CREMONA, kili-mrVna. The capital of the province of the same name in North Italy, situ ated (10 miles southeast of Milan, in a fertile plain on the left bank of the Po, below the Adda and above the Oglio (Map: Italy, E 2). It has broad but irregular streets and attractive public squares, and a bridge 3100 feet long over the Po; it is surrounded by old walls, and a partly cov ered canal passes through it. The tweltth-centu•y Romanesque Lombard cathedral has a rich main facade and many frescoes by masters of the Cremona School. From the Torrazzo (397 feet), the highest clock-tower ill Italy, is a view of the entire course of the Po through Lombardy. Others of the 44 (formerly S7) churches are the richly decorated sixteenth-century San Pietro al l'o, the fourteenth-century Sant' Agostino e Giacomo iu Braida, with paintings by Perngino and others, the sixteenth-century Santa Marghe rita, built and decorated by Giulio Campi, Sant' Agata with four large flue frescoes, and in a suburb San Sigismondo, with frescoes and paintings by Cremonese masters. Also note worthy are the restored thirteenth-sentury city hall and the thirteenth-century Palazzo Gon falioneri, and the Palazzo Reale, with natural history and other collections. A memorial tablet marks the house where Antonio Stradivari (q.v.)
made his violins. Cremonese violin-makers who preceded him were the two Antall and Guarneri. Famous painters of Cremona were Boceaccio Boccaccino, Melone, Bembo, the three Campis, and Sofonisba d'Angussola, whose five sisters also practiced the art. Cremona has a seminars, a. lyceum, a gymnasium, an industrial school, a technical school, two theatres. a library of 35.000 volumes, and a chamber of commerce. The town has an active trade by rail and water, mar kets grain, flax, cheese, etc.. and manufactures silk, cotton, and wool fabrics. machinery, and earthenware. It is lighted by electricity and has a telephone system. Cremona was colonized by the' Romans in B.C. 218 and grew to be an impor tant. commercial centre. It was destroyed in A.D. 70 by Vespasian. who afterwards encouraged its rebuilding. It was laid waste by the Lom bards in 605. It again became important in the tenth century. In the fourteenth century it came into the possession of Milan. Population (commune), in 1881, 31,788; in 1901, 37,693. Consult Ilolder-Egger, "Die Annales Cremo nenses." A'cucs _trchil, der Gesellschaft fur .dlterc deutsche Geschiehtskunde, vol. xx. (Han over, 1900).