Seveso (; lmo, label= Lombard, Séves ) is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

'' in the

Province of Monza and Brianza The province of Monza and Brianza ( it, provincia di Monza e della Brianza; lmo, label= Monzese, provincia de Monscia e de la Brianza) is an administrative province of Lombardy region, Italy. Description It was officially created by splittin ...

, in the

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of Lombardy. The economy of the town has traditionally been based on the furniture industry. Its name comes from the river of the same name which crosses the ''

'' in a north-south direction. Seveso received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on 18 June 2003.

Geography

The town is situated to the north of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

in the Brianza lowlands. The territory of the commume is highly urbanised, with the majority of inhabitants living in the town. Seveso lies on the national trunk road ''Statale dei Giovi'', which connects Milan to

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps has m ...

and on the Milan-Meda motorway. Seveso railway station is located on the Milan–Asso railway, while Seveso-Baruccana railway station is located on the Saronno–Seregno railway. Neighbouring communes are

Meda Meda may refer to: Places * Meda de Mouros, a parish in Tábua Municipality, Portugal * Medas, a parish in Gondomar Municipality, Portugal * Meda-Ela, Sri Lanka * Međa (Leskovac), village in the municipality of Leskovac, Serbia * Meda, Lombard ...

, Seregno, Barlassina, Cogliate,

Cesano Maderno Cesano Maderno (Milanese: Cesaa) is a town and ''comune'' of about 39,000 inhabitants in the province of Monza and Brianza, Lombardy, northern Italy. The town borders with the towns of Seveso in the north, in the south with Bovisio-Masciago, in th ...

History

Seveso's origins date back to about the 3rd century BC, when certain areas around Brianza were used as military staging posts for the Roman conquest of

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only durin ...

. Towards 780, the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

at Meda was founded, the jurisdiction of which extended to the territory of Seveso. In 1252 the church of

Saint Peter Martyr Peter of Verona (1205 – April 6, 1252), also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was kille ...

(''S. Pietro Martire'') was constructed in homage to the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of C ...

brother who had been assassinated in Seveso. The Church of the Seminary preserves in its crypt the knife which was used to kill him. The town was struck in the 16th century by two episodes of

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accom ...

and plague. During the 17th century, the town was ruled by several families, of which the Arese family left a number of outstanding monuments. In 1798, Prince Giuseppe II of the Napoleonic

Cisalpine Republic The Cisalpine Republic ( it, Repubblica Cisalpina) was a sister republic of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802. Creation After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized ...

ordered the Dominicans to leave the monastery and church of Saint Peter. In the unification of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and ...

, territory from Barlassina was passed to Seveso. This decision was rejected by the population and the two ''comuni'' were again separated in 1901.

Chemical disaster

Seveso made world headlines when, on 10 July 1976, storage vessels at the ICMESA chemical plant ruptured, releasing several kilograms of the dioxin TCDD (

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-''p-''dioxin (TCDD) is a polychlorinated dibenzo''-p-''dioxin (sometimes shortened, though inaccurately, to simply 'dioxin')Tuomisto, Jouko (2019) Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds: toxicity in humans and animals, s ...

) into the atmosphere. Tens of thousands of farm animals and pets died or were later deliberately slaughtered, though it is believed that there was not a single human death directly attributable to the incident. The event came later to be known as the Seveso disaster, which later became the eponym for the European Commission's Seveso directive. Nowadays in the main contaminated area there is a park called "Bosco delle Querce" (Wood of Oaks).

In popular culture

The track "Suffocation", in the 1980 album '' See You Later'' by Greek composer

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

, was inspired by the Seveso disaster. Another song, "Canzone per Seveso", in the 1976 album '' Ullàlla'' by Antonello Venditti, was written for Seveso.

Notable people

* Walter Allievi, footballer *

Giovannangelo Porro Giovannangelo Porro (1451 - 23 October 1505) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and hermit who hailed from the Milanese region and was a professed member of the Servites. Porro was born to nobles and became a priest after the death of his father ...

, Roman Catholic priest and hermit

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lombardy