PAVIA CIVITAS

Pavia has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the entire history of european integration and the future of Europe.

Pavia is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. The Civitas Pavia was founded centuries BC during the "Golasecca culture" age by Celts Insubres tribe on the Ticino river (near the confluence with the Po river), that gave the name Ticinum confirmed in 218 BC by Romans when conquered and transformed Pavia in a castra in the middle of the Padana Valley at the fork of the Aemilia way starting from Rimini and passing through Bologna in direction of the Western Alps connecting Italy with the Gaul provinces. Cause of its strategic position the civitas was often a battle camp and provided with defence, bridges and ports on the rivers to reach the Adriatic, aquedot and a sewer system used until XX century AD!

Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Pavia was included into the Regio XI Transpadana of the Italiae province and elevated as centre for communication and trade that could control the fertile valley of Po and Ticino rivers. With the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Pavia became part of the imperial Italiae Diocesis and one of the most ancient and populated christian community: during the barbarians invasions, Pavia was the last imperial capital where Ostrogoths deponed the last Western emperor in 476 AD, becoming the capital of the new Ostrogoth Regna of Theodoricus I "the great" (who launched a vast program of public building included a roman-styled amphitheatre and bath complex) and of the following Lombards reign emerged after the devastating Gothic War.

The Lombards kings built many churches and monasteries in Pavia still existing such as the basilica of Santissimo Salvatore (which became their mausoleum) or the church San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro (where was buried St. Augustine of Hippo) and the Basilica of San Michele, the main cathedral with the arian Saint Eusebio church, whose rest are in its original crypto: because Lombards have been the leaders of Arianism eresy in ethernal conflict with the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Roman Church, that in the end called Franks to be defended when almost Italy was conquered and their only possession was the Sutri feudum donated by a Lombard king. When Charlemagne interviened, made Pavia the capital of the Italy Regnum and the seat of the Rex Romanorum crowning for centuries up to the Ottoni dinasty, who renewed the glory and importance of the city in competition with the near rival city Milan exploiting again its strategic positiion in the middle of fluvial and street ways towards the sea and the Alps, and the Staufer dinasty by supporting the Reich emperors all along the "guelfi&ghibellini" war.

At that age, Pavia was elevated as "commune" and grew in commercial and artizanal industries, forming an important rich city élite that built the numerous towers still existing and the University in 1361 AD, one of the most ancient universities in Europe, just after the yielding to the Visconti family taken from the Anscarici dinasty who controlled the city for centuries. Annexed to the Ducky of Milan, the new Lord dinasty built in Pavia the marvellous "Certosa" connected to their imponent castle, using the Ticino river waters to open a canal going directly to Milan to build the city Duomo. They let a Jewish community settle in Pavia and develop their financial activities to help the industrial and trading power of the whole Ducky oversize the Republic of Venice rivalry.

Since XV century AD, Pavia followed the destiny of the Ducky of Milan, especially when the new Reich emperor Charles V annexed it to the Deutsche Reich, so that the city became a principal education centre in Europe with the old university and the Borromeo College and the Ghislieri College founded in XVI century AD, including the recent IUSS in competition with the famous Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa for post-degree study. It seems that in that apoch, Pavia changed to the actual name from the latin Papia probably depending on the influence of the Papacy. Today Pavia is a medium size town of the Lombardy region within the Italian Republic, whose patron of Pavia is St. Syrus the first bishop of the city and disceple of Saint Peter.

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