Seveso (; ) is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the Province of Monza and Brianza, in the

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

. 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 ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

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 (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

and on the Milan-Meda motorway. Seveso railway station is located on the

Milan–Asso railway The Milan–Asso railway is a regional railway, railway line with standard track gauge which links Milan to Canzo crossing for Erba, Lombardy, Erba and other towns in Brianza. The most northern terminal is the station of Canzo-Asso, which is loc ...

, while Seveso-Baruccana railway station is located on the Saronno–Seregno railway. Neighbouring communes are Meda, Seregno, Barlassina, Cogliate, Cesano Maderno.

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 () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

. Towards 780, the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

at Meda was founded, the jurisdiction of which extended to the territory of Seveso. In 1252 the church of Saint Peter Martyr (''S. Pietro Martire'') was constructed in homage to the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

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 possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

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

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

Cisalpine Republic The Cisalpine Republic (; ) was a sister republic or a client state 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 two ...

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

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

, 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) 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 (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

, 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, Roman Catholic priest and hermit

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lombardy