Piedmont

44°57′35″N 7°55′10″E / 44.95972°N 7.91944°E / 44.95972; 7.91944 Coordinates: Extra unexpected parameters

Template:Infobox Region of Italy Piedmont (Italian: Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km² and a population of 4.4 million. The capital is Turin, the local language (or alternatively the local dialect of the Italian language, which is the official language of the whole of Italy) is Piedmontese and Occitan is also spoken in Occitan Valleys.

Geography

Piedmont is surrounded on three sides by the Alps, including the Monviso (Mont Vis), where the Po rises, and the Monte Rosa. It borders with France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria and Aosta Valley. The percentage of the territory which is a protected area is 7.6%. There are 56 different national parks. One such park is the Gran Paradiso National Park (Grand Paradis).

Piedmont is divided into eight provinces:

History

In 1046, the counts of the House of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy 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 Piedmont-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 before the area was annexed by France in 1801. In June 1802 a new client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont and in September it was also annexed. In the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France.

Piedmont was an initial springboard for Italy's 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 contradicted by efforts of rural farmers.^[1]^[2] The House of Savoy became Kings of Italy, and Turin briefly became the capital of Italy. However, the addition of territory paradoxically reduced Piedmont's importance to the kingdom, and the capital was moved to Florence, and then to Rome. One remaining recognition of Piedmont's historical role was that the crown prince of Italy was known as the Prince of Piedmont.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Sacro Monte di Crea
Paradise Chapel
Sacro Monte di Ghiffa
Crucifixion and Trinity, 16th century
Sacro Monte di Domodossola
View of the chapels IX and XI
Sacro Monte di Varallo
Chapel XXXIII. Giovanni d’Enrico, Ecce Homo, 1608-9

Economy

Rice fields of Piemonte between Novara and Vercelli

Lowland Piedmont is a fertile agricultural region, producing wheat, rice, maize, and wine grapes. Piedmont is one of the great winegrowing regions in Italy. More than half of its 700 km² (170,000 acres) of vineyards are registered with DOC designations. It produces wines of renowned depth such as the famed Barbera, Barolo, Barbaresco and Moscato, as well as lesser known varieties such as Dolcetto, Freisa, Nebbiolo, Grignolino and Brachetto. The region contains major industrial centres, notably Turin, home to the FIAT automobile works. Biella produces tissues and silks. Cuneo is the house of Ferrero's chocolate factories and important mechanical industries, able in the past to build the trailer for the Space Shuttle Columbia. The tertiary also is flourishing: one of Italy's major banking and insurance groups, Sanpaolo IMI, is based in Turin. In February 2006 Turin hosted the XX Olympic Winter Games and in 2007 the Universiades, Olympic games for university students.

Politics

The region has a center-left local government with Mercedes Bresso as president, following the regional legislative and presidential election of 2005. However, at the April 2006 Italian national election, Piedmont gave 50.5% of its votes to the Centre-Right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi.

Demographics

The Turin metro area grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s due to an increase of immigrants from southern Italy, and today it has a population of approximately two million. As of 2006, the Italian national institute of statistics (ISTAT) estimated that 231,611 foreign-born immigrants live in Piedmont, equal to 5.3% of the total regional population.

Cities of Piedmont with a population of 50,000 or more:

Comune	Population (2006 est.)
Turin	900,608
Novara	102,817
Alessandria	91,593
Asti	73,734
Moncalieri	55,983
Cuneo	54,817
Rivoli	50,213

References

^ Valeria Fargion, From the Southern to the Northern Question: Territorial and Social Politics in Italy, paper presented at the RC 19 conference 'Welfare state restructuring: processes and social outcomes', 2-4 September 2004, Sciences-Po Paris, accessed 7 January 2007
^ Anna Bull, Regionalism in Italy, Europa 2(4), accessed 7 January 2007