Lambrate ( lmo, Lambraa ) is a district (''

quartiere A (; plural: ) is a territorial subdivision of certain Italian towns. The word derives from (‘fourth’) and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods by the two main roads. It has been later used as a synonymous ...

'') of

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

, Italy, located within the Zone 3 administrative division, north-east of the city centre. It owes its name to the

Lambro The Lambro ( lmo, Lamber or ''Lambar'' ) is a river of Lombardy, northern Italy, a left tributary of the Po. The Lambro rises from the Monte San Primo, elevation , near the Ghisallo, in the province of Como, not far from Lake Como. After Mag ...

river that traverses the area. Lambrate houses one of the major railway stations of north-eastern Milan, the Stazione di Milano Lambrate. The district is also well known for Parco Lambro, a large urban park established in 1934. The famous

Lambretta Lambretta () is the brand name of mainly motor scooters, initially manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Innocenti. The name is derived from the word Lambrate, the suburb of Milan named after the river Lambro which flows through the area, and whe ...

motor scooter was manufactured in Lambrate, and named after this district, as is

Birrificio Lambrate is a craft brewery in the Lambrate district of Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a popul ...

, a craft brewery established in 1996. Milano Lambrate railway station, the third-largest railway station in Milan, is located in Lambrate.

History

Lambrate originated as a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

''. The Romans conquered the area in 222 BC, after a long siege of Milan (then ''Mediolanum''), where Romans fought against the local

Insubres The Insubres or Insubri were an ancient Celtic population settled in Insubria, in what is now the Italian region of Lombardy. They were the founders of Mediolanum ( Milan). Though completely Gaulish at the time of Roman conquest, they were the r ...

and

Boii The Boii ( Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; grc, Βόιοι) were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul ( Northern Italy), Pannonia ( Hungary), parts of Bavaria, in and around Bohemia (after whom ...

as well as their ally

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

mentions ''mansio ad Lambrus'' (Lambrate) in his ''

Naturalis historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

'' as a supply station; it is also likely that Lambrate served as a river port for Mediolanum. The Romans largely developed the area, both for agriculture and for navigation on the

Po River The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira, a right bank tributary, is included. T ...

basin. Finds of the old Roman settlement of Lambrate, including a marble

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Gre ...

, have been revealed in 1905 and are now exposed at the

Sforza Castle The Castello Sforzesco (Italian for "Sforza's Castle") is a medieval fortification located in Milan, northern Italy. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later reno ...

museum. The small chapel in the centre of Lambrate was supposedly one of the first places of Christian worship in the area. In the 8th and 9th century, two monasteries of the

Order of Saint Benedict The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monk ...

were built in Lambrate. In 1162, when Milan was demolished by

Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

, Lambrate was proclaimed an "imperial borgo"; many Milanese refugees found a new home here. During Spanish rule (in the 16th century), a war factory called "Polveriera" was built in Lambrate, which played a major role in the development of the area. The Spanish transformed Lambrate into a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

, a condition that lasted until Lombardy fell under the Napoleonic Empire, when Lambrate became a free ''

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 also ...

''. A few decades later, Lambrate was annexed to Milan by the French viceroy. In 1816, during the Austrian rule, Lambrate was again an autonomous comune, to be annexed to Milan once again in 1923. In the first half of the 20th century, the Martinitt corporation was based in Lambrate. After World War II, the

Innocenti Innocenti () was an Italian machinery works, originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920. Over the years, they produced Lambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly of British Leyland origins. The brand was retired in ...

machine factory began producing in Lambrate the famous motorcycle

, that owes its name to Lambrate.

The Chapel

One of the prominent monuments of Lambrate is the old chapel located in the centre of the district, at the corner of via Bertolazzi and via Dardanoni, which existed since Roman times (possibly having a

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

rather than Christian origin). The history of the chapel is intertwined with the lives of Saints

Charles Borromeo Charles Borromeo ( it, Carlo Borromeo; la, Carolus Borromeus; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat ...

and

Federico Borromeo Federico Borromeo (18 August 1564 – 21 September 1631) was an Italian cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, a prominent figure of Counter-Reformation Italy. Early life Federico Borromeo was born in Milan as the second son of Giulio Cesare Borrom ...

. According to

Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel '' The Betrothed'' (orig. it, I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the maste ...

's scholars, an implicit reference to the chapel is found in '' The Betrothed'' when the main character Renzo Tramaglino travels from Milan to Trezzo d'Adda. During World War II, on 13 August 1943, the chapel was hit by a bomb that knocked down part of the roof and landed on the altar, without exploding.

History

The Chapel

See also