About | Conference Location
About Bergamo
Bergamo is located in Northern Italy’s alpine Lombardy area, 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Milan, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Brescia, and about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Switzerland. It is only 1 hour away from the alpine lakes of Como, Iseo, and Garda.
With over 120,000 residents, Bergamo is the fourth-largest city in Lombardy. Beyond the official city borders, a highly populated region with little more than 1.1 million people makes up the Bergamo metropolitan area. The old part of the city, called Città Alta (Upper Town), is surrounded by a vast Venetian defense fortification wall recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 9 July 2017.
The A4 highway, which runs from Venice to Turinn passing by Milan, makes it possible for Bergamo to have good access to several well-known Italian cities. Il Caravaggio International Airport, Italy’s third busiest airport, is the city’s official airport. After Milan, Bergamo is the most-visited city in Lombardy. Divided between the medieval upper town and the modern lower city, Bergamo is rich in culture and leisure activities.
The University of Bergamo
The University of Bergamo was first established in Piazza Vecchia, the heart of the Upper Town, in 1968. Over the years, the University has become a widespread campus hosting over 20,000 students, a cultural backbone that extends between the city and its province:
- The historical center of the Upper Town hosts the humanities campus;
- Via dei Caniana, in the Lower Town, hosts the Management, Economics, and Law departments;
- Dalmine, a nearby town, is the center for technological innovation and the home of the engineering campus.
The Caniana Campus
The Caniana campus consists of three departments:
- The Department of Economics;
- The Department of Management;
- The Department of Law.
Built during the mid-1950s, the campus was once the headquarter of a small industrial complex. Given its proximity to the city center, the building was acquired in the early-1980s by Banca Provinciale Lombarda, the local bank.
The renovation was commissioned to the architects Poli, Mambretti, Traversi, and Travisa, who adopted modern techniques for those years. For instance, the use of insulated aluminum sheets for the walls gave the building its distinct linear shape.
The University of Bergamo acquired it in 1987 directly from the bank, and the following restoration left the exterior essentially unchanged. The aula magna is named after Serio Galeotti, the dean from 1972 to 1975, who founded the degree program in Economics and Management.
