BASSANO DEL GRAPPA

town, Vicenza provincia, Veneto regione, northern Italy, on the Brenta River at the foot of Monte Grappa, north of Padua. Between 1036 and 1259 the town became important under the Ezzelini family, who built the castle the walls of which enclose the often-renovated cathedral. Later disputed by Vicenza, Padua, and Verona, it flourished as a dependency of Venice from 1405 to 1796. It was famous in the 16th century as the home of the Da Ponte family of painters, surnamed Bassano, and from 1650 to 1850 for its printing and publishing works. Napoleon defeated the Austrians there in 1796, and the town was severely damaged during the heavy fighting on Monte Grappa in 191718 and again in World War II. San Francesco, a 13th-century Romanesque-Gothic church, is notable, and in the cloister of the old convent is the civic museum, which contains ceramics, wood blocks (legni), samples from the Remondini printing house, and works of art by Jacopo Bassano and others of his family, Antonio Canova, and Vittore Carpaccio. Since the late 18th century, the famous grappa (a kind of brandy) has been made in the town, which is also a commercial centre with metal and textile industries. Pop. (1990 est.) mun., 38,770.