Castelfranco Veneto (Castèo in Veneto) is an Italian town of 33
608 inhabitants in the province of Treviso in Veneto. It is the
third largest municipality in the province by population after the
capital Treviso and Conegliano.
Centrally located between the
Venetian capitals of Treviso, Padua and Vicenza, it is a walled city
with a medieval castle in excellent condition.
The birthplace
of Giorgione, it preserves the ancient residence, Casa Giorgione,
and, in a chapel of the Duomo, the famous Pala di Castelfranco.
The origins and the toponym
The wall settlement of
Castelfranco was founded between 1195 and 1199 when the recently
formed Municipality of Treviso felt the need to guard the border
with the rivals Padua and Vicenza, in an area where the Muson river
represented the only ephemeral natural demarcation. The chosen site
was located in a strategic position: a pre-existing embankment on
the eastern bank of the watercourse, close to the confluence of the
Via Postumia and Aurelia and in a central position between the noble
fortresses of Castello di Godego and Treville and the bishops of
Salvatronda Riese and Resana.
The work was directed by Count
Schenella di Collalto, who employed about five hundred master masons
and a thousand "sappers" (unskilled workers). In a decade the
construction could be considered complete: around the walls of the
castle a moat was dug into which the waters of two tributaries
(resurgence waters) of the Muson were diverted: the Avenue and the
Musonello.
Once the castle was built, the Municipality of
Treviso sent a colony of one hundred families of free men, who were
granted farms and houses exempt from taxes and burdens, hence the
toponym Castelfrancho: castle, precisely, "free" from taxes . This
resulted in the peculiar composition of the castle population, the
great majority of which was not made up of soldiers, but of free
citizens. The interior spaces, however, were not organized according
to a typical urban layout: there was no real square and the most
important buildings were distributed along the main road if not even
backward, as in the case of the church (then subordinate to the
older Pieve Nuova, in the current Borgo Pieve), the accounting
office and the infirmary.
The castle was governed by two
consuls, in office for six months. In addition to the normal
administrative tasks, they had to manage justice in the name of the
mayor of Treviso. Each consul (salaried 100 lire for the entire
period) had to answer for his actions to his companion and take
action against him if he violated the law.
It was not long
before Castelfranco had to withstand a first siege by the Paduans
(1215) and a second one, five years later, again by the same
enemies, allied this time to the bishop of Feltre and Belluno. In
1220 Frederick II of Swabia was crowned emperor in Rome: the aims of
the sovereign on the Venetian territories imposed a truce between
Padua and Treviso, which was however broken when Ezzelino III da
Romano appeared on the scene, who, wishing to take over Padua,
managed to to attract Treviso into an alliance against Feltre and
Belluno, allies of Padua. The bishop of the two cities, however,
counterattacked and, thanks to the alliance with the Marquis d'Este
and the Patriarch of Aquileia, broke into the Castellana sacking
Treville and burning Castel di Godego, a fiefdom of Ezzelino
himself. Ezzelino's response was drastic, and with the imperial help
he submitted both Treviso and Padua to his dominion, becoming
Imperial Vicar. Due to a dispute between Ezzelino and his brother,
Alberico da Romano, the castle passed by treaty to Guglielmo di
Camposampiero, who returned it to Ezzelino in 1246. The latter
fortified it further with two circles and a tower on the south side
(towards Padua); finally he returned to Treviso on 27 September
1259, on the death of the "tyrant".
In 1329 Castelfranco
passed to Cangrande della Scala, lord of Verona.
The Venetian
rule
On 23 January 1339 the castle passes, with Treviso, to
Venice. After a brief domination of the Carraresi (1380-1388, in the
person of Francesco I da Carrara), of which traces remain in the
internal frescoes at the vault of the Civic Tower, Castelfranco
follows the fate of the Venetian Republic, overcoming the crisis
caused by the War of the League of Cambrai, when in 1509 the castle
was occupied by the troops of Maximilian of Habsburg, who made it
his headquarters. After the war ended in 1515, from 1517
Castelfranco definitively returned under the dominion of the
Serenissima.
This is the heyday for Castelfranco, especially
from an economic point of view. The Republic favors the colonization
of the territory and the exploitation of still vacant funds and,
consequently, the marketing of agricultural products is
strengthened; the urban fabric is consolidated with masonry
buildings with commercial functions, characterized by arcades and
warehouses on the ground floors; the market was near the north side
of the castle, with one part for livestock and another for fodder
and vegetables. In the meantime, the countryside becomes a popular
holiday destination for the families of the aristocracy, who build
their villas here. These phenomena allow Castelfranco to
progressively cut ties with Treviso and to integrate autonomously
into the territory.
At the same time, a lively cultural climate develops in the city,
becoming a point of convergence for various artists and architects.
In the eighteenth century, with the decline of the capital,
Castelfranco is projected towards the centers of the mainland (first
of all Padua) which have become the new poles of culture. The
intellectuals come from some patrician families now rooted in the
area, such as the Riccati, and promote various urban interventions,
both inside (cathedral and Academic theater) and outside the walls
(new church, San Giacomo hospital).
The nineteenth century
After the fall of Venice in 1797, Castelfranco also passed from the
French to the Austrians and vice versa, until it became definitively
Austrian in 1814. The Austrian domination ceased on July 15, 1866,
with the annexation of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy.
The municipality of Castelfranco Veneto extends over
a completely flat area, located at the western end of the province
of Treviso, on the border with the province of Padua. The location
is such that it can easily reach four provincial capitals (Treviso,
Venice, Vicenza and Padua), as well as other important cities such
as Bassano del Grappa, Cittadella and Montebelluna.
Thanks to
its privileged position, it is served by a very varied and complete
transport network: in fact, three important railway lines converge
in the area, which cross at the city station and two important road
arteries, the SS 53 Postumia which connects Vicenza to Treviso. and
the SS 245 Castellana between Mestre and Bassano del Grappa.
The main river is the Musone-Muson dei Sassi, but other minor
watercourses flow in the territory of the municipality: the Avenue,
the Musoncello, the Musonello and the Muson Vecchio.
There
are many hamlets into which the city is divided. Castelfranco Veneto
represents a commercial and industrial pole of great importance
compared to the neighboring municipalities of the province of
Treviso.