Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Long Beards & Franks
Despite an unprecedented three centuries of relative tranquillity, Lombardy gets its name
not from the Romans, but the
langobardi
(long beards). A Germanic people from across the
Danube, they marched into northern Italy almost unopposed in 568. Led by King Alboino
(c 530s-572), they rapidly captured all the cities of the Po valley, first taking Verona and
then, over the next four years, besieging Bergamo, Brescia and Milan. In 572 they captured
Pavia and made it their capital.
Between this Lombard kingdom in the north and the reduced Roman seat of power in
Ravenna an uneasy peace survived for nearly 200 years, long enough for the heartlands of
both to become known as Lombardy and Romagna. Much of this tenuous peace was based
on a shared and growing Christian faith, championed by Milan's Archbishop Ambrose (c
340-97), Pope Gregory (540-604) and devout Queen Theodolinda (c 570-628). Married to
two Lombard kings, and Queen Regent for her young son from 616, Theodolinda was in-
strumental in restoring mainstream (Nicene) Christianity to the northern provinces and
routing its rival, Arianism. She patronised many new churches - the oratory at Modena, the
cathedral at Monza and the first baptistery in Florence - and in 628 she donated the Lom-
bard
Corrona Ferrae
(Iron Crown) to the Italian Church in Monza.
Despite history dismissing this period as Italy's Dark Age, the cathedral museum at
Monza houses a spectacular collection of early medieval artworks, much of it collected by
Theodolinda. It includes a rich stash of Barbarian and Carolingian art, Lombard gold jew-
ellery and 16 6th century Palestinian ampullae sporting the earliest depictions of the Cruci-
fixion and the Nativity in medieval art.
But with the fall of the Roman frontier at Ravenna to the Lombards in 727, when the city
rebelled against a new edict banning icons, Pope Stephen II (715-57) became increasingly
alarmed at expanding Lombard ambitions and turned to the Frankish ruler, Pepin, for milit-
ary support. In return for Pepin's help and the assumption of conquered Lombard territor-
ies, Stephen named Pepin protector of the Church. It was Pepin's son, Charles, more fam-
ously known as Charlemagne (742-814), who eventually swept away the Lombard king-
dom and was crowned King of Italy in 774 and Holy Roman Emperor in 800.
