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Vigentino is a district ("
quartiere 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 title of (). Formed a ...
") 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 ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, part of the Zone 5 administrative division, located south of the city centre. Before 1923, Vigentino was an autonomous, rural ''
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 ...
''. By the mid 20th century, agricultural activities were dismissed, and the area was largely urbanized, with the construction of large apartment blocks. The name "Vigentino" comes from ''viginti'', the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
word for "twenty"; this is because Vigentino lies on the road from Milan to
Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...
, 20 miles before Pavia. The road has been a major thoroughfare in
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 ...
since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
; the
walls of Milan The city of Milan, Italy, has had three different systems of defending walls. The oldest, the Ancient Rome, Roman walls, were developed in two stages: the first in the Roman Republic, Republican era and the second in the Roman Empire, Imperial era. ...
had a city gate on that road,
Porta Vigentina Porta Vigentina was one of the city gates in the Spanish walls of Milan, Italy; the gate has since been demolished, but the phrase "Porta Vigentina" is still used to refer to the district ("quartiere") where the gate used to be. The area is part o ...
, which was named after Vigentino. The main historic centre of Vigentino is at the crossing of Via Ripamonti, Via Quaranta and Via Solaroli. A sort of secondary centre (which is sometimes considered a district in its own, and in that case is referred to as Quartiere Fatima) is located between Via Broni and Via Chopin. The district is connected to the city centre by tramway line 24, while
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
routes 34 and 95 link it with the M2 metro at Famagosta and the M3 at Corvetto and at Brenta. Bus route 99 reaches from Vigentino outwards to the city limits near the ''comune'' of
Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
, and further interurban routes lead to other ''comuni'' lying south of Milan. Exit n.8 of the A50 Tangenziale Ovest
motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...
leads to Vigentino through via Ripamonti. As many ex-rural, ex-industrial districts of the southern periphery of Milan, Vigentino is relatively degraded, affected by environmental problems (such as infestations of
rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...
s and illegal rubbish dumps) as well as social problems, such as
slum A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...
s of immigrants and
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...
nomads. A major landmark of Vigentino are the "Cortili di Via Matera" ("courtyards of Via Matera"), a neighborhood that has been realized in the place where an old industrial depot used to be, and that includes houses, offices, and a theatre, called "Teatro del Vigentino". This place was included in a list of the 100 most important courtyards of Milan by Milan's Tourism Office.


History

Vigentino used to belong to the
pieve In Italy in the Middle Ages, a ''pieve'' (, ; ; : ''pievi'') was a rural church with a baptistery, upon which other churches without baptisteries depended. ''Pieve'' is also an Italian and Corsican term signifying the medieval ecclesiastical/a ...
of
San Donato Milanese San Donato Milanese (Milanese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan. It is served by the San Donato underground station right on the borderline bet ...
. Under Napoleonic rule, it was briefly annexed to Milan, but regained its autonomy with the
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (), commonly called the "Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom" (; ), was a constituent land (crown land) of the Austrian Empire from 1815 to 1866. It was created in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna in recogniti ...
. At the
unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...
, its population was 797. In 1869, the nearby communes of Quintosole and
Vaiano Valle Vaiano Valle is a rural district ("quartiere") of Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 5 administrative division. It is located south of the city's urban area, within the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano nature reserve. Before 1869, it was an autonomous ''comu ...
were annexed to Vigentino; in turn, Vigentino became part of Milan in 1923. In the first decades of the 20th century, partly of a consequence of the construction of the nearby Porta Romana railway station, the Vigentino district became an industrial area, the main commercial activities being a
naphtha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...
depot and a
foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
;Cortili di Via Matera
(in Italian)
later on, the transition to a fully industrial context was further boosted when
Officine Meccaniche Officine Meccaniche or OM was an Italian car and truck manufacturing company. It was founded in 1899 in Milan as Società Anonima Officine Meccaniche to manufacture railway rolling stock and car production began in 1918. It disappeared as su ...
(a car manufacturer) and Centrale del Latte di Milano (a dairy factory) established facilities in the area.J. N. Martin, ''La Luna sotto casa'', p. 37 Industrial activities were dismissed in the last decades of the 20th century, and Vigentino became a mostly residential district.


Notable people

Enzo Bearzot Enzo Bearzot (; 26 September 1927 – 21 December 2010) was an Italian professional football player and manager. A defender and midfielder in his playing career, he also coached the Italy national team to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. ...
, football player and manager, lived in Vigentino for several years, and his funeral was held there, in the church of "Santa Maria al Paradiso".


Footnotes

{{coord, 45, 25, 59, N, 9, 12, 04, E, source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Districts of Milan Former municipalities of Lombardy