Great Lombardy

The concept of Great Lombardy / historical Lombardy—that is, of true Lombardy—which our movement promotes, inheriting the legacy of the association of the same name, essentially concerns the entirety of what is improperly called the North (including a number of irredent territories), possessing a precise physiognomy that distinguishes it from ethnic Italy and from the rest of Europe.

Padania, or Cisalpina, is a European crossroads region globally characterized by a subcontinental (non-peninsular) geography, a temperate sub-Mediterranean climate (with the exception of the Ligurian area), and an Alpine–Padan configuration that places it halfway between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. From an ethnic point of view, the Granlombards are descendants of the Indo-European Italo-Celtic family (Ligurians, Celts, Veneti, Gauls), with Mediterranean and Germanic influences; linguistically, they belong to the western branch of the Romance languages, unlike Italy, which is traditionally eastern, specifically Gallo-Romance (Cisalpine); culturally, they are part of that point of connection between southern Europe and the continent upon which our very history was built, straddling Romanity and Celto-Germanism: the Carolingian space.

All of this also closely concerns the properly biological sphere (in an anthropological and genetic sense) of the commonly termed “northern Italians,” who physically often display a Mitteleuropean appearance (which does not necessarily mean Germanic, let it be specified) and genetically differ from central and southern Italy thanks to a greater Mesolithic, Indo-European, and northern heritage—and to the absence of recent exotic components. This is stated without any discriminatory intent, of course.

Since speaking of Padans or Cisalpines—terms that are nevertheless tolerable—or, worse still, of northern Italians, means losing sight of the distinctly ethnic connotation that concerns us closely, we prefer to refer to the indigenous peoples of historical Lombardy as Granlombards, and to call the entirety of so-called Upper Italy precisely Great Lombardy. “Great Lombardy” is certainly an innovative and effective ethnonym, but it must not distract attention from a fundamental fact: Lombardy is NOT the artificial region of the Roman Republic; Lombardy is the entire geographical and historical, identitarian, Alpine–Padan space. In short.

There are some marginal territories that might appear forced to define as (Gran)lombard, but since they are an integral part of the Alpine–Padan, Italo-Celtic continuum (that is, Proto-Celtic/Celto-Ligurian, Venetic, Proto-Villanovan, Gallic) and of Cisalpine Gallo-Romance, they cannot be excluded from the whole. I refer to historical Liguria and Romagna, the Venetian lagoons, and Venezia Giulia—areas moreover little or not at all affected by Lombard domination, from which the name of the Lombard nation nonetheless derives.

There are then areas such as the Niçois, Aostan, southern Tyrolean, and Isonzo–Istrian ones that fall outside a strictly genuine Granlombard discourse, insofar as they are populated by significant foreign minorities; nevertheless, those areas fall within the Alpine–Padan geographical space and, historically, before the arrival of those minorities, their population was Cisalpine and later Romanized.

The boundaries of this Granlombard area, which could also be divided into a western and an eastern sector, are: the Alps to the north; the Alps and the Var River to the west; the Lombard Apennines (reinforced by the Massa–Senigallia linguistic line) and the Misa River to the south; and the Alps, the Eneo stream, and the Quarnaro to the east.

In addition to ethnic Lombardy, already examined, the following territories are part of Great Lombardy: the County of Nice, Monte Carlo, Liguria/Genoese territory, Lunigiana, eastern Emilia, Romagna, San Marino, ager Gallicus, Veneto, Trentino, southern Tyrol, Friuli, and historical Venezia Giulia (today comprising the Gorizian area, the Littoral, the Karst, part of inner Carniola, Istria, and Fiume).

An interesting cultural datum is represented by the considerable presence throughout the territory of medieval pan-Lombard Crosses, namely that of Saint George (Guelph) and that of Saint John the Baptist (Ghibelline), used as municipal coats of arms. The former is the primary one, being the symbol of the commune of Milan—our capital—and of the Lombard League, as well as of Genoa and its ancient Republic; noteworthy too is the latter, the military emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, which incorporated the post-Longobard medieval Kingdom of Italy (essentially Padania and Tuscany), as well as the symbol of its capital, Pavia, formerly the principal political center of Langobardia Maior.

Among the main Granlombard cities bearing such coats of arms, we recall: Milan, Bologna, Genoa and then Imperia, Ivrea, Alba, Novi, Acqui, Alessandria, Bobbio, Vercelli, Varese, Lecco, Mantua, Reggio, Padua, Rimini (Cross of Saint George); Pavia, Susa, Aosta, Mondovì, Cuneo, Asti, Novara, Lugano, Domodossola, Como, Bormio, Fidenza, Vicenza, Treviso, Castelfranco, Ceneda, Forlì (Cross of Saint John the Baptist).

The theme of the crossed shield, beyond color schemes, is in any case extremely widespread in the Po Valley. What is particularly important, however, is the white-and-red color scheme, typically Alpine–Padan, as opposed to the Mediterranean yellow-and-red of Roman origin. The Biscione is instead a quintessential emblem of ethnic Lombardy, the most original symbol of the Lombard people, which may be projected into the historical Cisalpine panorama together with the Imperial Eagle, echoing not only Visconti rule but also the firm links with Central Europe, the heart of Europe that can readily include our nation at the level of civilization.

The core of the movement’s action of Nazione Lombarda is, of course, ethnic Lombardy, but as can be understood from our very name, we intend to extend our propaganda also to the identified Granlombard area, since it too is part of Lombardy in its broader historical sense. The principal Lombardist objective is in fact to defend, promote, and pass on the ethnocultural and environmental heritage that characterizes the native lands, in order to act as bulwarks of all the salient features of the identity and tradition of Great Lombardy. There exists no national family composed of the rhetorical “brothers of Italy” from the Alps to Sicily; therefore, we have the right and the duty to self-affirm and to fight for the safeguarding of the blood, the soil, and the spirit of the Lombardies, also in order to finally give a unified political dimension to the Cisalpine community. An ethno-nationalist beacon for the whole of Europe.

We therefore consider the purely administrative discourse to be secondary, and Great Lombardy could also be divided into two subregions: a western Granlombard area (Celto-Ligurian and properly Lombard, “Gallo-Italian” at the linguistic level) and an eastern Granlombard area (Raeto-Venetic with mittel influences), naturally cohesive thanks to shared Gallic, Gallo-Roman, Longobard, and medieval Lombard roots. Our canonical distinction nevertheless remains that between ethnic Lombardy and Great Lombardy, with an intermediate ethnolinguistic Lombardity, in the name of the Cisalpine sentiment that is the driving force behind the aims of the NL Association.

In any case, here is how we would subdivide the Granlombard ethnocultural area, using the same cantonal method employed for ethnic Lombardy:

Subalpine Lombardy (in yellow):

Turin, with Ivrea, Pinerolo, Susa, and Aosta.

Cuneo, with Alba, Mondovì, and Saluzzo.

Alessandria, with Asti and Acqui.

Cispadane Lombardy (in red):

Parma, with Fidenza and Fiorenzuola.

Modena, with Reggio and Carpi.

Piacenza, with Voghera and Tortona.

Western Transpadane Lombardy (in light blue):

Milan (capital), with Busto Arsizio, Monza, Lodi, and Pavia.

Como, with Lecco, Lugano, and Varese.

Novara, with Vercelli, Biella, Varallo, and Vigevano.

Locarno, with Domodossola, Intra, and Bellinzona.

Eastern Transpadane Lombardy (in green):

Brescia, with Rovato, Desenzano, Darfo, and Riva.

Bergamo, with Crema, Clusone, and Zogno.

Cremona, with Mantua, Ghedi, and Casalmaggiore.

Sondrio, with Tirano and Chiavenna.

Ligurian Lombardy (in brown):

Genoa, with Savona, Rapallo, La Spezia, and Massa.

Nice, with Sanremo and Imperia.

Romagnol Lombardy (in orange):

Bologna, with Imola, Ferrara, and Comacchio.

Ravenna, with Cesena and Forlì.

Rimini, with Pesaro.

Raetian Lombardy (in blue):

Trent, with Cavalese and Cles.

Bolzano, with Merano, Brixen, Bruneck, and Silandro.

Venetian Lombardy (in pink):

Venice, with Chioggia, Padua, Treviso, and Rovigo.

Vicenza, with Bassano and Schio.

Verona, with Bussolengo, Legnago, and Villafranca.

Belluno, with Pieve di Cadore, Conegliano, and Castelfranco.

Julian Lombardy (in grey):

Trieste, with Pula and Fiume.

Gorizia, with Aidussina and Tolmino.

Udine, with Cividale, Gemona, Cervignano, and Tolmezzo.

Pordenone, with Maniago and Portogruaro.

As can be inferred from the maps, we have sought to trace rational boundaries that combine the geographical aspect (which is not a matter of opinion) with the ethnolinguistic and cultural one (which is at times highly controversial), relying on the former criterion where it was necessary to delimit territory with precision—this being the case for the boundary between ethnic Lombardy and Great Lombardy, and between Great Lombardy and extra-Lombard areas. This was done both inclusively and exclusively, and indeed it can be observed that territories today administratively belonging to the northern regions of the Italian Republic, or in some respects historically Granlombard, have been excluded precisely because they belong to other European geographical regions.