Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Treviso

TREVISO, a town of Italy, in the province of the same name, lies in the midst of a district of great fertility, at the confluence of the Piavesella with the Sile, which is here navigable for large boats and communicates by canals with the lagoons of Venice (17 miles distant). It is an old town, with narrow irregular colonnaded streets and some good squares. The cathedral of San Pietro, dating from 1141 and restored and enlarged in the 15th century by Pietro Lombardo, but still unfinished, contains a fine Annunciation by Titian (1519), an Adoration of the Shepherds, the masterpiece of Paris Bordone (born at Treviso in 1500), and frescos by Pordenone. There are numerous statues and reliefs by Pietro, Tullio, and Martino Lombardo, and by Sansovino. The Gothic church of San Niccolo (1310-52) contains a fine tomb by Tullio Lombardo, frescos by Giovanni Bellini, and a large altar-piece by Fra Marco Pensabene and others; in the adjoining chapter-house are forty portraits of celebrated Dominicans by Tommaso da Modena (1352). The Monte di Pieta contains an Entombment by Pordenone (according to others by Giorgione). The churches of S. Leonardo, S. Andrea, S. Maria Maggiore, and S. Maria Maddalena also contain precious art treasures, and the town is enriched besides by various open-air frescos. The town-hall and theatre are also conspicuous buildings. Silk and cotton goods, cutlery, majolica, and paper are the chief manufactures of the place, and an active trade is also carried on in corn, fruit, and cattle. The population in 1881 was 31,249.

Treviso, the ancient Tarvisium, is not mentioned by any of the ancient geographers, though Pliny speaks of the Silis as flowing "ex montibus Tarvisanis." In the 6th century it appears as an important place. From 1318 it was for a short time the seat of a university (see Universities). In 1339 it came under the Venetian sway. In the 15th century its walls and ramparts were renewed under the direction of Fra Giocondo, two of the gates being built by the Lombardi. Treviso was taken in 1797 by the French under Mortier (duke of Treviso). In March 1848 the Austrian garrison was driven from the town by the revolutionary party, but in the following June the town was bombarded and compelled to capitulate.