworthy is also the fresco of St Christopher on the eastern side of the church, which is the most ancient depiction in glass in Europe.
• Cathedral is dedicated to St Peter. It was once a small church built in the Late Roman era, to which later were added a crypt and the Santissimo and Malchiostro Chapels (1520). After the numerous later restorations, only the gate remains of the original Roman edifice. The interior houses works by Il Pordenone and Titian (Malchiostro Annunciation) among others. The edifice has seven domes, five over the nave and two closing the chapels.
• Palazzo dei Trecento, built in the 13th–14th centuries.
• Piazza Rinaldi. It is the seat of three palaces of the Rinaldi family, the first built in the 12th century after their flight from Frederick Barbarossa. The second, with unusual ogival arches in the loggia of the first floor, is from the 15th century. The third was added in the 18th century.
• Ponte di Pria (Stone Bridge), along the city walls, where River Botteniga divides into the three channels that cross the city centre (Cagnan Grande, Cagnan di Mezzo, Roggia).
• Monte di pietà and the Cappella dei Rettori. The Monte di Pietà was founded to house Jewish moneylenders. On the second floor is the Cappella dei Rettori, a lay hall for meetings, with frescoes by il Pozzoserrato.

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