Rovereto (Roverédo in Trentino) is an Italian town of 40 332 inhabitants in the autonomous province of Trento. Rovereto is an important industrial, tourist and cultural center of Trentino, and is sometimes referred to as the City of the oak (oak, also known as oak, is in the city coat of arms).
Chapel of the Addolorata (fraction of Marco)
Chapel of the Holy
Sepulchre
Archpriest Church of San Marco
Suffrage Church
Loreto
Church
Church of Sant'Antonio Abate
Church of San Carlo Borromeo
Church of the Holy Cross
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
Church
of Santa Maria del Suffragio
Church of San Floriano in Lizzana
Church of San Giorgio
Church of San Giovanni Battista, in Borgo Sacco
Church of San Martino (fraction of Noriglio)
Church of San Rocco
Church of Santa Caterina
Church of San Marco Evangelista in Marco
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
Church of the Holy Trinity
Former church of San Nicolò in Borgo Sacco
Church of Sant'Ilario in
Sant'Ilario
Tacchi Mausoleum
Oratory of the Redeemer
Sanctuary
of the Madonna del Monte
Casa Saibanti, in via Garibaldi
Birthplace of Damiano Chiesa, in
Piazza San Marco
Depero Futurist Art House, in via Portici 38, museum
founded by the artist Fortunato Depero
Palazzo Annona, now home to
the Tartarotti Library and the Cognitive Sciences Library of the
University of Trento
Roggia Paiari spinning mills, historic urban
complex made up of six spinning mills built between 1700 and 1750 in the
Santa Maria area
Tacchi spinning mill, in via Tartarotti
Fedrigotti Palace
Piomarta Palace. It hosts courses of the University
of Trento, in the past it was the historical headquarters of the
"Antonio Rosmini" Gymnasium High School and of the "Felice e Gregorio
Fontana" Technical Commercial Institute for Surveyors, formerly the
Royal Elizabeth School. It was also home to the Girolamo Tartarotti
Civic Library, the Rovereto Civic Museum and the Accademia Roveretana
degli Agiati
Palazzo Alberti Poja
Palazzo Del Bene. Also known as
the Savings Bank building. Home to a banking institution and the
Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati
Birthplace of Antonio Rosmini
Balista Palace (Rosmini Palace "al Frassem")
Palazzo Betta-Grillo
Palazzo de' Cobelli
Land Registry Building
Palace of Justice, work
by Karl Schaden
Master's Institute
Felice and Gregorio Fontana
Technical Institute, by architect Luciano Baldessari
Gym in via S.
Giovanni Bosco
Palazzo Parolari, headquarters of the Rovereto Civic
Museum Foundation
Sichardt Palace
Post Office Building
Building
of the Teachers' Institute
Palazzo Pretorio, seat of the Municipality
Palazzo Testori
Todeschi Palace
Cultural center, designed by the
architect Mario Botta and the engineer Giulio Andreolli. It includes the
Mart, the Melotti auditorium, and the Girolamo Tartarotti civic library
Riccardo Zandonai municipal theatre
Civic tower, in via della Terra
Villa Tranquillini
Tobacco Manufacturing Complex
former Financial
Police barracks
The castle of Rovereto, located above the central Piazza Podestà,
where the city hall is located inside Palazzo Pretorio. The first
nucleus of the complex was built by the Castelbarco counts between the
13th and 14th centuries and then expanded by the Venetians during their
domination in the 15th and 16th centuries. The current structure is the
result of the fortifications carried out by the Venetians. It is one of
the best examples of late medieval Alpine fortification. The
construction of the castle and the first city walls also accompanied the
beginning of the first urban evolution of Rovereto, which experienced
great development under Venetian rule in the fifteenth century. The
castle is located in a panoramic point over the city, Vallagarina, the
Leno gorge and the surrounding mountains.
Remains of the medieval
Castrobarci walls with lookout towers
Near his hamlet of Marco there
was a military powder magazine
The Bell of the Fallen baptized Maria Dolens, located on the
Miravalle Hill, whose hundred tolls every evening remember the Fallen of
all wars, invoking Peace and brotherhood in the world. It was cast on 30
October 1924 with the bronze of the cannons offered by the Nations
involved in the "huge massacre" of the First World War. After the Second
World War, not without controversy, it was moved to the Miravalle hill,
a panoramic place from which you can admire Vallagarina. The Bell rings
every evening at sunset as a reminder to universal brotherhood in memory
of the blood shed on all battlefields.
Military shrine of Castel
Dante, located on the top of Colle Castel Dante, from which it is
possible to have an overview of the city and its surroundings. The
construction dates back to 1936, designed by the architect Ferdinando
Biscaccianti. It is the final burial of twelve thousand Italian and
Austro-Hungarian soldiers killed on the Italian front during the First
World War. The Shrine also preserves the remains of the irredentist
martyrs Fabio Filzi and Damiano Chiesa. A monument to General Guglielmo
Pecori Giraldi commemorates the 1st Italian Army which, in 1916, stopped
the Austrian offensive
Monumental commemorative stele, inaugurated at
the end of 2014, in memory of the over 300 fallen from the city of
Rovereto who fought in the Great War with the uniform of the Imperial
Royal Austro-Hungarian Army.
Castel Lizzana
Monument to Antonio
Rosmini, located on the street of the same name, in front of his
birthplace.
Monument to the Alpino
Monument to Clementino Vannetti
Monument to Riccardo Zandonai
Tacchi Mausoleum
Monuments in memory
of Damiano Chiesa and Fabio Filzi
Mortar from 305/10, in front of the
Praetorian Palace, municipal headquarters.
Porta di S. Marco
Civic
Tower
Fontana Rosmini, at the east end of Corso Rosmini
Fountain of
Peace
Fountain of the Two Thorns in via S.Maria
Neptune Fountain
in Piazza Cesare Battisti
Fountain in Piazza Erbe
Fountain in
Piazza Filzi in Borgo Sacco
Bettini Course
Rosmini Course
Piazza Cesare Battisti
The fossil footprints left in the Lavini di Marco area by some dinosaurs of the Camptosaurus (herbivorous) and Dilophosaurus (carnivorous) species along the slopes of this limestone hill that runs along the city from Rovereto, gently sloping down towards Ala. At Lavini you can admire approximately one hundred "footprints", fossil footprints. This archaeological area, not far from the Bell of the Fallen, can be reached by continuing along the same road or in half an hour's walk; the asphalt road (Strada degli Artiglieri) leading to the Orme is lined with numerous votive capitals commemorating the fallen of the First World War, and also leads to the cave where Damiano Chiesa was captured.
Rovereto is a municipality located almost
in the center of Vallagarina in the last stretch of the mountains
crossed by the Adige river before its entrance into the Po Valley.
It is located about 25 km south of Trento and 70 km north of
Verona.
The plateaus of Folgaria and Lavarone extend to the
east, Vallarsa and Pasubio to the south-east. To the north rises the
chain of Monte Bondone. Lake Garda is about 15 km away, heading
west.
In Rovereto and in Vallagarina in general,
there are relatively cold and snowy winters and hot and stormy
summers, especially in the afternoon. A slight relief from the
summer heat is provided by the late afternoon breeze that
particularly affects the area of the Leno stream and which
descends from the Vallarsa area, east of the city. In recent years
there has been a slow rise in temperature also in this area and the
occasional appearance of the phenomenon of fog, once confined only
to the Po areas. Snowfalls also decreased in frequency and
intensity.
During the intense snowfall of 26-27 January 2006,
extraordinary snow accumulation data of about 60 cm were recorded.
The snowfall had been most intense in the southeastern parts of the
region. In the Valle dell'Adige there were larger quantities south
to Trento, while going up the valley the values, albeit conspicuous,
decreased. The last snowfall of some importance is that of 11-12
February 2013 with 30 cm measured in some districts of the city.
Apart from episodes (such as the last one mentioned in which it
snowed more in Rovereto than in Trento), the snowfall of Rovereto is
lower than that of Trento, the latter being more sheltered from the
warm influxes of the south able to rain.
Rovereto (204 m a.s.l.) is the capital of the Community of Vallagarina in Trentino, as well as the main center of the homonymous valley, located in the southern area of the region. Vallagarina, characterized by large expanses of vineyards, is crossed by the river Adige, in the past an important commercial axis between Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige; wood and goods were transported by rafts along the river. From the city, towards the east, the Terragnolo valley and Vallarsa begin, crossed by the Leno torrent: just above Rovereto there is the San Colombano dam with its lake, dominated by the homonymous hermitage. The most important peaks near Rovereto are Mount Stivo (2059 m), Coni Zugna (1864 m), Mount Finonchio (about 1603 m) and Mount Biaena (1615 m). A "green lung" of the city consists of the so-called "city forest", a wooded area equipped with paths and even paths equipped for sports.
The etymology of Rovereto derives from the Latin Roboretum (lit. "oak
forest").
In Roman toponymy Roboretum indicated a forest of oaks,
a plant that abounded in the valley and was taken as an effigy of the
municipal coat of arms. The coat of arms also contains the Latin quote:
«Magno cum robore quercus ingentes tendet ramos» (translated: "With
great strength the oak stretches out its mighty branches").
Known
as Roveredo in Tyrol, during the Austrian domination, the Germanized
toponym Rofreit or Rovereith was also in use. Other historically used
German exonyms, derived from the Latin or Italian name, include
Rofereid, Rovereid, and Rofreit.
A presence of the surnames
Rofereyder, Roffereider, Rouereider derived from the name of the city is
attested in the then Italian Tyrol (later the Autonomous Province of
Bolzano) in the 15th century.
In the Middle Ages, the village of Rovereto appeared as a
historically less ancient and less noble settlement than others,
certainly smaller ones, scattered in the Vallagarina, gathered around
the various parish churches. And in fact the first news concerning it
inform us that it depended, both for ecclesiastical and civil
jurisdiction, on Lizzana. In 1225 Jacopino da Lizzana established a
villicum there, then the new lords of that castellany arrived: the
Castelbarcos linked to the Veronese Della Scala dynasty. Around 1300
William of Castelbarco built the city walls ("La Terra") in Rovereto,
installed a Judge there and strengthened Vallagarina's relations with
Verona. These then remained very strict over the centuries, as we are
assured by the Statutes of the Magnificent Community of Verona which
states that the highly fortified "Valle di Lagaro" (Lagari Munitissimus)
was part of Verona's jurisdiction.
This situation, which precedes
the birth of the Episcopal Principality of Trento, was maintained at
least until the fall of the Lombard Kingdom, in 778, according to
historians' hypotheses. It is only at the beginning of the 13th century
that there is certainty about the cessation of the Veronese jurisdiction
and the establishment of the Trentino jurisdiction in Vallagarina, in
Lizzana and then in Rovereto. In 1197, on Thursday 1 May, the Tridentine
bishop Corrado II of Beseno solemnly established the hospice for lepers
and the poor of Sant'Ilario di Rovereto in the presence of the feudal
lords of the Lagaro valley, and issued the Statute which allowed the
celebration of a celebration on site. fair enjoying the related
privileges, exemptions and indulgences, as well as the substantial
revenues for the adjoining lands. Only twenty years earlier, in 1177,
Aldrighetto di Castelbarco, or whoever on his behalf, had murdered the
bishop of Trento Adalpreto who, according to Sansovino, had invaded
Vallagarina to usurp its fiefdoms at the current convent of San Rocco di
Rovereto, and consequently "being killed because he wanted to destroy
the state of others".
Later, when the Republic of Venice extended its dominion up to the
Lagarina Valley, maintaining it for almost a century, from 1416 until
1509, Rovereto transformed into a well-equipped strategic border
stronghold. The Serenissima sent its architects there in 1425 (Malipiero
and Basadonna are still remembered today in the names of the towers they
built), strengthened and expanded the military defense structures: the
Castrobarcense castle and the circle of walls. Rovereto lost its
characteristics of a medieval village with Venice to acquire those of a
city, an active economic center and increasingly crowded with merchants,
local artisans (but also Venetian and Lombard), doctors, notaries, tax
collectors, stewards while in the urban context they multiplied the
shops, taverns, hospices for travellers, churches and convents. Decisive
to spark the economic development of Rovereto was the act decreed in
1417 by the Serenissima Republic of Venice, thanks to which the city of
Rovereto would enjoy the "exemption from consumption duties" for the
benefit of the "textile activity". This far-sighted act of the
Serenissima's customs policy has since then encouraged investments in
artisanal and industrial activities, rewarding entrepreneurial
initiatives, encouraging the transformation of land capital and
investments by local and foreign landowners.
The exemption from
consumer duties was then renewed on 3 November 1510 with a diploma from
Maximilian I, after, at the conclusion of the war against Venice
organized by the League of Cambrai and the Venetian defeat at the Battle
of Agnadello, Rovereto was occupied by the imperial army . Maximilian I
confirmed the privileges and statutes to the "loyal consuls and citizens
and to the community of the city of Rovereto", confirming its rank as a
city.
However, the southern part of Trentino, and with it Rovereto,
formerly Venetian, was not returned to the Episcopal Principality of
Trento, but instead constituted the "Circle on the borders of Italy", a
sort of free zone which, due to its strategic importance, was controlled
directly by the Empire. Rovereto, following the end of the Venetian
administration (from 1416 to 1509), claimed and obtained the conditions
of particular autonomy that had characterized its status under the
Serenissima and therefore had its own peculiar administrative regime,
different from that in force for the other territories Trentinos of the
Empire.
Perhaps the most flourishing period in Rovereto's history
was the 18th century, when the silk industry developed to its maximum;
which experienced a real leap in quality thanks to some merchants from
Nuremberg, some of them; Giovanni and Paolo Ferleger opened the first
hydraulic spinning mill, Folchamer, Gutterer and Giovanni Federico
Sichart opened shops. Already at the beginning of the 16th century the
"first spinning mill operated by men" was installed in the city on the
initiative of Girolamo Savioli. Progress was continuous. In 1766 the
Rovereto silk factories employed more than 1,000 workers, while over
4,000 pieceworkers worked under the orders of the spinners and master
spinners in the 36 spinning mills, 26 winding machines, 1,236 spinning
wheels and in the 5 dyeing houses that supplied the final product to the
23 silk shops. Tout Roveredo travaille aux premières manufactures de
soie… an illustrious traveler, the political thinker Montesquieu,
observed when he stopped here during his trip to Italy (1738-1741).
The population of Rovereto, which reached a significant level of
well-being at the end of the eighteenth century, as demonstrated by the
architectural creations that still characterize it today, was busy not
only in the silk production chain but also in crafts and trade. The city
was also famous, for the importance of its cultural life and the general
level of education, as the Athens of Trentino. Among the valuable urban
creations of that period, the Corso Nuovo along the ancient imperial
road (later Corso Bettini, in memory of the martyr), designed by the
architect Ambrogio Rosmini in 1771, should be remembered. At that time
the roads leading to to the suburbs and along those routes the new noble
palaces that will decorate Rovereto will be built: the Annona palace
(1771-72), Piamarta palace (1772), Fedrigotti palace (1778-90), Alberti
palace (1791), Rosmini palace at Ash trees. The Theater along Corso
Nuovo dates back to 1783. The villas of the patricians were also created
in what was then the charming countryside: Villa Alle Grazie, of the
Vannetti family, Villa Bridi, Villa Tacchi.
In December 1805,
after the defeat inflicted by Napoleon on the Habsburg forces at
Austerlitz and following the Peace of Pressburg, Rovereto came under the
administration of the Kingdom of Bavaria, an ally of the French, who
temporarily governed Trentino from the beginning of 1806 to the end of
1809, first through the Provisional Administrative Commission of South
Tyrol and then through the Administrative Commission of the Department
of Alto Adige. Baron Sigismondo Moll of Villa Lagarina had crucial
responsibilities in both Commissions. Moll had already held, in 1791,
the position of district captain of the Circle on the Borders of Italy
(Trentino) based in Rovereto and, in 1796, he was president of that
administrative council.
In June 1810 southern Tyrol (which in
fact included only Trentino) was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of
Italy.
Once Bonaparte was defeated, from 1815 Rovereto became,
after centuries of direct influence, formally part of the Austrian
County of Tyrol and was, until 1918, the capital of one of the seven
circles from which the province itself was made up.
In 1850 the city of Rovereto had 7,431 residents who formed 1,694
families, welcomed in 654 houses. At that time, notable institutions and
structures were born, especially on the initiative and with the
financial intervention of private citizens, intended to further support
the development of the city. In 1841, wanted by three entrepreneurs,
Giovanni Battista Tacchi, banker and silk industrialist, G. B.
Sannicolò, silk industrialist, the landowner Cesare Malfatti and 42
other people from Rovereto, the Cassa di Risparmio di Rovereto was
founded which would monopolize for the whole century and beyond
economic-financial activities developed in the territory and in the
province. Even the construction of the imposing Spino drinking aqueduct
(1843-1845), which since then resolved the problem of the hygienic
supply of pure and fresh water for Rovereto and the valley, must be
credited to Antonio Balista, assisted by the financial contribution of
the Municipality. The same city municipal administration which, in 1854,
despite having no direct responsibility, contributed to the financing of
another work: the Tobacco Factory, built on the banks of the Adige in
Borgo Sacco. The factory would become a precious resource to combat
growing unemployment when, at the end of the century, the first economic
crisis hit southern Trentino, allowing the dramatic phenomenon of
emigration to be reduced locally.
Cesare Malfatti was mayor of
Rovereto between 1851 and 1860, and again between 1867 and 1873, then
deputy to the Chamber of Vienna. The city dedicated Piazza del Grano to
him, one of the most beautiful in the historic centre. His government
was responsible for the purchase of the Palace of Public Education, the
completion of the Gymnasium, the establishment of the Royal Elizabethan
School for which he signed a generous offer, the foundation of the Civic
Museum of which he was the first president, the foundation, together to
other citizens, of the Cassa di Risparmio di Rovereto who then directed
from 1841 to 1855, the institution of the Civic Fire Brigade, of the
Agricultural Society. On his initiative, the stone bridge (Ponte
Forbato) over the Leno, the new nursery school factory, the Piazza della
Posta and the San Rocco promenade were built. And also the purchase of
land adjacent to the new road to the railway station, supported in view
of the urban reorganization and the layout of Corso Rosmini (1872-1878).
This happened after the Verona-Trento section of the Brennero
railway was completed in 1859 and it should be noted that the public
authorities of Rovereto took responsibly action in order to urge the
realization of this work, in concert with the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. This institution, erected in Rovereto on 13 August 1850, was
able to play a decisive role in studying, directing and promoting
economic activities in southern Trentino in the following decades,
conducting effective battles against the central power of Innsbruck and
Vienna for the solution of local problems in the interest of the
population. The action of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry proved
particularly useful during the years that followed and the emergence of
the agricultural and industrial crisis.
The serious crisis that
hit the Rovereto area and the valley in the second half of the
nineteenth century was due to various causes: the political tensions
following the events of 1848 and the wars of 1859 undermined some key
elements of the local economy, negatively modified both the
relationships between the production sectors and the traditional
structures of commercial relations with neighboring regions. The new
customs offices located on the borders with Lombardy and Veneto hinder
the sales of silk and paper and the advantageous importation of cereals.
The burden of heavy duties and customs barriers devastated the system of
commercial relations, bringing the silk industry, the velvet industry
and the leather tanning industry to its knees. To this already very
negative situation was added, for agriculture, the spread of phylloxera
and pebrine which affected viticulture and the cultivation of silkworms.
The tragic floods of the streams and the Adige in the years 1882-1885
and following intervened to further spoil this unfortunate picture.
Despite all this, the city was able to react with a gradual
restructuring of the economic bases which would lead to the take-off of
a new industrialization more evident at the beginning of the new
century, a turning point marked by the end of the "protectionist" phase
and the beginning of the "liberal" one in which the municipal council
acted as a protagonist. By deciding on the "exemption of surcharges with
the granting of the driving force on favorable terms, both with the
transfer of land and with the facilities to obtain it for those who make
an application for industrial purposes", the municipal administration of
Rovereto attracted numerous entrepreneurs who knew how to reconvert and
redirect new industrial production.
In 1900 Rovereto had 10,180
inhabitants, an increase compared to those counted fifty years earlier
due not only to the birth rate, lower than elsewhere, but also to the
decrease in infant mortality but, above all, to the high immigration
rate. The strong immigration (compared to weak emigration) that
characterized the city made it statistically clear that only half of the
resident citizens were born in Rovereto, with a significant increase in
"belonging to states abroad, mainly Italians from the neighboring
kingdom " and a "considerable increase in the Italian population", while
the German element had remained stationary.
That new positive economic period that had opened at the dawn of the
century for Rovereto was dramatically interrupted by the outbreak of the
Great War. The First World War inflicted wounds on the social and
economic fabric of the city, devastation that forced the exile of the
population from the city's homeland, which was transformed into the
front line of the war. The outcome of the conflict, with the defeat of
the Austro-Hungarian forces, finally placed the city under Italian
government. Rovereto slowly began to flourish again, both through
private initiative, aided by numerous credit institutions, but also with
the contribution of the societies of the cooperative movement, which in
the meantime had arisen in the area and were very active in their
individual fields of expertise, from agriculture (the "Società
Agricoltori della Vallagarina") to the bank (the "Banco Agricolo Operaio
di Rovereto"). But even these renewed progress, achieved and
consolidated in the aftermath of the Great War, were mortified by the
crisis that then hit the Trentino economy in the early 1930s, when
numerous banks had to face sometimes insurmountable liquidity problems.
When in June 1933 the largest bank in Trentino, the "Banca del Trentino
Alto Adige" (born from the merger imposed by the fascist regime between
the Banca Cattolica and the Banca Cooperativa) had to close its
branches, a domino effect was created which involved all the Trentino
credit institutions. In the minutes of 19 March 1934 of the general
assembly of the "Banco Agricolo Operaio di Rovereto" the report to the
members warns: «What is certain is that the future that lies before us
is not the brightest and fullest, fraught with related difficulties to
that word we all know "the crisis"...»
Even that crisis was
finally overcome, Rovereto's economy recovered again, but then the
Second World War broke out and much of the progress was wiped out by the
disastrous war events and under the direct and indirect effects of the
bombs dropped by the belligerents along the axis of the Brenner railway.
At the end of the Second World War, after 8 September 1943 and until
the German retreat at the end of April-beginning of May 1945, Trentino,
Alto Adige and the Province of Belluno formed the Operationszone
Alpenvorland (Zone of operations of Prealpi), an administrative entity
whose control was removed from the Italian Social Republic and reported
directly to Nazi Germany. During the Nazi-German occupation, the
regional capital was located in Bolzano.
After the war, the
municipal administrations that succeeded the government of Rovereto
immediately began a powerful reconstruction of the city devastated by
bombing, sometimes deprived of vital supplies. Industrial reconstruction
proceeded at comforting steps thanks to private initiative but also to
effective public support. In 1946 the first elected mayor, Eng. Giuseppe
Veronesi, who had been a councilor in the council of mayor Silvio
Bettini Schettini, installed by the C.L.N. (National Liberation
Committee), encouraged in every way the establishment of new artisanal
and industrial initiatives and the acquisition of energy sources,
gradually increasing investments in public works. In parallel with the
increase in employment resources, initiatives aimed at the diffusion of
technical and professional education multiplied. In the sixties (while
Veronesi was replaced by mayor Ferruccio Trentini and Guido Benedetti),
in harmony with the so-called economic miracle that was taking shape on
a national level, a series of civil and social projects of great impact
took shape in Rovereto. Among others, the new functional headquarters of
the Santa Maria Hospital were built, as well as the new Technical
Institute for Accountants and Surveyors "Felice and Gregorio Fontana",
designed by the architect Luciano Baldessari, erected above the old
sports field. At the same time, the new field for the Rovereto team that
had won the C series was inaugurated. The elderly saw the opportunities
of a new "Residence home for the elderly" opening up which would have to
be managed according to innovative techniques. The municipal electricity
company, then still in Rovereto and Rivana, strengthened its resources
with the construction of new dams on the Leno, while Rovereto's credit
institutions recorded continuous successes. The electorate then
recognized, at the beginning of the 1960s in Rovereto, the merits of the
administrations that had governed the city well, rewarding the municipal
government party, the DC, with a majority that exceeded 60 percent.