Brianza a worth visiting place: Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo

Islamabad: Italy’ ambassador to Pakistan Stefano Pontecorvo Tuesday said Brianza, in southern Italy was a worth visiting place.

“This is the medieval town if Brianza, in southern Italy. It has over 100 years of history and was built around its well preserved Castle,” he said.

The envoy said the town had an intact medieval structure and buildings and was part of an important natural reserve

The area of the modern day Brianza was originally settled in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier.

Brianza is in Lombardy, the region named after the Longobards, who arrived around the 570s, after the Celtic and the Roman expansion.

The spread of Christianity in Brianza dates back to the 3rd century, owing much to Saint Ambrose. There, St. Augustine of Hippo had lived at Rus Cassiciacum (now Cassago), during the period after his conversion and just before his baptism by Bishop Ambrose.

In the Middle Ages the Cathars, the Humiliati and the Pataria religious movement rose and fell in several towns of Brianza. The Franciscans flourished instead and remain to the present day. Most of the region follows the Ambrosian Rite of the Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome.

Brianza was home to many distinguished figures in poetry, philosophy and history of medicine among them are:

In Italian, lower Brianza is referred to as bassa Brianza and upper Brianza is alta Brianza. The name Brianza may be derived from the Celtic word brig (“hill”), or the Latin name Brigantia which originated from some colonies of the Brigantes, or Brigantii, a Celtic sub-tribe of Alps and Prealps that were Romanized and after the Barbarian invasions emigrated.

According to another tradition, when the Celtic leader Bellovesus founded Milan, his chief lieutenant Brianteo conquered a surrounding geographical area, which was thenceforth named Briantia or Brianza.