Brescia
[key], city, capital of Brescia prov., Lombardy, N Italy. It is a
commercial and highly diversified industrial center and a railroad junction.
Manufactures include machinery, firearms, metalware, textiles, and processed
food. A Gallic town, it later became a Roman stronghold (1st cent.
b.c.) and then the seat of a Lombard duchy. In the 12th cent.
it was made an independent commune. It subsequently fell under the
domination of a long series of outside powers (including Verona, Milan,
Venice, and Austria), until it united with Italy in 1860. In the 18th and
19th cent. Brescia was a revolutionary center, and in 1849 the city
heroically resisted the Austrians for 10 days before it capitulated. Of note
in Brescia are Roman remains; the Romanesque Old Cathedral (11th cent.); the
baroque New Cathedral (17th cent.); the Lombard-Romanesque Church of San
Francesco; and a Renaissance-style city hall. In the 16th cent. Brescia was
the seat of a flourishing school of painting headed by G. B. Moroni and his
pupil Moretto.
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