URBANISM.—A term ordinarily used to designate the general phenomena involved in the formation of large urban agglomerations, especially when rapid and intense, and also that particular influx resulting from the attraction exerted by the urban center upon nearby and distant rural populations. These phenomena often assume proportions and intensities such as to become pathological.
Phenomena connected with this problem can be found as far back as the Roman period, especially when foreigners of every kind flocked to the capital of the Empire, driven either by necessity, by the desire to make their fortune, or by the attractions of comfort, luxury, and entertainment. In the succeeding ages, the phenomenon of U. did not begin to become troubling until the beginning of the modern period, as a consequence of the formation of the great national States. It was, however, more pronounced in the rest of Europe than in Italy. Statistics, which, serving demography and other social sciences, have made it possible to acquire increasingly precise data, demonstrate that from the nineteenth century onward the phenomenon of U. has assumed imposing proportions: the formation of capital and its investment in industry constitute the principal cause of urban development. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, among the great European cities, only London and Paris approached a population of one million. By 1900 the other European capitals Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, and Moscow had reached this level. The formation of the great cities of North and South America was even more rapid, fueled by an enormous influx of immigrants. A similar rapidity of development can be observed in the Australian cities and in the great Asian cities, where, however, the influx of Europeans for the development of trade—which acted as an incentive for the formation of large indigenous population centers—appears as a force competing with the extraordinary natural increase of the local populations.
In Italy, in 1500 the great cities could be considered to be Naples, Palermo, Milan, Venice, Rome, Genoa, and Messina, until its destruction by the earthquake, although the numerical level of their populations could not be compared with that of the great foreign capitals. To find Italian cities with a population of one million, one must wait until approximately 1930 (Rome and Milan). Municipalities with more than one hundred thousand inhabitants today account for more than 25 percent of the total population. In some of these, over a period of seventy years, the population increased on average by 400 percent: besides Rome and Milan, which have singular characteristics and patterns of development, these include certain cities with military and commercial ports or the seats of major industries, especially the industrial centers of Lombardy, as well as certain large cities of southern Italy. The last war opened a painful interruption in the normal development—already alarming in itself—of the urban phenomenon: especially in countries that were theaters of military operations,
the great cities received an astounding number of refugees and profiteers without means or work, who created new problems of great difficulty to solve.
The development of urban areas could not, however, be left to the discretion of private builders and individual initiatives. Thus, in all countries affected by the phenomena of u., the institution of the zoning plan arose, together with a corresponding field of study, urban planning, whose purpose is to regulate, as rationally as possible, the harmonious development of cities. In Italy, as early as 1865, an initial discipline was introduced by requiring municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants to prepare plans for improving the condition of built-up areas from the standpoint of hygiene and traffic, and by providing for the preparation of expansion plans for the creation of new districts. From 1885 onward, special measures were successively adopted for the zoning plans of the major cities, without, however, resolving the broader urban-planning problems. Considerable progress was achieved with the law of 17 August 1942, which placed every zoning plan at the service of the general interest, on the one hand through the territorial coordination plan, around which the individual municipal plans were organized, and on the other through the master plan, which encompassed the entire municipal territory. Municipalities were also authorized to create a public land reserve by expropriating the expansion zones of the urban agglomeration, imposing upon private owners the obligation to carry out the improvements specified in the “detailed plans,” with execution by the authorities in cases of noncompliance. Provision was also made for the creation of appropriate buildable units through special “compartments,” the compulsory transfer of areas intended for roads, the imposition of restrictions on urban areas intended for private gardens, and the prohibition of subdividing land for building purposes before the detailed zoning plans had been approved.
Demographic statistics analyze the extent to which population growth is attributable to the positive balance between births and deaths and the extent to which it is attributable to internal migration and immigration; they also make possible a social assessment of the phenomenon of u. From one point of view, it is indispensable to social progress, since the development of the sciences, letters, and arts is possible only within the urban agglomeration, through the creation of large schools, libraries, museums, and laboratories.
It may nevertheless also be the cause of numerous and serious hardships. Under normal conditions, by continually attracting less gifted individuals, large cities contribute substantially to increasing the number of the mentally degenerate and the physically disabled. Even individuals who are not positively affected by such conditions are found, through medical and statistical analyses, to suffer from a general weakening that is transmitted to subsequent generations with ever more serious consequences. Moreover, the continual recruitment of most new inhabitants takes place in an environment that is socially and intellectually less advanced; consequently, the most refined external civilization is often dissociated from the presence of solid moral foundations. The unrestrained pursuit of every kind of entertainment, which often flourishes in cities without control, generally leads to a weakening of the sense of duty and human dignity. The religious and moral spirit suffers severe shocks; because of the loss of spiritual guidance, which is more effective in less populated localities, it is weakened in comparison with the greater solidity of the rural family, with negative effects on the education of children. Vice is undoubtedly more conspicuous, more accessible, and less impeded by the public authorities in cities; it is often itself a source of profit for a considerable number of individuals.
The housing problem becomes permanently insoluble. Urban organization always proves inadequate, especially where private speculators undertake building construction long before sanitary facilities, schools, and communication networks with the center are installed, partly because public authorities are economically unable to cope with the continual emergence of new needs. Crimes, especially those against property, find favorable ground for their development in such circumstances, just as the percentage of alcoholics is also steadily increasing.
A first group of repressive measures concerns the imposition of limits on the influx into cities. Thus, the registration of new individuals in the population registers is made conditional upon demonstrating concrete employment opportunities and, in general, possession of the means of subsistence; more or less severe penalties are imposed upon those who facilitate clandestine immigration. Measures of this kind were also adopted in Italy, in 1928 and 1930, and in a more systematic form in 1939, as well as in the countries toward which emigration is ordinarily directed.
A second group of measures is preventive in relation to the causes of urban phenomena. Among these causes, the wretchedness of rural housing, the remoteness of physicians, and the scarcity or total absence of public and private assistance and schools are paramount. The social improvement of rural areas is necessary, together with the creation of centers of interest that will keep the peasant attached to the land. Measures intended to promote the division of large landed estates have been adopted in many countries of continental Europe, with the twofold aim of encouraging the transformation of cultivators into small proprietors and of facilitating their more direct and immediate attachment to the cultivated land, through a simultaneous increase in agricultural credit and rural construction.
For Italy, particular mention should be made of the two laws of 12 May and 21 October 1950, the first concerning the Sila plateau, the second concerning the territories of other Italian regions, chiefly in central and southern Italy and Sardinia. They regulate the expropriation of land capable of transformation, subjecting to it properties exceeding a certain extent, upon payment of compensation, while exempting intensive-cultivation lands provided with coherent and efficient farms, equipped with modern installations and operated in an associative form with several workers. Related legislative provisions subsequently sought to encourage the voluntary establishment of small cultivators’ properties through financial and fiscal benefits.
Experience and statistics also demonstrate that in countries with differences in altitude, such as Italy, there is a progressive depopulation from the higher zones, which are more difficult to exploit and subject to greater hardship, toward the lower zones, and from these toward the plains, and then toward the cities. Hence the need to intervene with appropriate laws and appropriations in favor of mountainous areas, which nevertheless play a preponderant part in the economy of individual states. Preventive measures also include legislative provisions intended to regulate more rationally the colonization of those areas of the national territory less favored by nature, and to coordinate internal colonization plans with internal migratory movements, so as to divert from the cities groups of rural populations in excess of the capacity of a given territory and direct them toward the areas to be colonized. To achieve these aims, regulations governing the placement of labor prove appropriate; they may also usefully divert industrial workers from one city and direct them toward another offering greater employment opportunities.
The enlargement of the city perimeter, with the consequent creation of human hives devoid of aesthetic, hygienic, and moral sense and the inevitable consequent extension of the city, could likewise be replaced by the creation of healthy and modern villages, not far from the place of work and suitably connected with the city by convenient means of transport, which are undergoing continuous and increasing development.
BIBLI: P. Meurion, Des agglomérations urbaines, Paris 1898; M. Scribante, La concentrac. della popolaz., in Metron, 7 (1928), no. 2; C. Gini, Dinamica delle popolaz., Turin 1930; A. De Bue, U. (Tratt. elem. di statist. di C. Gini, II, parte 2), Milan 1937; P. Fortunati, Natalità, mortalità e nuzialità nei Comuni del Regno in Ordine di intensità di popolaz., Ferrara 1937; M. Boldrini, s. V. in Diz. di politica, IV, pp. 549–51; Correnti migratorie ed u., edited by the Ministry of the Interior, Rome 1942; F. Salvoni, Recenti studi demologici del Medio e dell'Estremo Oriente, in La scuola cattolica, 73 (1945), pp. 42–57. Francesco Traversa
URBANIA e SANT'ANGELO IN VADO,
DIOCESI di. — City and diocese in the province of Pesaro (Marche), with the episcopal residence in U.: suffragans of Urbino.
U. — The diocese of U. covers an area of approximately 193 sq km, with a population of 12,273 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, distributed among 42 parishes served by 40 diocesan priests and 6 religious priests; it has a seminary, 2 male religious communities, and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 438).
The diocese of U. was erected on 18 February 1635 and united aeque et principaliter with S. A. in V. The city, under the name of Castel delle Ripe, is mentioned as a fief of the Benedictine abbey of S. Cristoforo « del Ponte » (on the Metauro) as early as the thirteenth century. In 1225, in fact, the abbot of S. Cristoforo granted Castel delle Ripe in accomandita to the commune of Città di Castello, provided that it undertook to rebuild it after its destruction by the Ghibelline forces of Urbino. This pact aroused the anger of Urbino and the Feltreschi. The alliance concluded between Guido da Montefeltro and Città di Castello in 1253 was of no avail. In 1277 Galasso di Montefeltro attacked Castel delle Ripe and once again razed it to the ground. This time its reconstruction was undertaken by the papal rector of Romagna, Guglielmo Durante, sent there by Martino IV; and the new castle, built no longer on the hill but on the plain of the Metauro, was named Castel Durante after its founder. The Brancaleoni exercised sovereignty over it until Cardinal Albornoz reconquered it for the Church in 1359. In 1377 the Brancaleoni obtained it again as a vicariate, while they were papal rectors of the Massa Trabaria. Under Martino V they were succeeded by the Montefeltro, who were invested with the county of Castel Durante and subsequently held it, as Dukes of Urbino, until 1631, the year of the death of the last duke, Francesco Maria II della Rovere, which occurred in Castel Durante; from then on, the town became an integral part of the Papal States.
Spiritually, from its origin, the locality was subject to the bishop of Urbino. In 1393 Bonifacio IX, taking the abbey away from the Benedictines, granted it in commendam to Cardinal Bartolomeo de Uliaris, and on 8 March 1402 erected it as nullus dioecesis, removing it from the jurisdiction of the diocese of Urbino and incorporating into it the territories of Castel Durante, S. A. in V., and Sassoorvaro.
Among the commendatory abbots of Castel Durante, special mention Bessarione (v.), who brought about a true flourishing of charitable activity and grand works in the abbey and donated to it the relic of the shoulder bone of the martyr s. Cristoforo; Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who ascended to the papal throne under the name of Paolo III; and Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who worked so zealously for the erection of the diocese and saw his efforts crowned with success on 18 February 1635, the day on which Urbano VIII granted Castel Durante the dignity of a diocese and a city, naming it U. after himself. The ancient nullus archpriesthood of Mercatello sul Metauro was annexed to the new diocese, while the city of S. A. in V. was likewise erected as a diocese and united aeque et principaliter with U. The first bishop of the united dioceses was Onorato Onorati of Iesi.
The city, important for its ancient production of ceramics, contains several interesting buildings: the fragmentary medieval fortress; the thirteenth-century church of S. Francesco; the Romanesque church of the Morti; the little church of Corpus Domini, with frescoes by Raffaellino del Colle; and the Palace of the Dukes of Urbino, built by the Brancaleoni in the thirteenth century and transformed in the sixteenth. In the square situated at the northern entrance to the city stands a tall column bearing the statue of s. Cristoforo, protector of the city and diocese.
The diocese has numerous monasteries, including that of the Capuchin nuns in Mercatello, established in the house where, on 27 December 1660, s. Veronica Giuliani was born. Having become a Capuchin nun in Città di Castello, she died there on 9 July 1727.
BIRL.: G. Colucci, Del Castello delle Ripe e dell'opinione di Castel Durante detto poi U., in Antichità picene, vol. IX, Fermo 1795; P. Tonelli, Sulle antiche mem. di Castel Durante, oggi U. (letters extracted from vol. XII of G. Colucci’s Antichità picene, there 1795); E. Liburdi, U., in La prov. di Pesaro-Urbino, Rome 1934, p. 807; E. Rossi, Mem. ecclesiast. di U., Urbania 1936.
SANT'ANGELO IN VADO. - The diocese of S. A. in V. covers an area of approximately 93 km² with a population of 5,450 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed across 19 parishes served by 17 diocesan priests and 3 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 2 male religious communities, and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 438).
It stands on the site of the ancient Tifernum Metaurense in trans-Apennine Umbria, an illustrious city belonging to the Crustuminian tribe, seat of a Flamen, mentioned by Pliny (Hist. natur., III, c. p. 14) and by Claudius Ptolemy (Geographia, III, cap. 1), and from which, since remote times, monuments—mostly epigraphic and numismatic—have come to light. It was a bishopric, not to be confused with Tifernum Tiberinum (Città di Castello [v.]). Indeed, one of its bishops, Lucifer, subscribed to the Roman Council of 465, while a bishop Marius who subscribed to the Roman Council of 499 simply as bishop « ecclesiae Tifernatis » remains uncertain. Both the bishopric and the city ceased to exist during the Gothic wars (549-53). Later, S. A. in V. arose on the same site.
The specification « in Vado »—meaning a place where the Metauro River can easily be forded—was added to Sant'Angelo. When the province of Massa Trabaria was established by Otto IV in 1209 as a domain of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, S. A. became its « Portus, refugium et cor », first under the rule of the Brancaleoni, papal vicars, and later of the Montefeltro, dukes of Urbino. Spiritually, S. A. was subject to the bishop of Urbino and erected as an archpriestship with four district curacies. When in 1403 the Brancaleoni obtained from Boniface IX the transformation of the former Benedictine monastery of S. Cristoforo in Castel Durante into a nullus abbey, S. A. was also incorporated into it, and despite the protests of the bishops of Urbino and the revocation of the measure ordered by Martin V in 1417, the situation remained unchanged until 1635. Notable archpriests of S. A. during that time were Cardinals Antonio and Cristoforo Del Monte. Urban VIII, at the request of the citizens of Vado and after lengthy deliberation, on 18 February 1635, with the bull Pro excellenti praeminentia, restored to S. A. the title of city and to the church of S. Michele Arcangelo its bishop. At the same time, Castel Durante was erected as a diocese, named, after the pope, U. and united aeque et principaliter with the diocese of Vado. Though small in territorial extent and population, S. A. in V. life, arts, and industries, such as gold filigree work, wool manufacturing, and leather tanning. In the city’s numerous male and female monasteries lived in sanctity the bb. Girolamo Ranuzzi, Bartolo Vagnarini, Tommaso, Vittorio, Vico, and Vittoria, all from S. A. in V. Fagnani, eminent canonists; the painters Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, Francesco Nardini, and Francesco Mancini; the condottieri Matteo and Gianpaolo Griffoni, and Niccolò Braccio della Stella.
Of S. A. in V. family, from which, in Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna, the future Clement XIV was born, most munificent toward the diocese of Vado and in whose honor a statue was erected in the Piazza Comunale.