BRESCIA, bre'sha (anciently Lat. Bri.ria, founded by the Etruscans). An episcopal city of Lomoardy, Italy (Map: Italy, E 2), capital of the Province of Brescia. 52 miles east of Milan. It is situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Alps, on the Mel]a and the Garza, and is dom inated by a citadel known as the Falcone d'Ital ia, that overlooks it from the rocky steeps on the north. Of the sixty-five churches that pros pered at the time of the Venetian Republic, less than half are used for worship to-day. The old cathedral, generally called La Rotonda, from its massive dome structure, dates partly from tile Ninth Century, partly from the Twelfth. The new cathedral, begun in 1604, but not com pleted until the Nineteenth Century, is one of the best examples of Seventeenth Century archi tecture. The magnificent city hall, called La Loggia, the exterior of which is covered with ornamentation, was begun in 1489, on the ruins of a temple of Vulcan. The Broletto is a mas sive Twelfth Century building, once the city hall, but now containing the courts of justice.
The Roman Museum occupies a Corinthian temple excavated in 1822, and originally erected by Vespasian in A.D. 72. It is exceedingly pic turesque, and holds many valuable Roman an tiquities. The Nedixval Museum also contains numerous treasures. In the Palazzo Tozio, be queathed to the town by Count Tozio, and in the Palazzo Martinengo, are important collections of ancient and modern paintings, engravings, and statuary. The library, bequeathed to the town in 1750 by Cardinal Quirini, has over 80,000 bound volumes and 1500 manuscripts, among them a Ninth Century Book of the Gos pels, a Tenth Century Harmony of the Gospels by Eusebius, and a Dante manuscript. The number of works in the town, both al fresco and in oils, by Alessandro Bonvicino, called Il Moretto, is accounted for by the fact that Ile was born and passed most of his life in Brescia.
The city has many charitable institutions, a street railway, a theatre, a lyceum, several gym nasia, botanical gardens, and various academies, among them the Accademia de' Filarmonici, which is one of the oldest in Italy. Water from
Nombiano is distributed by an aqueduct to 72 public and 400 private fountains. The most im portant manufactures are of iron, and many fire arms are made here for the Italian Army. The spinning, weaving, and working up of silk, flax, cotton, and wool into various articles of use and adornment furnish employment to many labor ers. There are also oil and paper factories. The trade in all these articles, and in wine, par ticularly vino santo, is very extensive, and there is a large amount of general commerce, Brescia being a centre of transportation by both rail and highway. Population, in 1894. 67.700; in 1901, 70,614. The inhabitants of the ancient Brixia were allied with the Romans when Han nibal crossed the Alps. It was destroyed by the Huns, but soon rebnilt, and afterwards passed through the hands of the Ostrogoths, the Lombards, Charlemagne, and the Germans. ln 1428 it came into the possession of Venice, and at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century was one of the wealthiest cities of Lombardy; but it never recovered its former importance after being sacked and burned in 1512 by the French under Gaston de Foix. In the rising of 1848 against Austria the citizens of Brescia took an active part, and after the battle of Custozza and the capitulation of Milan, shared the fate of other Lombard cities. In March, 1849, it was the only large city of Lombardy which re belled, and, after the defeat of the Piedmontese at Novara, was bombarded and taken by Ilaynau, and had to pay an indemnity of over $1,200,000. In the War of 1859 it stood again by the side of Piedmont, and in 1860, with the rest of Lom bardy, became a part of the Kingdom of Italy.