The 'Firstborn'

Piacenza, called 'the first-born': she bears this nickname as she was the first to vote a plebiscite for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. The river Po has always accompanied the events of the place. Along its banks, at the confluence with the Trebbia, it was founded in 218 BC. C. the Roman colony of Placentia. During the great religious pilgrimages, the Via Francigena, which passed through Piacenza, led pilgrims to Rome and the Holy Land through the Alpine passes. Along the Via Francigena, over time, important ecclesiastical foundations were founded. In 200 there was the total affirmation of the mercantile power that leaves deep traces in the city. Following a great economic development, the city began to expand continuously, becoming one of the largest municipalities in northern Italy. In the age of the lords it assumes an important military position and in 1527 Pope Clement VII ordered the construction of the bastion walls, which can still be observed today, also seeing the involvement of the artist Antonio da Sangallo. In 1545 Pope Paul III created the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza for his son Pierluigi Farnese. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the area was enriched with various buildings in the Baroque style, works of the Bibbiena and their school. With the nineteenth century the bourgeois century opens and from the twentieth century structures of national importance can be observed along the banks: several bridges are built playing an important role for the growth and development of the advanced tertiary sector.