Tourist information -
Trento
Trento is a city in northern Italy, capital of Trento Province and co-capital (with Bolzano) of Trentino-Alto Adige Region, on the Adige River. The city lies on the historic route, through the Brenner Pass, between Austria and Italy, and is a commerical and industrial center. Manufactures include machinery, chemicals, leather goods, textiles, and processed food. Among noteworthy points of interest are the Cathedral of San Vigilio, begun in 1212, and the 16th-century Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in which the Council of Trent (1545-1563) was held. Situated in the city is the Free University of Trento (1967). The settlement came under Roman rule late in the 3rd century BC and was made a powerful defense bastion. The Ostrogoths captured Tridentum in the 5th century AD and lost it to the Lombards in the 6th century. In 774 the Lombards were subdued by the Franks, under whom the city became the seat of a duchy. Trento subsequently became a German possession, and in 1027 Conrad II of the Holy Roman Empire made it an episcopal principality. The prince-bishops, under Habsburg sovereignty after 1363, governed Trento, except for periods of French occupation in 1797 and 1801, until 1802, when the principality was secularized and merged with Austrian Tirol (Tyrol). Seized again by the French in 1809, Trento remained under their rule until it was returned to Austria in 1814. After the formation in 1861 of the kingdom of Italy, the city was a center of Italian irredentism, a movement to acquire foreign territories because of ethnic affinity or previous Italian sovereignty over them. Trento was transferred to Italy in 1919 under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain.
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