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When someone is referred to as "Lombard", they tend to think in the Italian region of Lombardy. But what many fail to think is that the genesis of this name is in northern Europe, and that if it came to Italy to stay it was due to the casuistry of history.

The Lombards are a Germanic people originating from the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Denmark and the northern part of Germany, which progressively migrated to the banks of the Danube to continue to Italy, where they founded a kingdom.

Their origins and much of their history (until they came into contact with the Roman Empire) are not entirely clear. It is even difficult to narrow down with safety their place of origin and the path they traveled before coming into contact with the Romans.

In general, it is assumed that around 100 BC. C, the Lombards were mostly settled at the mouth of the Elbe river and that, from there and in successive migrations, around the year 500 d. C. settled in an area comprising parts of what is now Hungary and its neighboring countries, around the course of the Danube

In 540 d. C. settle in the Pannonian region with the status of federated (foederati) of the Roman Empire, some allies who, in exchange for lands and right To exploit them, they protect the empire from the attacks of other peoples.

Despite their alliance, the imperial weakness is patent, and in 560 d. C, and commanded by King Alboíno, the Lombards invaded Italy.

The invasion lasted years, and in the first led the Lombards to seize the north of the Italian boot, at that time in the power of the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantines, who ruled Italy, had been bled militarily and economically in the conflict immediately preceding the Boot Peninsula, the Gothic Wars, and they were unable to stand up to the Lombards to prevent them from establishing a kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.

Only some parts of it, such as Rome, Ravenna and the corridor that linked both cities (the latter two elements, finally absorbed by the Lombards a century later), and the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia.

The Lombard kingdom of Italy would fall in 774 of our era, by the hand of the Franks commanded by Charlemagne.

Culturally, the heritage of the Lombard kingdom is uneven, and can be seen above all in buildings.

Thus, for example, Italian has not inherited more than a few individual words of the Germanic language spoken by the Lombards, since it was this people who ended up adopting and assimilating for them the language and the traditions Latinas.

We also find the Lombard influence on the legal codes developed from that time.

Where its influence is noticeable is in the region that bears its name, Lombardy, in which it is included a city as important worldwide as Milan, and the historical capital of the Lombard Kingdom, Pavia.

We also find numerous works of art, with a distinctive style, the result of the mixture between the original Germanic culture of the Lombards, and the Latin-Roman culture with Gothic influences from the substratum found in Italy and from the peoples with whom they were in contact, such as the Byzantines.

From tradition religious pagan, they became Christianized when they came into contact with the Byzantine Empire, going through a phase linked to the Catholicism, and another to Arianism, to definitively adopt Catholicism when they entered Italy.

However, pagan practices still survived for many years to crystallize a conversion to Catholicism among all strata of society, which began with the nobility and ended with the common people.

Photo: Fotolia - Archivist

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