Monza : Italy
Monza (locally ‘Munscia’) is a city (2001 pop. 117,068) in the province of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Its new province (Monza e Brianza), created in 2004, will be effective in 2009.
It is the third largest city of Lombardy and the most important economical, industrial and administrative centre of the Brianza sub-region, supporting a textile industry and a publishing trade, but its international fame comes from the Autodromo Nazionale Monza racing circuit, home to the Italian Grand Prix, and the Scuderia Ferrari team, and previously the Alfa Romeo team.
The city lies on the Lambro, a tributary of the Po, 8 miles north-northeast of Milan.
History
Monza (Modicia) was a minor Roman settlement, selected by the Lombard king Theodoric, for his capital, and its first important associations are with Theodelinda, the Lombard queen. In the Middle Ages, the commune of Monza was sometimes independent, sometimes subject to Milan and the Visconti. In the course of its history Monza stood thirty-two sieges, but the Porta d’Agrate is the only vestige of its walls and fortifications. Nearby is the nunnery in which the nun of Monza (in Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi) was enclosed.
