Busto Arsizio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Comune di Busto Arsizio | |
|---|---|
 Municipal coat of arms |
|
| Country |  Italy |
| Region | Lombardy |
| Province | Varese (VA) |
| Mayor | Gianluigi Farioli (since May 30, 2005) |
| Elevation | 226 m |
| Area | 30 km² |
| Population | |
| - Total (as of December 31, 2004) | 79,253 |
| - Density | 2,538/km² |
| Time zone | CET, UTC+1 |
| Coordinates | |
| Gentilic | Bustocchi or Bustesi |
| Dialing code | 0331 |
| Postal code | 21052 |
| Frazioni | Borsano, Sacconago |
| Patron | San Giovanni Battista |
| - Day | June 24 |
| Website: [1] | |
Busto Arsizio is a city in the region of Lombardy, in northern Italy, 25 km north of Milan in the province of Varese.
The economy of Busto Arsizio is mainly based on industry and commerce.
Contents |
[edit] History
Despite repeated claims by Lega Nord and her local allies about a Celtic heritage, recent studies seem to show that the "bustocchi"'s descendants were Ligurians, called ‘wild’ by Plinio, ‘marauders and robbers’ by Livy and ‘unshaven and hairy’ by Pompeo Trago. They were good at working iron and much sought after as mercenary soldiers. A very remote Ligurian influence is perceptible in the local dialect, Bustocco, slightly different from other Western Lombard varieties, according to local expert Luigi Giavini, author of a vocabulary[1].
Traditionally these first inhabitants used to set fire to woods made of old and young oaks and black hornbeams, which at that time, covered the whole Padan Plain. This slash-and-burn practice, known as "debbio" in Italian, aimed to create fields where grapevines or cereals such as foxtail, millet and rye were grown, or just to create open spaces where stone huts with thatched roofs were built. By doing this they created a bustum (burnt, in Latin), that is a new settlement which, in order to be distinguished from the other nearby settlements, was assigned a name: arsicium (again "birnt", or better "arid") for Busto Arsizio, whose name is actually a tautology; carulfì for nearby Busto Garolfo, cava for Busto Cava, later Buscate.
The slow increase in population was helped without doubt by the Gauls from the Insubri tribe, a Celtic population who arrived in successive waves by crossing the Alps about 500 years before Christ. It is said that they the defeated the Etruscans, who by then controlled the area, leaving some geographical names behind (Arno creek, not to be confused with Florence's river; Castronno; Caronno; Biandronno; etc.)
Busto Arsizio's site wasn't chosen randomly: in fact, the settlement was created on an area on the route from Milan to Lake Maggiore (called ‘Milan’s road’, an alternative route to the existent Sempione), part of which, before the creation of the Naviglio Grande, made use of the navigational water of the Ticino river.
However, nothing is sure about Busto Arsizio's past till the 10th century, when the town is first hinted at in documents, already with its present name: "loco Busti qui dicitur Arsizio". A part of the powerful Contado of the Seprio, in 1176 its citizens are likely to have taken part (on both sides...) to the famous Battle of Legnano, actually fought between Busto's frazione of Borsano and Villa Cortese, when the Barbarossa was defeated by the Coimmunal militia of the Lombard League. From the 13th century the town became renowned for its production of textiles. Even its feudalization in later centuries under several lords, vassal sof the masters of Milan, did not stop its slow but constant growth; nor did the plague, which hit hard in 1630, traditionally being stopped by the Virgin Mary after the bustocchi, always a pious Catholic flock, prayed for respite from the epidemic.
By the half of the 19th century modern industry began to take over strongly: ina few decades Busto Arsizio became the so-called "Manchester of Italy". In 1865 it was granted city privileges by king Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. The town kept on growing for more than a century, absorbing the nearby Comuni of Borsano and Sacconago in 1927 on a major administrative reform implemented by the Fascist regime, and was only marginally damaged even by World War II. During the conflict Busto Arsizio was a major industrial center of war production, and the occupying Germans moved there the Italian national radio. The Italian resistance movement here was active, more with strikes and sabotage than guerrilla, but strengthened in time, suffering grievous losses to arrests, tortures and deportation to the lager system: the names of Mauthausen-Gusen and Flossenburg concentration and extermination camps are sadly known to the "bustocchi", as dozens of their fellow citizens died there. When, on 25th April, 1945, the partisans took over, Busto Arsizio thus gave voice to the first free radio channel in northern Italy since the advent of Fascism.
After the war, the city turned in time increasingly on the right of the political spectrum, as its bigger industries in the Sixties and Seventies decayed, to be replaced by many familiar small enterprises and a new service-based economy. Today the town represents a major stronghold for both Forza Italia and Lega Nord.
[edit] Main sights
[edit] Sport
Busto Arsizio is the host for the Federazione Italiana Sport Croquet, the lawns being located at the "Cascina del Lupo" Sporting Centre just outside the town.
Pro Patria Calcio football club plays in Busto Arsizio.
[edit] References
