Celebrations of the 500th Anniversary of the Battle of Pavia 1525/2025

In 2025, the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Pavia—one of the most significant events in the history of Italy and Europe—will be celebrated. This anniversary represents an important opportunity to remember the clash on February 24, 1525, which marked the end of French ambitions in Italy and the consolidation of Habsburg power. Commemorative events, historical conferences, and exhibitions will retrace the battle and its consequences, shedding light on the political and military context of the era. The anniversary will also be a chance to reflect on Pavia’s historical legacy and its impact on the European landscape of the 16th century.

The program currently developed and presented by the organizing bodies includes the following initiatives:

February 21–23, 2025:
Historical Reenactment at Mirabello Castle, featuring the participation of over 500 actors from across Europe.

March 30, 2025:
Corri Battaglia di Pavia, a running race that will traverse the historical sites of the battle.

February–December 2025:
Multimedia Exhibition “The Battle of Pavia, February 24, 1525: The Times, the Places, the Men” at the Visconti Castle in Pavia, offering a multimedia immersion into the historical context of the battle (curated by Luigi Casali, Marco Galandra, and Mario Rizzo).

April 7–9, 2025:
International Scientific Conference “Pavia 1525: An Epoch-Making Battle in a Changing World,” held at the University of Pavia and the University Colleges, with the participation of world-renowned historians and scholars, curated by the University of Pavia – Prof. Mario Rizzo.

April–September 2025:
Documentary Exhibition “The Wretched Citadel: Pavia Besieged 1522–1527” at Santa Maria Gualtieri, Piazza della Vittoria in Pavia. The exhibition presents a crescendo of events starting in 1522, peaking in 1525, and culminating in the sack of Pavia in 1527.

September 18, 2025 – January 11, 2026:
Exhibition “Pavia 1525: The City, the Arts, the Battle” at the Visconti Castle. Curated by Francesco Frangi, Pietro Cesare Marani, Mauro Natale, and Laura Aldovini, as well as Carmine Romano, the exhibition aims, on the one hand, to showcase to the general public the splendid artistic and cultural flourishing that the city of Pavia experienced during the Renaissance—a period that both preceded and led up to the, in some respects, catastrophic event of 1525—and, on the other hand, to surprise visitors with the depiction of the battle. This depiction was conceived and executed just a few years later in the spectacular tapestries of the Capodimonte Museum, exceptionally lent for the five-hundredth anniversary, and woven in the years 1530–1532 by the Flemish workshop of Jan and Willem Dermoyen based on designs by Bernard von Orley.October 

October - December 2025:

Book exhibition "The silence of the press" at the University Library of Pavia - Salone Teresiano