Porta Vittoria

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Porta Vittoria
Quartiere of Milan

Milano piazza V Giornate.JPG

Piazza Cinque Giornate
CountryFlag of Italy.svg  Italy
Region Lombardy
Province Milan
Comune Milan
Zone 4
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)

Porta Vittoria (formerly Porta Tosa) was a city gate in the Spanish walls of Milan, Italy. While the walls and the gate have been demolished, the name "Porta Vittoria" has remained to refer to the district ("quartiere") where the gate used to be. This district is part of the Zone 4 administrative division of Milan.

Milan Italian city

Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,395,274 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres. The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.

Italy republic in Southern Europe

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Italian Alps and surrounded by several islands. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and traversed along its length by the Apennines, Italy has a largely temperate seasonal climate. The country covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and shares open land borders with France, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the fourth-most populous member state of the European Union.

A quartiere is a territorial subdivision of certain Italian towns. The word derives from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods by the two main roads. It has been later used as a synonymous of neighbourhood, and an Italian town can be now subdivided into a greater number of quartieri. The Swiss town of Lugano is subdivided into quarters also.

Contents

History

Porta Tosa was the eastern gate of the Spanish walls of Milan, dating back to the 16th century. During the Five Days of Milan, Porta Tosa was the first to be conquered by the Milanese rebels, on 22 March 1848 (an event known as "The Battle of Porta Tosa"). In 1861, when the Italian unification was completed, the gate was renamed "Porta Vittoria" (Victory Gate) after that victorious episode.

Five Days of Milan war

The Five Days of Milan were a major event in the Revolutionary Year of 1848 and the start of the First Italian War of Independence. On 18 March, a rebellion arose in the city of Milan, and in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city.

Italian unification political and social movement that consolidated different Italian states into a single state

Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

What remained of the Spanish walls and gates was demolished in the 19th century. In 1881, Giuseppe Grandi designed an obelisk to be placed in the square where the gate used to be; it was inaugurated on 18 March 1895.

Giuseppe Grandi Italian painter

Giuseppe Grandi (1843–1894) was an Italian sculptor.

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek term 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic; that is, they consist of a single stone. Most modern obelisks are made of several stones; some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings.

The district

The centre of the Porta Vittoria district is the square where Grandi's obelisk is located; this square is now called Piazza Cinque Giornate ("Five Days Square"). Most streets, avenues, and square in the district are named after heroes and prominent events of the Milanese Risorgimento and the Five Days. A large avenue crossing Piazza Cinque Giornate in east-west direction is called Corso di Porta Vittoria to the west and Corso 22 Marzo to the west. In the north-south direction, the Piazza is crossed by one of the main ring roads of Milan, the Circonvallazione Interna ("inner ringroad", as opposed to the Circonvallazione Esterna, the "outer ringroad" which embraces a much wider area). In the Porta Vittoria district, the Circonvallazione Interna is composed of streets Viale Montenero and Viale Regina Margherita.

Ring road type of road

A ring road is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core.

The area is mostly a shopping district, with Piazza Cinque Giornate, as well as the two Corso's, being lined with large stores and shops. To the east, it borders on Città Studi ("city of the studies"), where major universities of Milan have their headquarters.

Città Studi Quarter of Milan in Lombardy, Italy

Città Studi is a district ("quartiere") of Milan, Italy, located within the Zone 3 administrative division. Its name comes from the fact that the Politecnico technical university, as well as most technical and scientific branches of the University of Milan, are based in this area. The area also houses several prominent hospitals of Milan, including the IRCCS National Cancer Foundation and the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute.

Coordinates: 45°27′44″N9°12′26″E / 45.46222°N 9.20722°E / 45.46222; 9.20722

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