Veneto (redirected from The Veneto)

Veneto

Region (pop., 2001 prelim.: 4,490,586), northern Italy. It covers an area of 7,090 sq mi (18,364 sq km); its capital is Venice. Bordered by Austria, the Adriatic Sea, and Lake Garda, the northern part is mountainous, while the southern part consists of a fertile plain. Parts were under Roman rule c. 2nd–1st centuries BC (see Padua and Verona) and later were subject to the Lombards. In the Middle Ages, several city-states gained importance, but most subsequently were subject to Venice. The area began to slip from Venetian hold after the French Revolution, and in the early 19th century Veneto came under Austrian rule. It was returned and joined to Italy in the 1860s. Agriculture is an economic mainstay, and industrial works are found around Veneto's major cities.

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Veneto

a region of NE Italy, on the Adriatic: mountainous in the north with a fertile plain in the south, crossed by the Rivers Po, Adige, and Piave. Capital: Venice. Pop.: 4 577 408 (2003 est.). Area: 18 377 sq. km (7095 sq. miles)

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Veneto 

(Venetia), an area in northeastern Italy, on the coast of the Gulf of Venice on the Adriatic Sea. Divided into seven provinces: Belluno, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venezia, Verona, and Vicenza. Area, 18,400 sq km; population, 4,054,000 (1969). The largest cities (population more than 200,000) are Venice (administrative center), Verona, and Padua.

Veneto is situated in the eastern part of the Venetian Plain and on the slopes of the Venetian Alps (elevations over 3,000 m). The shores of the plain are strongly indented. The rivers of Veneto are the Piave, Brenta, and Adige, and partially the Po. The average January temperature of the plain is about 3° C; the average June temperature is about 23° C. Annual precipitation is about 750 mm (up to 2,000 mm in the mountains). The mountains have broad-leaved and coniferous trees and meadows.

After World War II (1939-45), there was substantial industrial development in Veneto. Industry (including construction) employs 43 percent of the economically active population (1961); agriculture, 25 percent. Prominent industries are machine building (hydroturbines, pumps, compressors, machine tools, and agricultural machines) and metalworking (96,400 workers) and textiles (51,500 workers), especially the production of woolen fabrics (in the cities of Schio, Valdagno, Thiene, and Piovene Rocchette). Nonferrous metallurgy (primarily in the area of the city of Venice, producing 90 percent of the country’s alumina, more than one-third of the aluminum, and about one-third of the zinc), shipbuilding, petroleum refining, petrochemistry, coke-oven chemistry, mineral fertilizer production, ferrous metallurgy, and the traditional manufacture of glass, glasswares, and mosaic and filigree ornaments are concentrated in Veneto. Other industries are woodworking and food. The main agricultural crops grown on the plain are wheat (the 1967 harvest was 734,000 tons), corn (its harvest—1,124,000 tons—puts it in first place in the country), sugar beets (2,591,000 tons—second place in Italy after Emilia-Romagna), hemp, tobacco, rice, leguminous plants, and potatoes. There are also vineyards (harvest, 1,398,000 tons), fruit orchards (apples), olive groves, production of wine (9,982,000 hectoliters), and sericulture (particularly in Treviso Province). There is livestock raising (1,211,000 head of cattle, 279,000 hogs, and 39,000 sheep) in the mountainous part of Veneto. There is fishing in coastal waters (the port of Chioggia). Venice and Lake Garda are tourist centers.

T. A. GALKINA