MODENA (ancient Mutina), city, Emilia, Italy, capital of the province of Modena and seat of an archbishop, 31 m. E.S.E.
It lies in a damp, low plain on the south side of the Po valley, between the Secchia to the west and the Panaro to the east. Some main streets follow lines of canals, which still (now covered) traverse the city. The observatory stands 135 ft. above sea-level. The fortifications, converted into promenades, give the city an irregular pentagonal contour. Within are various open areas—the spacious Ippodromo, the public gardens, the Piazza Grande, and the Piazza Reale. The Via Aemilia passes obliquely through the city, from east to west.
Begun by Countess Matilda of Tuscany (1o99), after designs of Lanfranc, and consecrated in 1184, the Romanesque cathedral (S. Geminiano) has a lofty crypt under the choir, three eastern apses, and a facade with sculptures of the 12th century. The graceful bell-tower, erected in 1224-1319, named La Ghirlandina from the bronze garland surrounding the weathercock, is 282 ft.
high ; in the basement may be seen the wooden bucket captured by the Modenese from the Bolognese in the affray at Zappolino (1325) (see Tassoni's Secchia Rapita). S. Giovanni Decollato contains a Pieta in painted terra-cotta by Guido Mazzoni (1450 1518). The so-called Pantheon Estense (the church of S. Agos tino), is a baroque building by Bibbiena. San Pietro and San Francesco have terra-cottas by Begarelli (1498-1565).
The extensive ducal palace, from the designs of Avanzini (1651-1679), and finished by Francis Ferdinand V., with a fine courtyard, contains the military school. The Albergo delle Arti, built by Duke Francis III., accommodates the Museo Lapidario (Roman inscriptions, etc.) ; the valuable archives, the Biblioteca Estense, the Museo Civico, with palaeo-ethnological and arch aeological collections; a collection of textile fabrics, and the pic ture gallery, presented to the city by Francis V. and since aug mented by the Campori collection. The town hall dates from 1194. The university (783 students) is mainly medical and legal
with a faculty of physical and mathematical science.
Commerce is chiefly agricultural. Modena is the point at which the railway to Mantua and Verona diverges from that between Milan and Bologna, and has several branches to neighbouring places. It is also the starting-point of a once important road over the Apennines to Pistoia by the Abetone Pass, and of a canal by the Panaro and Po to the sea.
The old abbey of Nonantola (752) some 6 m. to the N. has a fine Romanesque church and valuable treasury and archives.
Modena is the ancient Mutina in the territory of the Boii, which became Roman in 215-212 B.C. The Roman town lay south-east of the modern ; its north-western wall is marked by the Corso Umberto I. ; but the Roman level is 15 to 20 f t. below the modern. Its territory was conterminous with that of Bononia and Regium, and to the south it extended to the summit of the Apennines. Marcus Brutus, lieutenant of Lepidus, held it against Pompeius in 78 B.C., and in 44 B.C. the place was successfully defended by D. Brutus against Mark Antony. The ravages of Attila and Lombard attacks ruined it, but about the close of the 9th century it was restored by its bishop, Ludovicus.
In the wars between Frederick II. and Gregory IX. it sided with the emperor. In 1288 Obizzo d'Este became its lord. Con stituted a duchy in 1452 in favour of Borso d'Este, and enlarged and strengthened by Hercules II., it became the ducal residence on the incorporation of Ferrara with the States of the Church (1598). Francis III. (1698-1780) gave the city many public buildings. Hercules III. (1727-1803) saw his states transformed by the French into the Cispadine Republic, and died at Treviso. In 1814 his eldest son, Francis IV. received back the Stati Estensi and ruled them despotically. Francis Ferdinand V., succeeded in 1846, and on August 20, 1859, the representatives of Modena declared their territory part of the kingdom of Italy, and their decision was confirmed by the plebiscite of 1860.