Treviso (anc. Tarvisium), a town and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, capital of the province of Treviso, 49 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 16,933 (town); 36,433 (commune). It is situated on the plain between the Gulf of Venice and the Alps, 18 m. by rail N. of Venice, at the confluence of the Sile with the Botteniga. The former flows partly round its walls, the latter through the town; and it has canal communication with the lagoons. It is an old town, with narrow irregular colonnaded streets and some interesting old frescoed houses. The cathedral of San Pietro, dating from 1141 and restored and enlarged in the i 5th century by Pietro Lombardo, with a classical facade of 1836, has five domes. It contains a fine "Annunciation" by Titian (1519), an important "Adoration of the Shepherds" by Paris Bordone (born at Treviso in 1500), and frescoes by Pordenone. There are also sculptures by Lorenzo and Battista Bregno and others. The Gothic church of San Niccolo (1310-1352) contains a fine tomb by Tullio Lombardo, and a large altarpiece by Fra Marco Pensabene and others; in the church and adjoining chapter-house are frescoes by Tommaso da Modena (1352), some frescoes by whom (life of S. Ursula) are also in the Museo Civico. The Monte de Pieta. contains an "Entombment" by an artist of the school of Pordenone (wrongly attributed to Giorgione). The churches of S. Leonardo, S. Andrea, S. Maria Maggiore, and S. Maria Maddalena also contain art treasures. The Piazza dei Signori contains picturesque brick battlemented palaces - the Salone del Gran Consiglio (1184) and the Palazzo del Commune (1268).(1268). Treviso is the seat of various manufactures - ironworks and pottery, macaroni, cotton-spinning and rice-husking, paper, printing, brushes, brickyards, flourmills - and is the centre of a fertile district.
The ancient Tarvisium was a municipium. It lay off the main roads, and is hardly mentioned by ancient writers, though Pliny speaks of the Silis as flowing "ex montibus Tarvisanis." In the 6th century it appears as an important place and was the seat of a Lombard duke. Charlemagne made it the capital of a marquisate. It joined the Lombard league, and was independent after the peace of Constance (1183) until in 1339 it came under the Venetian sway. From 1318 it was for a short time the seat of a university. In the i 5th century its walls and ramparts (still extant) were renewed under the direction of Fra Giocondo, two of the gates being built by the Lombardi. Treviso was taken in 1797 by the French under Mortier (duke of Treviso). In March 1848 the Austrian garrison was driven from the town by the revolutionary party, but in the following June the town was bombarded and compelled to capitulate.
