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Monza mōn´tsä [key], city (1991 pop. 120,651), Lombardy, N Italy. Manufactures of this highly diversified industrial center include felt hats, carpets, textiles, glass, plastics, and machinery. The history of Monza is closely related to that of Milan. The cathedral, founded (6th cent.) by the Lombard queen Theodolinda, contains the iron crown of Lombardy, which was made, according to tradition, from a nail of Christ's cross; it was used to crown Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon I, and other emperors as kings of Lombardy or of Italy. An expiatory chapel was built (1910) at the place where King Humbert I was assassinated in 1900. The nearby Autodromo Nazionale Monza, in the park of the former royal villa, is one of the world's oldest major automobile racetracks (rebuilt 1955).
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