Lodi

Lodi stands on the Adda, a town founded by Frederick Barbarossa on 3 August 1158 after the destruction of the old Laus Pompeia. Its cathedral, begun that very day, was finished in 1284, with an asymmetrical brick façade and a Gothic porch. From 1251 a series of lordly families ruled the town, until in the fourteenth century it became part of the Duchy of Milan, where the Visconti built the great castle of Porta Regale in 1355–1370.

In 1413 the antipope John XXIII and Emperor Sigismund summoned the Council of Constance from the cathedral of Lodi, which would end the Western Schism. On 9 April 1454 the Italian states signed the Peace of Lodi, which gave forty years of stability. In 1488 the commune began the octagonal Tempio dell'Incoronata at its own expense, on the site of a brothel. Under Spain, Lodi was reduced to a fortress and declined. On 10 May 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte beat the Austrians at the bridge of Lodi, opening the road to Milan.