Piedmont is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km2 and a population of 4.4 million. The capital is Turin, and the local language is Piedmontese.
Piedmont is surrounded on three sides by the Alps mountain range, including the Monviso (Mont Vis), where the Po River rises, and Monte Rosa. It borders with France, Switzerland, and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria and the Aosta Valley. The percentage of the terrority which is a protected area is 7.6%. There are 56 different national parks. One such park is Gran Paradiso (Grand Paradis).
Piedmont is divided into eight provinces: Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Cuneo, Novara, Turin (Torino), Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Vercelli. In 1046, the counts of the House of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and increasing Turin's importance as a European capital.
The Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont before the area was annexed by France in 1801. In June 1802 a new client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont and in September it was also annexed. In the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France.
Piedmont was the springboard for Italy's unification in 1859-1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820-1821 and 1848-1849. This process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation.12 The House of Savoy became Kings of Italy, and Turin briefly became the capital of Italy. However, the addition of territory paradoxically reduced Piedmont's importance to the kingdom, and the capital was removed to Florence, and then to Rome. One remaining recognition of Piedmont's historical role was that the crown prince of Italy was known as the Prince of Piedmont.
Part of the information regarding the history, the art, the traditions and the events about the city of Piedmont on this page is drawn from www.wikipedia.org
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Piedmont is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km2 and a population of 4.4 million. The capital is Turin, and the local language is Piedmontese.
In 1046, the counts of the House of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and increasing Turin's importance as a European capital.