Pavia

Pavia was a Lombard city on the lower Ticino, near the Po. A Ghibelline commune and rival of Milan, it was ruled in 1337 by Musso Beccaria.

After a hard siege, Milan's Visconti conquered Pavia in 1359. The university was refounded in 1361, and Gian Galeazzo Visconti began the Certosa in 1396. At the Battle of Pavia in 1525, King Francis I of France was captured; long Spanish rule followed. Austria held the city from 1706 until French forces arrived in 1796.