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History of
Mantua
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Mantua main information page)
Presumably
founded around 2000 B.C. it only was settled by the Etruscans in
the 6th century B.C. who gave the name of Mantua from
Mantus, an Etruscan god of Hades.It prospered under the Romans
who conquered it between the Punic wars.Virgilius, the most
famous of the Latin poet was born near the city in 70 B.C.
After the fall
of Rome, the city was invaded by the Goths, the Byzantines, the
Longobards and the Franks, becoming in the XI century a
possesion of Marquis Bonifacio di Canossa of Tuscany, whose
descendant Matilde di Canossa ordered the construction of the
?Rotonda di San Lorenzo? in 1082.
After standing
as a free municipality, fights against the Holy Roman Empire in
the XII-XIII centuries, and the struggle between the Guelphs and
Ghibellines, the city was seized by Pinamonte Bonacolosi in
1273, whose family ruled Mantua for almost a century.
In 1328, the
city fell under the Gonzaga dynasty, whose court attracted the
great architects, painters, and poets of the time like Mantegna,
Petrarch, Pisanello and Rubens.
In 1708, the
Gonzaga dynasty came to an end and the family lost Mantua
forever when the Austrian Habsburg took control of the city
until 1866. During this time, a short Napoleonic?s interlude
took place, but Mantua returned to the Austrian in 1814 becoming
one of the ?Quadrilatero fortress cities of northen Italy. In
1866, Mantua finally rejoined Italy as it was incorporated by
the King of Sardinia.
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