Piedmont

Sacra di San Michele

Piedmont (English: /ˈpdmɒnt/ ; Italian: Piemonte, Italian: [pjeˈmonte]) is a region of Northwest Italy, one of the 20 regions of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest; it also borders Switzerland to the northeast and France to the west. It has an area of making it the second largest region of Italy after Sicily and a population of 4,269,714 as of 31 January 2021. The capital of Piedmont is Turin.

Toponymy

The French Piedmont, the Italian Piemonte, and other variant cognates come from the medieval Latin or , i.e., , meaning "at the foot of the mountains" (referring to the Alps), attested in documents from the end of the 12th century.

Geography

Piedmont is surrounded on three sides by the Alps, including Monviso, where the river Po rises, and Monte Rosa. It borders with France (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), Switzerland (Ticino and Valais) and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley and for a very small part with Emilia Romagna. The geography of Piedmont is 43.3% mountainous, along with extensive areas of hills (30.3%) and plains (26.4%).

Piedmont is the second largest of Italy's 20 regions, after Sicily. It is broadly coincident with the upper part of the drainage basin of the river Po, which rises from the slopes of Monviso in the west of the region and is Italy's largest river. The Po drains the semicircle formed by the Alps and Apennines, which surround the region on three sides.

The countryside is very diverse: from the rugged peaks of the massifs of Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso to the damp rice paddies of Vercelli and Novara, from the gentle hillsides of the Langhe, Roero and Montferrat to the plains. 7.6% of the entire territory is considered protected area. There are 56 different national or regional parks; one of the most famous is the Gran Paradiso National Park, between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.

Piedmont has a typically temperate climate, which on the Alps becomes progressively temperate-cold and colder as it climbs to altitude. In areas located at low altitudes, winters are relatively cold but not very rainy and often sunny, with the possibility of snowfall, sometimes abundant. Snowfall, on the other hand, is less frequent and occasional in the northeast areas. Summers are hot with local possibilities of strong thunderstorms.

Major towns and cities

Population rank	City Name	Population (ab)	Surface (km²)	Density (ab/km²)	Altitude (m s.l.m)	Province or metropolitan city
1	Turin	875,698	130.17	6,786	239	TO
2	Novara	104,411	103.05	1,013	162	NO
3	Alessandria	93,884	203.97	460	95	AL
4	Asti	76,424	151.82	504	123	AT
5	Moncalieri	57,060	47.63	1,197	260	TO
6	Cuneo	56,116	119.88	468	534	CN
7	Collegno	49,940	18.12	2,756	302	TO
8	Rivoli	48,819	29.52	1,653	390	TO
9	Nichelino	48,182	20.64	2,334	229	TO
10	Settimo Torinese	47,704	32.37	1,473	207	TO

Other towns of Piedmont with more than 20,000 inhabitants sorted by population :

Population rank	City Name	Population (ab)	Surface (km²)	Density (ab/km²)	Altitude (m s.l.m)	Province or metropolitan city
11	Vercelli	46,808	79.85	586	130	VC
12	Biella	44,860	46.68	961	417	BI
13	Grugliasco	37,906	13.12	2,889	293	TO
14	Chieri	36,778	54.30	677	305	TO
15	Pinerolo	35,778	50.28	711	376	TO
16	Casale Monferrato	34,565	86.32	400	116	AL
17	Venaria Reale	34,248	20.29	1,687	262	TO
18	Alba	31,419	54.01	581	172	CN
19	Verbania	30,933	36.62	844	197	VB
20	Bra	29,705	59.61	498	285	CN
21	Carmagnola	29,052	96.38	301	240	TO
22	Novi Ligure	28,257	54.22	521	199	AL
23	Tortona	27,575	99.29	278	122	AL
24	Chivasso	26,704	51.31	520	183	TO
25	Fossano	24,743	130.72	189	375	CN
26	Ivrea	23,598	30.19	781	253	TO
27	Orbassano	23,240	22.05	1,053	273	TO
28	Mondovì	22,592	87.25	258	395	CN
29	Borgomanero	21,709	32.36	670	307	NO
30	Savigliano	21,306	110.73	192	321	CN
31	Trecate	20,329	38.38	529	136	NO
32	Acqui Terme	20,054	33.30	602	156	AL

History

Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later subdued by the Romans (c. 220 BC), who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Eporedia (Ivrea). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was successively invaded by the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths (5th century), East Romans, Lombards (6th century), and Franks (773).

In the 9th–10th centuries there were further incursions by the Magyars, Saracens and Muslim Moors. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marches and counties.

In 1046, Otto of Savoy added Piedmont to the County of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni (municipalities) of Asti and Alessandria and the marquisates of Saluzzo and Montferrat. The County of Savoy became the Duchy of Savoy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia and increasing Turin's importance as a European capital.

The Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont. A new client republic, the Piedmontese Republic, existed between 1798 and 1799 before it was reoccupied by Austrian and Russian troops. In June 1800 a third client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont. It fell under full French control in 1801 and it was annexed by France in September 1802. In the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia was restored and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France.

Piedmont was a springboard for Italian unification in 1859–1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820–1821 and 1848–1849. This process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation. However, the efforts were later countered by the efforts of rural farmers.

The House of Savoy became Kings of Italy, and Turin briefly became the capital of Italy. However, when the Italian capital was moved to Florence, and then to Rome, the administrative and institutional importance of Piedmont was reduced. The only recognition of Piedmont's historical role was that the crown prince of Italy was known as the Prince of Piedmont. After Italian unification, Piedmont was one of the most important regions in the first Italian industrialization.

Demographics

31 December 2018 largest resident foreign citizens groups
Country of birth	Population
Romania	147,916
Morocco	54,151
Albania	40,919
China	20,091
Nigeria	12,638
Peru	11,579
Ukraine	10,435
Moldova	8,945
Egypt	7,889
Senegal	7,626
North Macedonia	6,463
Philippines	6,309
India	5,301
Pakistan	5,084

The population density in Piedmont is lower than the national average. In 2008 it was equal to 174 inhabitants per km², compared to a national figure of about 200. The Metropolitan City of Turin has 335 inhabitants per km², whereas Verbano-Cusio-Ossola is the least densely populated province, with 72 inhabitants per km².

The population of Piedmont followed a downward trend throughout the 1980s, a result of the natural negative balance (of some 3 to 4% per year), while the migratory balance since 1986 has again become positive because of immigration. The population remained stable in the 1990s.

The Turin metro area grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s due to an increase of immigrants from southern Italy and Veneto and today it has a population of approximately two million. , the Italian national institute of statistics (ISTAT) estimated that 310,543 foreign-born immigrants live in Piedmont, equal to 7.0% of the total regional population. Most immigrants come from Eastern Europe (mostly from Romania, Albania, and Ukraine) with smaller communities of African immigrants.

Culture

Languages

As in the rest of Italy, Italian is the official national language. The main local languages are Piedmontese, Insubric (spoken in the eastern part of the region), Occitan (spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Province of Cuneo and the Metropolitan City of Turin), and Franco-Provençal (spoken by another minority in the alpine heights of the Metropolitan City of Turin), like in the Susa valley and Walser (spoken by a minority in the Province of Vercelli and Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola).