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Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps Lombardy region of Northern Italy Italy. The seat of the province of Bergamo, it is located approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the Lake Como and Lake Iseo and from Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. The Bergamo Alps (Alpi Orobie) begin immediately north of the city.
With a population of 120,389 as of 2025, Bergamo is the 4th-largest city in Lombardy. The metropolitan area of Bergamo extends beyond the administrative city limits, spanning over a densely urbanized area with slightly fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. The Bergamo metropolitan area is itself part of the broader Milan metropolitan area, home to more than eight million people. Competitiveness of Milan and its metropolitan area ISTAT
The city of Bergamo is composed of an old walled core, known as Città Alta ('Upper Town'), nestled within a system of hills, and the modern expansion in the plains below. The upper town is encircled by massive Venetian that have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 9 July 2017.
Bergamo has good links to other cities in Italy via the motorway A4 which connects Milan, Verona, and Venice. The city is served by Il Caravaggio International Airport, the third-busiest airport in Italy with 12.3 million passengers in 2017. Bergamo is the second most visited city in Lombardy after Milan.
Local historian and politician Bortolo Belotti compared the toponym to previous Celtic languages and pre-Celtic names, of which Bergomum would then only be the Latinisation; the word berg in Celtic means a protection, fortification or abode. In the writings of early Roman period, the toponym Bergomum appears to be associated with Bergimus, the Celtic god of mountains or dwellings.
Historian Antonio Tiraboschi argued instead that the toponym stemmed from the Proto-Germanic language. The Bergamo toponym is similar to toponyms in various Germanic-speaking areas, and might be associated with * berg +*heim, or the "mountain home". The hypothesis of a Germanic derivation clashes however with the absence of documents regarding Germanic settlements in the area prior to the settlement of the Lombards who settled in the northern part of the Italian peninsula after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
In 49 BCE, it became a Roman Empire municipality, containing inhabitants at its peak. An important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century.
After the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus (died 816). An important Lombardic Bergamo Treasure dating from the 6th to 7th centuries was found in the vicinity of the city in the 19th century and is now in the British Museum.
From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent Italian communes, taking part in the Lombard League which defeated Frederick I Barbarossa in 1165. The local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively.
Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north , but he returned to Bergamo in the later 13th century to organize the city's couriers: this would eventually lead to the Imperial Thurn und Taxis dynasty generally credited with organizing the first modern postal service.
Despite the brief interlude granted by the Treaty of Lodi in 1454, the uneasy balance of power among the northern Italian states precipitated the Italian Wars, a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, also the Papal States, France, and the Holy Roman Empire.Michael Mallett and Christine Shaw, The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2012.
The wars, which were both a result and cause of Venetian involvement in the power politics of mainland Italy, prompted Venice to assert its direct rule over its mainland domains.
As much of the fighting during the Italian Wars took place during sieges, increasing levels of fortification were adopted, using such new developments as detached bastions that could withstand sustained artillery fire.Max Boot, War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today. New York: Penguin Group, 2006.
The Treaty of Campo Formio (17 October 1797) formally recognized the inclusion of Bergamo and other parts of northern Italy into the Cisalpine Republic, a Sister Republic of the French First Republic that was superseded in 1802 by the short-lived Napoleonic Italian Republic and in 1805 by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.
Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Bergamo in 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence. As a result, the city was incorporated into the newly founded Kingdom of Italy.
For its contribution to the Italian unification movement, Bergamo is also known as Città dei Mille ('City of the Thousand'), because a significant part of the rank-and-file supporting Giuseppe Garibaldi in his expedition against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies came from Bergamo and its environs.
During the twentieth century, Bergamo became one of Italy's most industrialized areas.
In 1907, Marcello Piacentini devised a new urban master plan that was implemented between 1912 and 1927, in a style reminiscent of Novecento Italiano and Modernist Rationalism.
The 2017 43rd G7 summit on agriculture was held in Bergamo, in the context of the broader international meeting in Taormina.
The "Charter of Bergamo" is an international commitment, signed during the summit, to reduce hunger worldwide by 2030, strengthen cooperation for agricultural development in Africa, and ensure price transparency.
In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Bergamo's healthcare system was overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19. There were reports of doctors confronted with ethical dilemmas with too few ICU beds and mechanical ventilation systems. Morgues were overwhelmed, and images of military trucks carrying the bodies of COVID-19 victims out of the city were shared worldwide. An investigative report by The New York Times found that faulty guidance and bureaucratic delays rendered the toll in Bergamo far worse than it had to be.
The city rapidly expanded during the 20th century. In the first decades, the municipality erected major buildings such as the new courthouse and various administrative offices in the lower part of Bergamo in order to create a new city center. After World War II, many residential buildings were constructed in the lower part of the city which are now divided into twenty-five neighborhoods:
The most relevant sites are:
| +Foreign population by country of birth (2025) !Country of birth !Population | |
| 2,788 | |
| 1,962 | |
| 1,502 | |
| 1,320 | |
| 1,242 | |
| 1,201 | |
| 884 | |
| 717 | |
| 678 | |
| 537 | |
| 527 | |
| 453 | |
| 432 | |
| 377 | |
| 370 |
The city has an advanced tertiary economy focused on banking, retail, and services associated with the industrial sector of its province. Corporations and firms linked to the city include UBI Banca banking group, Brembo (braking systems), Tenaris (steel), and ABB (power and automation technology).
Bergamo was the hometown and last resting place of Enrico Rastelli, a highly technical and world-famous juggler who lived in the town and, in 1931, died there at the early age of 34. There is a life-sized statue of Rastelli within his mausoleum. A number of painters were active in the town as well; among these were Giovanni Paolo Cavagna, Francesco Zucco, and Enea Salmeggia, each of whom painted works for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Sculptor Giacomo Manzù and the bass-baritone opera singer Alex Esposito were born in Bergamo.
The American electrical engineer and professor Andrew Viterbi, inventor of Viterbi's algorithm, was born in Bergamo, before migrating to the US during the Fascist era because of his Jewish origins. Designers born in Bergamo include Nicola Trussardi and the late Mariuccia Mandelli, the founder of Krizia and one of the first female to create a successful line of men's wear.
The physicist Fausto Martelli was born in Bergamo in 1982. Fausto Martelli is known for his fundamental contributions to the physics of liquids and glasses.
More modern is the tensile structure that houses the "Creberg Teatro Bergamo" with 1536 seats which make it one of the largest theaters in the province.
Another theatrical structure is the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà. The building that houses the Auditorium was built in 1937 as the seat of the local Fascist Federation and known as the "House of Freedom".
Among the theatrical companies operating in Bergamo there are the TTB (teatro tascabile di Bergamo), La Compagnia Stabile di Teatro, Erbamil, Pandemonium Teatro, Teatro Prova, Ambaradan and Slapsus, Luna and Gnac, the CUT (University Theater Center) and La Gilda delle Arti - Teatro Bergamo.
Bergamo has a partnership with:
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