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An ancient town, the seat of an archbishop, it is now mostly known as "the capital of engines", given that most famous Italian car factories like De Tomaso, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati were born there or were somehow related to its province.
Modena is the birthplace of the legendary operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
The University of Modena, founded in 1683 by Francis II d'Este , has traditional strengths in medicine and law. Modena also hosts the Italian Military Academy, where Italian officers are trained, partly housed in the Baroque ducal palace, begun by Francis I in 1635 from the designs of Avanzini, and finished by Francis Ferdinand V with a fine courtyard. The Biblioteca Estense houses historical volumes and 3000 manuscripts.
Modena is also well known, in culinary circles, for its production of balsamic vinegar.
There is a strong sporting culture, linked mainly to motor racing and association football (soccer). The town's football club, Modena F.C., play in Serie B.
The communes of the city of Modena: Campogalliano, Nonantola, Soliera, Bastiglia, Castelnuovo Rangone, Formigine, Castelfranco Emilia, San Cesario sul Panaro.
Principal communes of the province of Modena: Carpi, Castelfranco Emilia, Fiorano Modenese, Finale Emilia, Formigine, Maranello, Mirandola, Sassuolo, Vignola (MO), Pavullo nel Frignano.
Modena (Roman Mutina) sits squarely on the Roman Via Aemilia; its ancient center lay to the southeast of the present historical center, but there are no Roman remains. The ancient Mutina became part of Roman territory in the war of 215 - 212 BC and in 183 it was refounded as a Roman colony. The Roman town appears to have been a place of importance under the empire: its vineyards and potteries are mentioned by Pliny. The 4th century AD found Mutina in a state of decay; the ravages of Attila and the troubles of the Lombard period left it a ruined city in a wasted land.
In the 7th century, perhaps owing to a terrible flood, its exiles founded a new city a few miles to the northwest, still represented by the village of Cittanova. About the end of the 9th century Modena was restored and refortified by its bishop, Ludovicus.
The " DuomoDuomo is a generic Italian term for a cathedral church. The formal word is "cattedrale", meaning a church that is currently a cathedral; but a Duomo may be either a present or a former cathedral, the latter always in a town that no longer has a bishops no" (cathedral) of Modena is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (illustration, right). Begun under the direction of the Countess Matilda of TuscanyMatilda, countess of Tuscany ( 1046 July 24, 1114), was the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the investiture controversy, and is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments. She is sometimes called with its first stone laid June 6June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 208 days remaining. Events 1513 Italian Wars: Battle of Novara Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke, 1099Events Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade: July 8 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mocked them. July 15 Christian soldiers under Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert II of Flanders, Raymond IV of Toulouse a and its crypt ready for the city's patron, Saint Geminianus , and consecrated only six years later, the Duomo of Modena was finished in 1184. The building of a great cathedral in this flood-prone ravaged former center of Arianism was an act of urban renewal in itself, and an expression of the flood of piety that motivated the contemporary First CrusadeThe First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II at Clermont, France with the objective of regaining control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims, and also of giving military assistance to the Byzantine Empire against the Seljuk Turks.. Unusually, the master builder's name, Lanfranco, was celebrated in his own day: the city's chronicler expressed the popular confidence in the master-mason from Como, Lanfranco: by God's mercy the man was found (inventus est vir). The sculptor Wiligelmus who directed the mason's yard was praised in the plaque that commemorated the founding. The program of the sculpture is not lost in a welter of detail: the wild dangerous universe of the exterior is mediated by the Biblical figures of the portals leading to the Christian world of the interior. In Wiligelmus' sculpure at Modena, the human body takes on a renewed physicality it had lost in the schematic symbolic figures of previous centuries. At the east end, triple apseThis article is about an architectural feature; for the astronomical term see apsis. Tewkesbury Abbey. The apse is coloured gray (ambulatory and radiating chapels) and green (sanctuary). In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral and church archis express the articulation into nave and wide aisles (illustration, right) in bold and clear masses. Modena's Duomo inspired campaigns of cathedral and abbey building in emulation through the valley of the Po. The Gothic campanile (1224 - 1319) is called La Ghirlandina from the bronze garland surrounding the weathercock.When it began to build its cathedral in 1099, the city was part of the possessions of the Countess Matilda of TuscanyMatilda, countess of Tuscany ( 1046 July 24, 1114), was the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the investiture controversy, and is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments. She is sometimes called; but by the time the edifice was consecrated by Pope Lucius III in 1184, it was a free commune. In the wars between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX Modena sided with the emperor.
Other churches in Modena, the church of San Giovanni Decollato ("the Baptist Beheaded") contains a polychrome terracotta Pieta by Guido Mazzoni (1450-1518). The Baroque Este Pantheon (the church of S. Agostino, containing works of sculpture in honor of the house of Este) is by Bibbiena .