Pavia

Pavia a city of Northern Italy, capital of the province of the same name, on the left bank of the Ticino, twenty miles south of Milan, and three miles above the confluence of the Ticino and the Po, was in ancient times called the "city of a hundred towers." It is a very old city, and many of its antiquities remain to this day; but the palace of Theodoric and the tower where Boethius wrote the treatise De Consolutione Philosophiae no longer exist; among the remaining ones are those of Belcredi and Del Maino, which are each 169 feet high. Its oldest church, and perhaps the oldest in Italy, is that of San Michele, which, although the date of its foundation is uncertain, is first mentioned in 661. The cathedral, containing some good paintings, was commenced in 1484, but was never finished. In a beautiful chapel attached to it are the ashes of St. Augustine, in a sarcophagus ornamented with fifty bassirilievi, ninety-five statues, and numerous grotesques. In the church of San Petro in Ciel d'Auro are deposited the remains of the unfortunate Boethius. The Certosa of Pavia, the most splendid monastery in the world, is four miles without the city. It was founded in 1396. The University of Pavia is greatly celebrated for its learned professors, large libraries, and museums. About 1600 students attend here annually. Pavia is the ancient Ticinum (afterwards Papia, whence the modern name), and was founded by the Ligurii; it was sacked by Brennus and by Hannibal, burned by the Huns, conquered by the Romans, and became a place of consider able importance at the end of the Roman empire. Then it came into the possession of the Goths and Lombards, and the kings of the latter made it the capital of the kingdom of Italy. It became independent in the 12th century, then, weakened by civil wars, it was conquered by Matthew Visconti in 1345. After that period its history is merged in that of the conquerors of Lombardy. Since 1859 it has been included within the reorganized kingdom of Italy.