VERONA CIVITAS

Verona 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.

Verona is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. The Civitas Verona was founded in 300 BC by Romans on the river Adige in a strategic point in direction to Alps at the crossing of two ancient roman ways: the Postumia way coming from Genoa and passing through Piacenza to end in Aquileia; the Claudia Augusta Way starting from Milan towards the Noricum province up to Augsburg and passing through the civitas of and Bologna to end in Florence.

In origin it was a Municipium inhabited by families of local Celts Euganei and Italics under the rule of the Gens Popilia which received large pieces of the public land (Ager Romanus) to share. Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Verona was included in the Regio X Venetia et Histria of the Italiae province and obtain the building of the Ponte di Pietra stone bridge and the famous "Arena" amphitheatre still existing today and symbol of the city!.

With the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Verona became part of Italiae Diocesis and obtained the rank of metropolitan archbishop, becouse of its originary christian community. The city became a fortress to opposite the various emperors civil wars and the barbarian invasion from the IV century AD, but couldn't avoid the conquer of Ostrogoths and after the Gothic War of the Lombards in 569 AD, who included Verona in the Lombards reign until it was conquerd by Charlemagne and assigned to Italy Regnum, under the rule of the Friuli Marquises dinasty of Unrochidi.

In late X century AD, the emeror Otto "the greater" put all that marquisade under the Verona archbishopric and the rule of the Reich named counts provided of temporal powers that could build the Saint Zeno basilica and the Santo Stefano and Santi Apostoli churches. But the increasing wealth of the burgher families eclipsed the power of the counts and in 1135 AD Verona was organised as a "free commune", becoming part of the Lombard League of Italian civitas that defeated the emeperor Frederick I, gaining more privileges and regalia of "free town of the Empire": so, since 1257 AD Verona was ruled by the lords family of Della Scala, allied to the Staufer imperial dinasty in the "guelfi&ghibellini" war and against the Estensi family power, taking the political control of the near cities of Treviso, Padova and Vicenza with the Duke Cangrande I patron of arts and protector of the main italian artists as Dante, Petrarca and Giotto. But in 1337 AD a league of rival families de' Medici Lords of Florence, Visconti Duckies of Milan, Estensi Counts of Ferrara and Gonzaga Marquises of Mantua allied to the Republic of Venice could defeat the Della Scala power and reduce its dominions to Verona countryside. By fifty years later, Verona was annexed to the Ducky of Milan and followed its history and of Italy until today, becaming a central fortress of the Lombardy-Veneto Reign under the Reich and during the Italian independence wars of XIX century AD, while Verona was the seat of the Statuto of the Republic of Salò during the Second World War.

The ancient urban structure and architecture of Verona named "The Setting of Romeo and Juliet City" is enlisted in the UNESCO Wordl Heritage. Nowadays, Verona is a big city in the north-east of Italy, included into the Veneto region, whose patron is Saint Zeno an ancient bishop of the ancient city christian community.

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