31 - A small journey into the past between villages and morainic hills

Description

From the parish church of “San Tomaso” in “Colle Umberto” village, walk through the streets of the centre and then enter in the locations of “Borgo Concie” and “Borgo Pigatti”. Through country roads, you reach the “San Martino” hill where the church of the same name is located. A circular detourwill allow us to go down to locality of “Borgo Mescolino”, later reaching “Borgo Pianche”, “Borgo Massimi” and “Borgo Maiole”.  Back in “San Martino” village, we head to the road called “Terraglio”, the ancient site of a “Paleoveneto” hillfort and then visit the hamlet of “Gazioni” and the hamlet of “San Sebastiano”, before closing the tour again in the village of “Colle Umberto”.

Curiosities

• During the rule of the “Serenissima” reign, the village of “Colle Umberto” became a particularly coveted place by the wealthy Venetian families, who chose these peaceful hills for their stays. Among all the Venetian villas in the town, the most important is certainly “Villa Morosini Lucheschi”, located on the border in the locality of “Castello Roganzuolo” in the “Valforte” area. Probably built on the remains of an ancient monastery, in the seventeenth century it became the property of the noble family of “Sarmede” and, a century later, was acquired by the Venetian family of the “Morosini”, who implemented the expansion of the central body with the addition of the two side named “barchesse” used for agricultural business. In 1917, following the “Caporetto’s retreat”, the villa became the seat of the Austro-Hungarian army’s air force. After the war, with the extinction of the “Morosini” family, it passed to the “Lucheschi” family counts who still own it today. Not far away, on the locality of “Col di Manza”, stands the traditional structure called “Villa Fabris”, better known as the “House of the painter Titian”. It was built in the 16th century by the community “Castello Roganzuolo” hamlet as a partial payment for the polyptych of the church of “Saints Peter and Paul” made by the famous painter from “Cadore” valley. Near the centre of “Colle Umberto” village there is “Villa Verecondi Scortessi”, built in the sixteenth century as a hunting lodge including a medieval tower built by the “Da Camino” family around the year 1000, and “Villa-Castello Lucheschi”, built in the eighteenth century on the agricultural structures of the abbey of Saint Peter.
• The locations of “Colle Umberto and San Martino” boast an incredible number of villages scattered between the hills and the plain; they are: “Borgo Camerin”, “Borgo Campion”, “Borgo Caronelli”, “Borgo Concie”, “Borgo Contesse”, “Borgo Fadelli”, “Borgo Faliero”, “Borgo Fioretti”, “Borgo Gaziol”, “Borgo Love”, “Borgo Maiole”, “Borgo Massimi”, “Borgo Mescolino”, “Borgo Modena”, “Borgo Pianche”, “Borgo Pigatti”, “Borgo San Rocco”, “Borgo San Sebastiano”, “Borgo Scarpis” and “Borgo Venezia”.