Cremona

Cremona (krĭmō`nə, Ital. krāmô`nä), city (1991 pop. 74,113), capital of Cremona prov., Lombardy, N Italy, on the Po River. It is an agricultural market and an industrial center that produces processed food and fabricated metals. Originally (3d cent. B.C.) a Roman colony, Cremona was in the Middle Ages an independent commune frequently at war with Milan until its surrender to that city in 1344. It was known in the Middle Ages as a center of learning, in the late Renaissance for a school of painting founded (16th cent.) by Giulio Campi, and later (17th–18th cent.) for the violins made by the Amati, the Guarneri, the Stradivari, and their successors. The cathedral (12th–16th cent.), the tall campanile, the baptistery, the city hall (13th cent.), and the Soldiers' Loggia (13th cent.) adorn Cremona's impressive main square.

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Cremona

a city in N Italy, in Lombardy on the River Po: noted for the manufacture of fine violins in the 16th--18th centuries. Pop.: 70 887 (2001)

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Cremona 

a city in northern Italy, in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River. Administrative center of the province of Cremona. Population, 82,000 (1970). River port, railroad junction.

Cremona’s industries include food processing, clothing manufacture, machine building, woodworking, petroleum refining, chemicals and ceramics. Traditional manufacture of musical instruments, particularly pianos and bowed stringed instruments, continues to this day. From the 16th to 18th centuries the master violin-makers Amati, Guarnieri, and Stradivari worked in Cremona. There are architectural monuments dating from the 12th through 14th centuries.

In antiquity the area was settled by the Gauls. From 218 B.C. it was a Roman colony; after 90 B.C. it had the status of a municipium. In A.D. 69, Cremona was destroyed by Vespasian, because it was the stronghold of his opponent Vitellius. After its conquest by the Lombards in 603, it became the seat of an episcopacy. In 1098 it attained the rights of a commune. In 1167 it was part of the Lombard League. From 1499 to 1509, Cremona was under Venetian control. From 1525 to 1702 it was controlled by Spain. Then up to 1859 (with certain intervals) it was a possession of Austria. Since 1860 the history of Cremona has been linked with the history of united Italy.