Did you know that the name Trento derives from the Latin Tridentum ? Legend has it that the ancient Romans gave it this name because of the shape suggested by the arrangement of the three mountains or hills that surround the city. Legends aside, its origins are actually Roman, as evidenced by various remains dating back to the 1st century BC, when it was an important junction on the Via Augusta to the north.
After having undergone Lombard domination, it entered the Germanic territories, until it became a bishopric principality in the Middle Ages.
This was its period of maximum splendor, under the enlightened government of Cardinal Bernardo Clesio (1514-1539), responsible among other things for the Renaissance-style restructuring of the city, still clearly visible today in the architecture of the historic center. Between 1545 and 1563 it was the seat of the Council that started the Counter-Reformation and gave it the status of European capital. Between the 18th and 19th centuries it passed first to the French and then to the Habsburgs , finally becoming Italian only after the First World War (1918). This compelling and dynamic history, witnessed by the numerous monuments, palaces and castles, has made it the cosmopolitan and international city that it is today; home to universities and research institutes, with lively cultural activity, a frontier and bridge between Italy and Europe .