Rezzato
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Rezzato
Rezàt | |
---|---|
Comune di Rezzato | |
UTC+2 (CEST) | |
Postal code | 25086 |
Dialing code | 030 |
Patron saint | St. Anne |
Saint day | 26 July |
Website | Official website |
Rezzato (
Thanks to its nearness to the small town of Botticino, Rezzato is commonly considered the town of the marble working. The stonecutters from Rezzato have been famous since the 15th century for their creativity and their artistic way of working with Botticino marble.
Rezzato was chosen by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as the place in which produce some of the headstones for its military cemeteries.
History
Ancient era
The most important place of
Modern era
The origin of this town name is thought to be the medieval "Regadium", which meant "royal court", a term used to designate the area surrounding the city of Brescia. Benedictine monks contributed to the founding of Rezzato by draining the land and digging irrigation canals on the Valverde plain.
Rezzato became a free comune on 12 March 1299, when the inhabitants obtained by the bishop of Brescia Berardo Maggi the permission to autonomize the village from the Benedictine monastery of St. Eufemia.
In the 14th century, battles between Guelph and Ghibelline city-states led to domination over Milan and the nearby territory by the powerful Visconti family, backed by the emperor Henry VII. While the western part of Lombardy was taken over by the Sforza family in the 15th century, Brescia became part of the Venetian Republic in 1429. Under Venice, local commerce and crafts prospered, and Rezzato became known for its marble. Stone cutting was the predominant business in Rezzato from the 15th to the early 20th century.
Because of its nearness to the city and its particular climate, many noble families built their holiday houses in Rezzato. The noble Giacomo Chizzola, after the withdrawal by politics, founded in his villa a school for the children of the rich families in Brescia, so that they could learn Latin. It is known that the mathematician
Some notable person visited and stayed in Rezzato during the 19th century: Napoleone and Garibaldi spent a night in Villa Fenaroli, while the Prime Minister Giuseppe Zanardelli used to come to Rezzato in summer to spend his holidays.
On 15 June 1859, in Rezzato took place the notable Battle of Treponti, one of the battles of the Second War of Independence, fought between Garibaldi and the Austrian Karl von Urban.
The municipal territory took on its current dimensions in 1928, with the addition of the village of Virle Treponti.
Geography
Topography
Rezzato is located in the northern section of the Po Valley, immediately east of Brescia, at the foot of the Brescian Prealps.
The territory consists of three large morphological macroregions: the flat bight between Monte Maddalena, the hills of Botticino and the Monte Regogna. The hilly system consists of the mountains Regogna, Fieno (the highest point of the town's territory at 430 metres (1,410 ft)) and Marguzzo, and two hills called Peladolo and Poggio San Martino. While the northern part of the territory is hilly, the southern area of the town is flat. The administrative comune covers a total area of 18.2 square kilometres (7.0 sq mi).
The hills of the entire area are made up by different types of stones. The first one to be considered is the "corna" consisting of
At just 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification, Rezzato has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa). Its average annual temperature is 13.7 °C (57 °F): 18.2 °C (65 °F) during the day and 9.1 °C (48 °F) at night. The warmest months are June, July, and August, with high temperatures from 27.8 °C (82 °F) to 30.3 °C (87 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with low temperatures from −1.5 °C (29 °F) to 0.6 °C (33 °F).
Winter is cold but snowfall is rare; it mainly occurs from December through February. Summer can be sultry, when humidity levels are high and peak temperatures can reach 36 °C (97 °F). Spring and autumn are generally pleasant, with temperatures ranging between 10 °C (50 °F) and 20 °C (68 °F).
The relative humidity is high throughout the year, especially in winter when it causes fog, mainly from dusk until late morning, although the phenomenon has become increasingly less frequent in recent years.
Precipitation is spread evenly throughout the year. The driest month is December, while the wettest months are April/May and October/November.
Demographics
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1861 | 3,021 | — |
1911 | 4,201 | +39.1% |
1961 | 7,433 | +76.9% |
2011 | 13,455 | +81.0% |
Source: ISTAT 2011 |
Rezzato had a population of 13,576 inhabitants as of 31 December 2017.
Since the end of World War II, like others places in Lombardy, Rezzato has been host to two waves of mass migration: the first, workers from within Italy; the second, immigrants from outside the peninsula. These two migrations have corresponded with two different economic phases. The first migration coincided with the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s, a period of extraordinary growth based on classic industry and public works. The second immigration has taken place against the background of a vastly different economy, centred around services, small industry and post-industrial scenarios. The first migration concerned Italians, from the countryside, the mountains and the cities and towns of the South, the East or the other provinces of Lombardy.
Municipal government
Rezzato is headed by a mayor (sindaco) assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale, and an executive body, the giunta comunale. Since 1995, the mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are directly elected together by resident citizens originally every four then every five years, while from 1945 to 1995 the mayor was chosen by the legislative body. The giunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessori. The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the municipio or palazzo comunale, which in this case is seated in the central Piazza Vantini.
This is a list of the mayors of Rezzato since 1945:
Mayor | Start | End | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Vaifro Sberna | 5 May 1945 | 26 August 1957* | DC | |
Fortunato Pasquali | 26 August 1957 | 8 March 1970 | DC | |
Fausto Cargnoni | 20 July 1970 | 1 October 1985 | DC | |
Giuseppe Joannes | 1 October 1985 | 24 April 1995 | DC | |
Augusto Berardi | 24 April 1995 | 14 June 2004 | PDS | |
Enrico Danesi | 14 June 2004 | 26 May 2014 | PD | |
Davide Giacomini | 26 May 2014 | 27 May 2019 | PD | |
Giovanni Ventura | 27 May 2019 | 10 June 2024 | LN | |
Luca Reboldi | 10 June 2024 | Incumbent | PD |
* Dead in office.
Main sights
- PInAC, or Aldo Cibaldi International Gallery of Children's Art, opened officially in 1969 and it's the most important museum of the town. Today it holds more than 6,000 works of art in its facility in via Disciplina, the old deconsecrated church of St. Alexander. The building is both a gallery and an open educational centre, with training course and experimental didactic activities. Drawings by children are still being collected, studied and catalogued today. The gallery works with schools that are interested in promoting children's art and the child's view of the world. The gallery's collections are characterised by a multi-ethnic quality. Workshops for adults are organised with nationally and internationally known artists.
- Villa Avogadro-Fenaroli: this spectacular setting lies between the villages of Ponte and Canale was home to the noble Avogadros and Fenarolis from Brescia for four centuries. Its north wing dates to the 16th century as well as the balcony overlooking today's Scalabrini Street. A 16th-century's lodge lies under cedars of Lebanon near the gardens' boundaries. Gothic greenhouses were built in 1840, while gardens were rearranged in 1863. The villa is since 2006 a Palace Hotel.
- Bacchus' Temple: It's a small temple built by the Fenarolis in their private park on the top of the St. Peter's Hill during the 18th century, closing scenic stairs behind the Villa. In 2001, thieves deprived the temple of its pillars, leaving its dome and trabeation on the ground. The Municipality of Rezzato had it quickly repaired, recovering a symbol of the town's identity and history.
- Rodolfo Vantini School: a reason for the success of Brescian neoclassicism is certainly the use of the white Botticino's stone. However, very highly skilled carpenters and chisellers were necessary to a style leaning on perfection. This is how Rodolfo Vantini had the idea to set up a school in Rezzato to train these workers. The school opened in 1839 in the Town Hall. Now the school is in the south of the town in a modern building. Vantini was also one of the best architects in Brescia.
Churches and religious sites
Shrine of Our Lady of Valverde
The shrine was built in a large wooded area in the northern part of the town (the so-called "Valverde", which means "green valley"). A small chapel called Rotonda was built here in 1099, and it is the most ancient sign of the religious faith of the entire zone. The shrine itself was only built between 1601 and 1643, after the archbishop of
The site is one of the most important in the entire province because of the so-called "miracle of Valverde", a simultaneous apparition of the
To remember the 1399 apparition every year on the last Sunday of July, there is a historical procession of saints from the town centre to the shrine and then to the
St. James church
With the shrine of Our Lady of Valverde it's the most important symbol of the medieval religious faith in Rezzato. The small church was built in 1122 in the middle of the countryside, in the southern part of the town. Placed on the way to
During the 15th century, a big cascina a corte was built around the church. Until the 1960s more than 300 people lived here and every Sunday a priest came from the town to celebrate a mass.
St. Peter Franciscan monastery
Built by the Benedictine monks in 1008 on the ruins of a Roman villa at the top of the St. Peter's Hill, it served as the main parish of Rezzato until 1460. In that period it became a Capuchin monastery. Closed by the
Transportation
The A4 motorway (Turin-Milan-Venice-Trieste) passes south of the town, while Route SS 11, the Padana Superiore road, and Route SS 45bis, the Gardesana Occidentale road, lead directly to Rezzato.
The nearest train station to Rezzato is in Brescia (the train station of Rezzato was active until mid-1990s), on the Milan-Venice railway line. The nearest airport is in Montichiari (8 km).
The town was connected to Brescia, Salò and Lake Garda by a by a tramway from 1887 to 1954 and by a train line from 1897 to 1967.
In the town there are about 7 km of cycling paths. Rezzato is also connected to the Lake Garda by the Rezzato-Vobarno cycling route.
In the second half of 2017, due to the impossibility of an extension of the Brescia Metro to the town, the possibility of a reopening of the local train station is under consideration.
Education and services
In Rezzato there are:
- one public nursery school;
- four public pre-education schools;
- three public elementary schools;
- one public lower secondary school.
The town is also provided with a vocational institute, hosted in the ancient "Rodolfo Vantini" School (School of Arts and Professional Instruction), which offers also a course in marble sculpture.
The central public library of Rezzato is the biggest of the eastern area of the Province and it's the center of a system of 22 libraries seated in different municipalities.
Since 1965, the town has a public retirement home and since 1975 there's a public building on the Monte Regogna used for daily summer camps for children and old people.
Environment
Recycling
Since December 2009, the municipality of Rezzato has adopted a kerbside collection system for removing household waste (materials separately collected are: green waste, kitchen waste, paper, plastics, aluminium and glass, diapers, industrial products). The adoption of this new system improved the percentage of recycled waste on total municipal waste production:
Year | % of recycled waste |
|
---|---|---|
2010 | 74,5% | |
2011 | 74,7% | |
2012 | 73,8% | |
2013 | 73,1% | |
2014 | 76,4% | |
2015 | 75,6% | |
2016 | 75,6% | |
2017 | 76,9% | |
2018 | 78,2% |
Sister cities
Rezzato is
- Bogoroditsk, Tula Oblast, Russia (since 26 October 2007).
Gallery
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Villa Fenaroli
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The shrine of Our Lady of Valverde
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The entrance to the holy pond near the shrine of Our Lady of Valverde
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The medieval Franciscan monastery in winter
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The medieval St. James church in the southern countryside
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The church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Virle Treponti
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Mount Regogna with its disused marble pit, one of the biggest of the area
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The Naviglio Grande is the main canal that passes through the town
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Bacchus' Temple on St. Peter's Hill
References
- ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^ "Popolazione Residente al 1° Gennaio 2018". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.