Trent (TRIENT an old town of Italy)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

or TRIENT, an old town of Italy in the Tyrol; on the left bank of the Adige; 54 miles N. N. E. of Verona. Santa Croce, and in its environs villages It has two suburbs, San Martino and rise beautifully above one another on the mountain slopes. Of the town, which is quite Italian in its character, the finest squares are the Piazza d'Armi and the Piazzi del Duomo, the latter adorned with a fountain, and containing the courts of justice. Among the 15 churches the finest are the Cathedral, a Romanesque basilica, with two domes, founded in 1048, begun in its present form in 1212, and completed in the 15th century; Santa Maria Maggiore, where the celebrated Council of Trent sat from 1545-1563, containing an admirable organ, and adorned with portraits of the members of the council; and the Church dell' Annunziata, with a high cupola resting on four pillars. Other buildings are the town hall, the Palace of Justice, the theatre, and the Palazzo Buon Consiglio, formerly the residence of the prince-bishops, now a barrack. The town has two monasteries, a theological institute, an upper gymnasium, and a public library and museum. The industries are silk spinning and weaving, dyeing, iron and the manufacture of cloth and cards. In the vicinity marble quarries. Trent was colony, became in the 4th seat of a bishop, and in 574 of a Lombard duke. In 1027 Konrad to its bishops princely rank and the fief of the town. The bishropic was secularized in 1803, and added to the Austrian crown-lands. It is in the territory awarded to Italy by the treaty of St. Germain. Pop. about 30,000.