is a town in
Lombardy ,
Italy , about 40km northeast of
Milan . It is home to
Orio Al Serio International Airport , which serves
Milan . The foothills of the Alps begin immediately north of the town.
The commune of Bergamo covers 39.6 km
2, and is home to 113,143 inhabitants. It resides within the
Province Of Bergamo .
The town has two centers: "Città alta" (uptown), a hilltop medieval town, surrounded by 17th century cyclopic defensive walls, and "Città bassa" (downtown), developed since the beginning of 20th century.
It is the old center, with plan and most architecture of medieval design.
In the 17th century, the Venetian Republic decided to build strong defensive walls around it. To that purpose, to make room for the walls and for the necessary surrounding strip, a lot of buildings were destroyed.
Inside Città Alta there are many buildings of artistic or historic relevance: Piazza Vecchia (old square), Palazzo della Ragione (old city hall), Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary big church), Cappella Colleoni (Colleoni chapel).
There is also an archeological museum, and the natural history museum "Caffi".
It is the new center, with a plan of early 20th century design.
Of artistic relevance are the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Carrara (picture museum of Carrara academy), known as "Accademia Carrara" and the nearby Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (gallery of modern and contemporary art), known as GAMEC.
Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, which was a
Roman municipality. It was destroyed by
Attila in the
5th Century . Between
1264 and
1428 the town was ruled by Milan, but passed to
Venetian control until
1797 ; the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town.
Bergamo has a prominent place in music history. The large
Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore, begun in
1137 , had a continuous and well-documented tradition of music teaching and singing for more than eight hundred years. Since the town was under Venetian control, the musical style of the Venetians was imported as well; in particular, a large instrumental ensemble grew up to support the choral singing. Composers such as
Gasparo Alberti produced
Polychoral music with two
Organs , brass and
Viol s, a style usually associated with Venice, but which flourished in the fine acoustical environment of S Maria Maggiore.
Prominent musicians born in Bergamo include
Gaetano Donizetti ,
Pietro Locatelli , and
Antonio Lolli .
Alessandro Grandi , one of the most progressive composers of the early
17th Century after
Monteverdi , was ''maestro di cappella'' there until his death in the plague of
1630 ;
Tarquinio Merula , an even more progressive composer, and one of the founders of the early sonata, took over his post.
The town hosted the seventh
Congres Internationaux D'Architecture Moderne in
1951 .
The town has a
Serie B team called
Atalanta .
The town hosts the Mechanized
Infantry Brigade "
Legnano "
