Pregasina
| Pregasina | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| View of Pregasina from the northwest | |||
| Country | Italy | ||
| region | Trentino-South Tyrol | ||
| province | Trento (TN) | ||
| local community | Riva del Garda | ||
| Coordinates | 45 ° 51 ' N , 10 ° 49' E | ||
| height | 532 m slm | ||
| patron | St. George | ||
| Church day | August 14th | ||
| Telephone code | 0464 | CAP | 38060 |
| Website | Official website | ||
Pregasina is a Frazione (town) of Riva del Garda on Lake Garda in the autonomous province of Trento in northern Italy .
geography
The place is located above the western shore of Lake Garda between Riva del Garda and Limone sul Garda at an altitude of 532 m slm Pregasina borders in the west and north on the municipality of Ledro and in the east in the middle of the lake on Nago-Torbole and thus forms an exclave of Riva del Garda. The municipal border in the south to Limone sul Garda also forms the border between Trentino and the province of Brescia .
history
Pregasina was first mentioned in a document in 1424. However, the area was probably already used as a place of refuge during the Great Migration and was inhabited by shepherds in the summer who grazed their animals here. Parts of the name are of Lombard origin, "gasina" means something like beautiful panorama, while "pre" refers to the pasture area (from the Italian prato = meadow, lawn). The first permanent settlers were charcoal burners and in 1633 the church dedicated to St. George was built.
During the Risorgimento and the attempt of Italian irregulars toward Trento to advance, the place was in 1848 and 1866 after the Battle of Bezzecca occupied briefly by Italian troops, and after that time by wording Kaiserjäger again by the insurgents freed. Around 1850 the municipality of Pregasina (Germanized Pregasen ) had 119 inhabitants and 41 houses.
With the outbreak of World War I , the male population fit for military service was drafted in early August 1914. Women, children and old people stayed behind. With the Italian declaration of war on May 23, 1915, these too were evacuated by the Austro-Hungarian authorities after the population had only learned of the impending evacuation 12 hours earlier, on the afternoon of May 22nd . With the permitted luggage of 10 to 15 kilograms, they pulled down Ponale road to Riva on May 23 and boarded the train to Mori in the afternoon . Only the pastor, the mayor and four other men remained in Pregasina, who were supposed to take care of the remaining cattle. In Mori you had to wait three days before you could take another train to Innsbruck . Most of Pregasina's inhabitants spent the war years in Bohemia , namely in Protivín , Pilsen and Budweis . Twelve of them died in the war-imposed diaspora .
In July 1915, the first Italian patrols appeared in the village. But it was not until October 17 of the same year that the Italian Army Report was able to report the capture of Pregasina, despite the most violent artillery fire by the enemy, even with gas grenades .
The Italian troops, in particular Alpini of the Vestone battalion , subsequently relieved by several companies from the Guardia di Finanza , also occupied the surrounding mountains, such as the Nodice ( 859 m slm ), which had already been fortified by the Austro-Hungarian troops between 1914 and 1915 was, and the mountain ridge between Cima Bal ( 1260 m slm ) and Cima Nara ( 1376 m slm ), and built this partly fortress-like. Two cable cars were also built to transport building materials extracted from the houses of Pregasina to the positions.
During the war the place was shot at by artillery from both sides and badly damaged. When the inhabitants of Pregasina were able to return to their village in 1919, they found a place almost completely looted and destroyed. The municipal administration went to work with a lot of effort and with always tight municipal funds to make the houses habitable again and to repair the infrastructures, such as the municipal water supply and the streets and paths. The numerous dead buried in the village cemetery also had to be exhumed and buried elsewhere.
With the Treaty of Saint-Germain , Pregasina was also officially attached to the Kingdom of Italy , but retained the municipal statute that was drawn up under the Austro- Hungarian Empire, which only became part of the new Italian municipal statute on January 11, 1923, and became part of Italy after 1918 Provinces was dissolved. Even under the Italian legal system, little changed in terms of the municipality's financial difficulties. On April 13, 1924, the last mayor of Pregasina, Giudo Toniatti, resigned along with the municipal council, as no financial support from the Italian state had been received and the desired connection to another municipality had not been heard. On July 23, 1925, Pregasina was finally incorporated into the municipality of Biacesa and thus ceased to exist as an independent municipality.
In 1929 Pregasina was connected to the electricity network and the water supply. In 1955 Molina di Ledro , into which Biacesa had been incorporated in 1928, was connected to Riva del Garda.
traffic
Until 1956 Pregasina could only be reached via paths and mule tracks , then a road was built that connected the town with Ponale Street . This road branches off at the so-called "Le Zete", a series of serpentine serpentines on Ponalestrasse, opened in 1851, and was built in three sections.
The first section up to the bridge over the Ponale was built by Austrian engineering troops before the First World War . During the war, the Italians blew up this wooden bridge and a stone bridge was built in its place in 1919–1920. At the same time there were plans to continue the road to Pregasina. Due to a lack of funds, however, the road could not be completed and in 1922 only a further section was opened up to today's second bend. The construction of the third and last section began in 1952 and was completed between 1955 and 1956. With the opening of the new road connection from Val di Ledro to Riva in 1989, which replaced the old Ponale road, and the subsequent construction of the connecting piece to Pregasina with a 958 m long tunnel (cut in 1993), the town was linked to the Strada statale from the north SS 240 on. This significantly shortened the travel time to Riva del Garda.
The old road has since been used as a hiking and cycling path. It is popular with mountain bikers and is part of a classic tour over the Tremalzopass or to Punta Larici, south of Pregasina, for example .
The Gardesana Occidentale , which opened in the 1930s, runs along the western shore of Lake Garda below the village .
economy
For centuries it was primarily a subsistence economy based on agriculture that ensured the livelihood of Pregasina's inhabitants. Potatoes, grain, barley, fruit and wine were or are grown. But also cattle breeding (goats and sheep, from the middle of the 19th century cows) was of certain importance.
In addition, the production of charcoal and the burning of lime traditionally played a certain role, which were also traded. Some lime kilns are still preserved in the area today, as well as several place and field names indicate this activity. Charcoal, obtained from hazelnut wood, was also used to make gunpowder . At the end of the 17th century, a small production facility for the manufacture of black powder was established outside Pregasina , employing a dozen people. Production ended in the 19th century after an explosion that killed 13 people.
The processing of the numerous granite blocks , boulders of the Adige Glacier , which can still be found in the area, represented an additional source of income. The granite trade was carried out via the Ponale port. Until the opening of Ponalestrasse in 1851, some residents of Pregasina worked as porters and transported goods from there to the Ledro Valley.
With the annexation of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1859 and the subsequent formation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, Pregasina became a border town, and accordingly smuggling played a certain role in the town up to the First World War. Despite an Austrian customs post in town, mainly sugar, tobacco and salt were smuggled down to the shores of Lake Garda and into Italian lime via adventurous routes , while fabrics and liqueurs, especially Fernet-Branca , were laboriously carried up and then sold in the opposite direction .
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, silkworms were also farmed on a small scale in Pregasina and the cocoons were sold to Riva. After the Second World War , a forge for the production of hand-forged shoe nails was opened in the village. A handicraft that has traditionally been practiced in the Ledro Valley for centuries and practiced in Pregasina for a few years until rubber soles made the shoe nails superfluous. Tourism has played an increasing role in Pregasina since the 1960s.
Attractions
San Giorgo Church
The church consecrated to Saint George was built in 1694 on a small terrace above the town center and expanded for the first time in 1821. The marble required for the baroque main altar was carried up from the Ponale harbor. In 1960 the church was expanded again. The bronze main portal dates from 1969 and shows a relief of St. George and the coat of arms of Pope Paul VI. and the Archbishop of Trentino Alessandro Maria Gottardi . This gate is only opened on special occasions. The church has an asymmetrical floor plan with a small baptistery on the right. On the north side of the bell tower with its four bells is a large tower clock that can be seen from afar. Directly under the church is the Pregasina village cemetery, which once adjoined the church building and was relocated in 1935.
Regina Mundi statue
The statue of the Madonna "Regina Mundi", which stands near the road tunnel leading into the Ledro Valley, has been a landmark of the place since the 1970s. It was created in 1955 by Fra Silvio Bottes, a monk from the Delle Grazie monastery in Arco , who also made the main portal of the church in Pregasina. Originally, the 5-meter-high and 8-ton statue, which was carved out of four blocks, was supposed to be placed on the roof of the holiday home of the Locca parish in the Valle di Concei . Due to the weight, however, one had to refrain from the project and set it up in front of the rectory there. At the instigation of the people of Pregasina, it was moved to its current location in 1976 and consecrated in 1977.
literature
- Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Grafica 5, Arco 2015, ISBN 978-88-89521-36-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Istituto Geografico Militare : Carta topografica d'Italia 1: 25,000.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 17-18.
- ^ House warfare 1848 (Unterjäger Dominik Platzer frees the village of Pregasina from insurgents), watercolor by Fritz L'Allemand .
- ^ Agostino Perini: Statistica del Trentino. Volume 2, Trento 1852, p. 272 ( digitized version )
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 17-28.
- ↑ Herresbericht of the Italian High Command of October 17, 1915 (Italian), accessed on September 14, 2017
- ^ Extract from the Pregasinas municipal archive for the period 1821–1923 (Italian) (PDF; 140 kB), accessed on June 30, 2017.
- ↑ Excerpt from the Pregasinas municipal archive for the period 1923–1925 (Italian) (PDF; 76 kB), accessed on June 30, 2017.
- ↑ Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT): Unità amministrative, variazioni territoriali e di nome dal 1861 al 2000. Rome 2001, ISBN 88-458-0574-3 .
- ^ "A nuovo" la vecchia strada per Pregasina , website of the municipality of Riva del Garda, accessed on September 11, 2017.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. P. 71.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 17-18.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 52-67.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 41-44.
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Pp. 46-47.