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Gradara
Gradara is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino ( PU), in the region of Marche in central Italy. It is 6 km from Gabicce Mare and Cattolica, 25 km from Rimini, 15 km from Pesaro and 33 km from Urbino. The ancient town is characterized by a double line of medieval walls and by the massive castle, one of the best preserved in Italy. It is famous as being the location of the episode of Paolo and Francesca described by Dante Alighieri in the V Canto of his ''Inferno''. History The construction of the castle was begun in the 12th century by Pietro and Ridolfo del Grifo. Later, Malatesta da Verucchio captured the Grifo tower, which became the mastio of the current castle, which was to be finished in the 15th century. After the Malatesta seignory, the town was conquered by the Sforza in the September 1289. Here, in 1494, arrived Lucrezia Borgia, wife of Giovanni Sforza. After a short domination of Lucrezia's brother, Cesare, Gradara was handed ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gradara Castle
The Gradara Castle is a medieval fortress that is located in the town of Gradara, Marche, in Italy. It is protected by two walls, the outermost of which extends for almost 800 meters, making it the imposing structure. Particularly striking is the view of the fortress and the underlying historical village at night. The castle is one of the most visited monuments in the region and is the scene of museum events, musical and artistic. Gradara was, by geographical position, since ancient times a crossroads of traffic and people: during the Middle Ages the fortress was one of the main theaters of clashes between militias loyal to the papacy and the turbulent families Romagna and Marche. Situated at 142 metres above sea level, with the Republic of San Marino, Rimini and Carpegna in the background, Gradara represents an extraordinary urban and architectural combination. Legend has it that the castle was the scene of the famous and tragic love story of Paolo and Francesca, caught in each o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Sforza
Giovanni Sforza d'Aragona (5 July 1466 – 27 July 1510) was an Italian condottiero, lord of Pesaro and Gradara from 1483 until his death. He is best known as the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia. Their marriage was annulled on claims of his impotence in March 1497. Life and marriage The illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza, he was a member of the powerful House of Sforza, in the line of Pesaro and Gradara (the Milanese line held the Duchy of Milan at the time). At the death of his father in 1483 he inherited the lordship of Pesaro and Gradara, though he was only seventeen and so the lordship was initially ruled by his father's widow Camilla d'Aragona as regent. In 1489 Giovanni had married Maddalena Gonzaga, daughter of Federico I of Mantua, but she died the following year. He was thus viewed as a valuable link to Milan by the Borgia family. With the help of Giovanni's cousin, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the family finalized marriage negotiations in February 1492 between Giovann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Governor of Spoleto, a position usually held by cardinals, in her own right. Her family arranged several marriages for her that advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Gradara, Count of Cotignola; Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno; and Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that her brother Cesare Borgia may have had him murdered after his political value waned. Rumors about her and her family cast Lucrezia as a '' femme fatale'', a role in which she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels and films. Early life Lucrezia Borgia was born on 18 April 1480 at Subiaco, near Rome. Her mot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sforza
The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last member of the family's main branch in 1535. History The first son of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, Francesco I Sforza, married Bianca Maria (1425–1468) in 1441. She was the daughter and only heir of the last Duke of Milan, (Filippo Maria Visconti). He thus acquired the title of Duke of Milan (1450–1466), ruled Milan for 16 years, and made the Sforzas the heirs of the house of Visconti. The family also held the seigniory of Pesaro, starting with Muzio Attendolo's second son, Alessandro (1409–1473). The Sforza held Pesaro until 1512, after the death of Costanzo II Sforza. Muzio's third son, Bosio (1411–1476), founded the branch of Santa Fiora, who held the title of count of Cotignola; the Sforza ruled the small county of Santa Fiora in so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruno Bruni (artist)
Bruno Bruni senior (born 22 November 1935, in Gradara, Italy) is an Italian lithographer, graphic artist, painter and sculptor. He became commercially successful in the 1970s. In 1977, he won the International Senefeld award for Lithography. He has since become one of the most successful Italian artists in Germany and one of Germany's best known lithographers. Biography Born in Gradara, in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino on the Adriatic Coast in 1935, the son of a railway attendant, Bruni started painting as a young boy. He was initially a pupil of Giuliano Vanghi from 1953 to 1959 he attended the Art Institute in Pesaro. He then moved to London, where he became interested in pop art. In 1960, after an exhibit of his work at London's John Whibley Gallery, and after meeting a girl from Hamburg, he moved there to live with her and enrolled at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. He has lived in the city ever since and visits his hometown regularly. In the 1970s, Bruno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marche
Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the north, Tuscany to the west, Umbria to the southwest, Abruzzo and Lazio to the south and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Except for river valleys and the often very narrow coastal strip, the land is hilly. A railway from Bologna to Brindisi, built in the 19th century, runs along the coast of the entire territory. Inland, the mountainous nature of the region, even today, allows relatively little travel north and south, except by twisting roads over the passes. Urbino, one of the major cities of the region, was the birthplace of Raphael, as well as a major centre of Renaissance history. Toponymy The name of the region derives from the plural of the medieval word '' marca'', meaning "march" or "mark" in the sense of border zone, originall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: ''Inferno'', ''Purgatorio'', and '' Paradiso''. The narrative takes as its literal subject the state of the soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward, and describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (''Inferno''), followed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dmitry Medoyev
Dmitry Nikolayevich Medoyev (russian: Дмитрий Николаевич Медоев), born 15 May 1960, is the former foreign minister of South Ossetia. Previously, he was the Ambassador of South Ossetia to the Russian Federation. Previous to recognition of South Ossetian independence by Russia on 26 August 2008, he was the secessionist envoy to Moscow for the Republic of South Ossetia. He was widely cited during the 2008 South Ossetia War on President Eduard Kokoity's position on the August 8 invasion, and has since been involved in negotiating Georgia's presumed territorial sovereignty over the region. Medoyev presented his diplomatic credentials to Grigory Karasin, the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 13 January 2008, and to President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev on 16 January 2009. He was dismissed in 2015. From 2017 until 2022, he was the South Ossetian foreign minister. External links »Südossetien ist offen gegenüber der Welt« – Interview with Dmitr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Ossetia
South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated population of just over 56,500 people (2022), who live in an area of , on the south side of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, with 33,000 living in the capital city, Tskhinvali. Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria recognise South Ossetia as a sovereign state. Although Georgia does not control South Ossetia, the Georgian government and the United Nations consider the territory part of Georgia. Georgia does not recognise the existence of South Ossetia as a political entity, and the territory comprising South Ossetia does not correspond to any Georgian administrative area (although Georgian authorities have set up the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia as a transitional measure leading to the settlement of South Ossetia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Della Rovere
The House of Della Rovere (; literally "of the oak tree") was a noble family Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ... of Italy. It had humble origins in Savona, in Liguria, and acquired power and influence through nepotism and ambitious marriages arranged by two Della Rovere popes: Francesco Della Rovere, who ruled as Sixtus IV from 1471 to 1484) and his nephew Giuliano, who became Julius II in 1503. Sixtus IV built the Sistine Chapel, which is named for him. The Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome is the family church of the Della Rovere. Members of the family were influential in the Catholic Church, Church of Rome, and as dukes of Urbino; that title was extinguished with the death of Francesco Maria II in 1631, and the family died out with the death of his grandda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia (; ca-valencia, Cèsar Borja ; es, link=no, César Borja ; 13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was an Italian ex- cardinal and '' condottiero'' (mercenary leader) of Aragonese (Spanish) origin, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for ''The Prince'' by Niccolò Machiavelli. He was an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and member of the Spanish-Aragonese House of Borgia. After initially entering the Church and becoming a cardinal on his father's election to the Papacy, he became, after the death of his brother in 1498, the first person to resign a . He served as a ''condottiero'' for King Louis XII of France around 1500, and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars. At the same time he carved out a state for himself in Central Italy, but after his father's death he was unable to retain power for long. According to Machiavelli, this was not due to a lack of foresight, but his error in creating a new pope. Early life Like many aspects of Cesa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
