Monselice historical timeline

Monselice is a hill that happened to sit on a road, and almost everything that followed came from that. The Romans called it Mons Silicis, the mountain of flintstone, probably for the trachyte quarried from it.

1. Bronze Age Settlement on and around the hill; the area shows evidence of human occupation from this period.
2. 568 The earliest known documents naming Monselice, and they concern its conquest by the Lombards.
3. c. 602 Taken by King Agilulf, after a brief spell of Byzantine rule.
4. Mid-12th century Raised to the rank of a free commune, with its own local self-government.
5. 1239–1250 The old cathedral of Santa Giustina is begun; it is consecrated in 1256 while still unfinished.
6. 13th century Under Ezzelino III da Romano, Frederick II’s vicar in the Veneto. Ezzelino extends the walls into a complete circuit, builds the Torre Civica, raises the palace still called di Ezzelino, and rebuilds the keep on the summit — which is why it is popularly the mastio federiciano though the emperor did not build it.
7. 14th century Under the Carraresi, lords of Padua, the defences reach their final form: an outer circuit with towers and monumental gates, and four inner circuits climbing the Rocca to the keep.
8. 15th century Absorbed into the Republic of Venice.
9. 1605–1615 Vincenzo Scamozzi builds the Sanctuary of the Seven Churches for the Venetian patrician Pietro Duodo, along with Villa Duodo.
10. 1606 Pope Paul V grants pilgrims who visit the sanctuary the same indulgences as those who visit the seven great basilicas of Rome — hence Romanis basilicis pares cut over the portal.
11. 1866 Part of the Kingdom of Italy, after French and then Austrian rule.