Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bréquigny, Louis Georges Oudard Feudrix de" to "Bulgaria" Volume 4, Part 3

BRESCIA (anc. Brixia), a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the province of Brescia, finely situated at the foot of the Alps, 52 m. E. of Milan and 40 m. W. of Verona by rail. Pop. (1901) town, 42,495; commune, 72,731. The plan of the city is rectangular, and the streets intersect at right angles, a peculiarity handed down from Roman times, though the area enclosed by the medieval walls is larger than that of the Roman town, which occupied the eastern portion of the present one. The Piazza del Museo marks the site of the forum, and the museum on its north side is ensconced in a Corinthian temple with three cellae, by some attributed to Hercules, but more probably the Capitolium of the city, erected by Vespasian in A.D. 73 (if the inscription really belongs to the building; cf. Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscrip. Lat. v. No. 4312, Berlin, 1872), and excavated in 1823. It contains a famous bronze statue of Victory, found in 1826. Scanty remains of a building on the south side of the forum, called the curia, but which may be a basilica, and of the theatre, on the east of the temple, still exist.

Brescia contains many interesting medieval buildings. The castle, at the north-east angle of the town, commands a fine view. It is now a military prison. The old cathedral is a round domed structure of the 10th (?) century erected over an early Christian basilica, which has forty-two ancient columns; and the Broletto, adjoining the new cathedral (a building of 1604) on the north, is a massive building of the 12th and 13th centuries (the original town hall, now the prefecture and law courts), with a lofty tower. There are also remains of the convent of S. Salvatore, founded by Desiderius, king of Lombardy, including three churches, two of which now contain the fine medieval museum, which possesses good ivories. The church of S. Francesco has a Gothic facade and cloisters. There are also some good Renaissance palaces and other buildings, including the Municipio, begun in 1492 and completed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1554-1574. This is a magnificent structure, with fine ornamentation. The church of S. Maria dei Miracoli (1488-1523) is also noteworthy for its general effect and for the richness of its details, especially of the reliefs on the facade. Many other churches, and the picture gallery (Galleria Martinengo), contain fine works of the painters of the Brescian school, Alessandro Bonvicino (generally known as Moretto), Girolamo Romanino and Moretto's pupil, Giovanni Battista Moroni. The Biblioteca Queriniana contains early MSS., a 14th-century MS. of Dante, &c., and some rare incunabula. The city is well supplied with water, and has no less than seventy-two public fountains. Brescia has considerable factories of iron ware, particularly fire-arms and weapons (one of the government small arms factories being situated here), also of woollens, linens and silks, matches, candles, &c. The stone quarries of Mazzano, 8 m. east of Brescia, supplied material for the monument to Victor Emmanuel II. and other buildings in Rome. Brescia is situated on the main railway line between Milan and Verona, and has branch railways to Iseo, Parma, Cremona and (via Rovato) to Bergamo, and steam tramways to Mantua, Soncino, Ponte Toscolano and Cardone Valtrompia.

The ancient Celtic Brixia, a town of the Cenomani, became Roman in 225 B.C., when the Cenomani submitted to Rome. Augustus founded a civil (not a military) colony here in 27 B.C., and he and Tiberius constructed an aqueduct to supply it. In 452 it was plundered by Attila, but was the seat of a duchy in the Lombard period. From 1167 it was one of the most active members of the Lombard League. In 1258 it fell into the hands of Eccelino of Verona, and belonged to the Scaligers (della Scala) until 1421, when it came under the Visconti of Milan, and in 1426 under Venice. Early in the 16th century it was one of the wealthiest cities of Lombardy, but has never recovered from its sack by the French under Gaston de Foix in 1512. It belonged to Venice until 1797, when it came under Austrian dominion; it revolted in 1848, and again in 1849, being the only Lombard town to rally to Charles Albert in the latter year, but was taken after ten days' obstinate street fighting by the Austrians under Haynau.

See Museo Bresciano Illustrato (Brescia, 1838).

(T. AS.)

BRESLAU (Polish Wraclaw), a city of Germany, capital of the Prussian province of Silesia, and an episcopal see, situated in a wide and fertile plain on both banks of the navigable Oder, 350 m. from its mouth, at the influx of the Ohle, and 202 m. from Berlin on the railway to Vienna. Pop. (1867) 171,926; (1880) 272,912; (1885) 299,640; (1890) 335,186; (1905) 470,751, about 60% being Protestants, 35% Roman Catholics and nearly 5% Jews. The Oder, which here breaks into several arms, divides the city into two unequal halves, crossed by numerous bridges. The larger portion, on the left bank, includes the old or inner town, surrounded by beautiful promenades, on the site of the ramparts, dismantled after 1813, from an eminence within which, the Liebichs Hoehe, a fine view is obtained of the surrounding country. Outside, as well as across the Oder, lies the new town with extensive suburbs, containing, especially in the Schweidnitz quarter in the south, and the Oder quarter in the north, many handsome streets and spacious squares. The inner town, in contrast to the suburbs, still retains with its narrow streets much of its ancient characters, and contains several medieval buildings, both religious and secular, of great beauty and interest. The cathedral, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was begun in 1148 and completed at the close of the 15th century, enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries, and restored between 1873 and 1875; it is rich in notable treasures, especially the high altar of beaten silver, and in beautiful paintings and sculptures. The Kreuzkirche (church of the Holy Cross), dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, is an interesting brick building, remarkable for its stained glass and its historical monuments, among which is the tomb of Henry IV., duke of Silesia. The Sandkirche, so called from its dedication to Our Lady on the Sand, dates from the 14th century, and was until 1810 the church of the Augustinian canons. The Dorotheenor Minoritenkirche, remarkable for its high-pitched roof, was founded by the emperor Charles IV. in 1351. These are the most notable of the Roman Catholic churches. Of the Evangelical churches the most important is that of St Elizabeth, founded about 1250, rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries, and restored in 1857. Its lofty tower contains the largest bell in Silesia, and the church possesses a celebrated organ, fine stained glass, a magnificent stone pyx (erected in 1455) over 52 ft. high, and portraits of Luther and Melanchthon by Lucas Cranach. The church of St Mary Magdalen, built in the 14th century on the model of the cathedral, has two lofty Gothic towers connected by a bridge, and is interesting as having been the church in which, in 1523, the reformation in Silesia was first proclaimed. Other noteworthy ecclesiastical buildings are the graceful Gothic church of St Michael built in 1871, the bishop's palace and the Jewish synagogue, the finest in Germany after that in Berlin.

The business streets of the city converge upon the Ring, the market square, in which is the town-hall, a fine Gothic building, begun in the middle of the 14th and completed in the 16th century. Within is the Fuerstensaal, in which the diets of Silesia were formerly held, while beneath is the famous Schweidnitzer Keller, used continuously since 1355 as a beer and wine house. [v.04 p.0499] The university, a spacious Gothic building facing the Oder, is a striking edifice. It was built (1728-1736) as a college by the Jesuits, on the site of the former imperial castle presented to them by the emperor Leopold I., and contains a magnificent hall (Aula Leopoldina), richly ornamented with frescoes and capable of holding 1200 persons. Breslau possesses a large number of other important public buildings: the Stadthaus (civic hall), the royal palace, the government offices (a handsome pile erected in 1887), the provincial House of Assembly, the municipal archives, the courts of law, the Silesian museum of arts and crafts and antiquities, stored in the former assembly hall of the estates (Staendehaus), which was rebuilt for the purpose, the museum of fine arts, the exchange, the Stadt and Lobe theatres, the post office and central railway station. There are also numerous hospitals and schools. Breslau is exceedingly rich in fine monuments; the most noteworthy being the equestrian statues of Frederick the Great and Frederick William III., both by Kiss; the statue of Bluecher by Rauch; a marble statue of General Tauentzien by Langhans and Schadow; a bronze statue of Karl Gottlieb Svarez (1746-1798), the Prussian jurist, a monument to Schleiermacher, born here in 1768, and statues of the emperor William I., Bismarck and Moltke. There are also several handsome fountains. Foremost among the educational establishments stands the university, founded in 1702 by the emperor Leopold I. as a Jesuit college, and greatly extended by the incorporation of the university of Frankfort-on-Oder in 1811. Its library contains 306,000 volumes and 4000 MSS., and has in the so-called Bibliotheca Habichtiana a valuable collection of oriental literature. Among its auxiliary establishments are botanical gardens, an observatory, and anatomical, physiological and kindred institutions. There are eight classical and four modern schools, two higher girls' schools, a Roman Catholic normal school, a Jewish theological seminary, a school of arts and crafts, and numerous literary and charitable foundations. It is, however, as a commercial and industrial city that Breslau is most widely known. Its situation, close to the extensive coal and iron fields of Upper Silesia, in proximity to the Austrian and Russian frontiers, at the centre of a network of railways directly communicating both with these countries and with the chief towns of northern and central Germany, and on a deep waterway connecting with the Elbe and the Vistula, facilitates its very considerable transit and export trade in the products of the province and of the neighbouring countries. These embrace coal, sugar, cereals, spirits, petroleum and timber. The local industries comprise machinery and tools, railway and tramway carriages, furniture, cast-iron goods, gold and silver work, carpets, furs, cloth and cottons, paper, musical instruments, glass and china. Breslau is the headquarters of the VI. German army corps and contains a large garrison of troops of all arms.

_History._--Breslau (Lat. Vratislavia) is first mentioned by the chronicler Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg, in A.D. 1000, and was probably founded some years before this date. Early in the 11th century it was made the seat of a bishop, and after having formed part of Poland, became the capital of an independent duchy in 1163. Destroyed by the Mongols in 1241, it soon recovered its former prosperity and received a large influx of German colonists. The bishop obtained the title of a prince of the Empire in 1290.[1] When Henry VI., the last duke of Breslau, died in 1335, the city came by purchase to John, king of Bohemia, whose successors retained it until about 1460. The Bohemian kings bestowed various privileges on Breslau, which soon began to extend its commerce in all directions, while owing to increasing wealth the citizens took up a more independent attitude. Disliking the Hussites, Breslau placed itself under the protection of Pope Pius II. in 1463, and a few years afterwards came under the rule of the Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus. After his death in 1490 it again became subject to Bohemia, passing with the rest of Silesia to the Habsburgs when in 1526 Ferdinand, afterwards emperor, was chosen king of Bohemia. Having passed almost undisturbed through the periods of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, Breslau was compelled to own the authority of Frederick the Great in 1741. It was, however, recovered by the Austrians in 1757, but was regained by Frederick after his victory at Leuthen in the same year, and has since belonged to Prussia, although it was held for a few days by the French in 1807 after the battle of Jena, and again in 1813 after the battle of Bautzen. The sites of the fortifications, dismantled by the French in 1807, were given to the civic authorities by King Frederick William III., and converted into promenades. In March 1813 this monarch issued from Breslau his stirring appeals to the Prussians, An mein Volk and An mein Kriegesheer, and the city was the centre of the Prussian preparations for the campaign which ended at Leipzig. After the Prussian victory at Sadowa in 1866, William I. made a triumphant and complimentary entry into the city, which since the days of Frederick the Great has been only less loyal to the royal house than Berlin itself.