Bolzano history · History of Bolzano
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History of Bolzano
History of Bolzano
Initially inhabited by the Rhaetians, the area was settled by the Romans in 15 BC, by general Nero Claudius Drusus, to whom referred the name of the first settlement in the area (an army camp with a bridge by the river Eisack-Isarco). The nearby founded village was called Bauzanum. The region of South Tyrol is historically settled by ethnic Germans and Ladins.
Bolzano has been a trading point since its foundation, due to its location in between the two major cities of Venice and Augsburg. In 1262 it was elevated to a Stadt (city). In 1363 Bolzano became part of the Habsburg monarchy as part of the county of Tyrol. Four times a year a market was held and traders came from the south and the north. The mercantile magistrate was therefore founded in 1635. Every market season two Italian and two German officers (appointed from the traders who operated there) worked in this office. The city was a cultural crossroads at that time.
After World War I in 1919 Bolzano was annexed by Italy against the will of the native population who had opted to join the new German Republic of Austria. After the rise of fascism, starting in 1926, the region's ethnic Germans were subjected to a policy of forced italianisation. The fascist dictatorship encouraged the moving of many ethnic Italians to the city from other parts of Italy (primarily from Northern Italy) in an attempt to italianize the whole region. After World War II, Bolzano was once again assigned to Italy but this time the German-speaking population demanded self-determination and afterwards accepted the autonomy statute which is ensured internationally. After decades of tension particularly in the 1950s and the 1980s, (which included minor terrorist plots), Bolzano now is a multilingual European city open to the future which hosts students from all over the world and therefore has a lot of interesting cultural events. For this reason Bolzano is ready to become a candidate as European Capital of Culture in 2019.
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Bolzano Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.