Patron saint festival In 284 days
Saint James the Greater, patron between the castles of Roccalanzona and Miano
📅 Every year, on 25 July
Medesano celebrates Saint James the Greater on 25 July.
Whoever passed through here was going to Rome. Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, took this road in 990 and noted Metane as the thirty-fifth stage of his journey home; the route, later called the Via Francigena, forced travellers to cross the Taro, and the river had no bridges. The crossing was made by boat, at Felegara and at Ramiola, and that is why the municipal coat of arms carries a ship's wheel, beside the three towers of the castles of Medesano, Roccalanzona and Varano Marchesi and a pine for the woods.
Holding that crossing cost the castle on the Poggio dearly: built in the middle of the twelfth century by the Pallavicino, it was taken, burnt and raised again so many times that the chronicles lose count. The most eloquent case is that of 1416: ordered by the duke of Milan to hand it back, Galeazzo da Correggio preferred to set it on fire rather than give it up intact. The war ended here too, on the twenty-ninth of April 1945, when units of the Italian Social Republic coming down from the Garfagnana surrendered their weapons to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force.
The Medesano guide
What to eat here 2
Tagliatelle al Ragù · Prosciutto di Parma
Where to stay
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Events & festivals 1
Next up: Saint James the Greater, patron between the castles of Roccalanzona and Miano, Sunday 25 July
Getting there
Nearest airport: Parma, 14 km away
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Medesano 1
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🍝 The flavours of Medesano
Prosciutto di Parma pork leg and sea salt, aged at least twelve months
Only Italian pork and sea salt, aged for at least twelve months: Prosciutto di Parma has held Protected Designation of Origin status since 1996.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Medesano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Medesano, but an easy day trip away.
chiesa di San Marco 📍 Rovereto · 5.3 km The parish church of Marco di Rovereto, documented from 1180 and rebuilt after the First World War. Biotopo Lavini di Marco 📍 Rovereto · 6.8 km The landslide from Monte Zugna, with dinosaur trackways discovered in 1990 and two small lakes. chiesa di San Floriano 📍 Rovereto · 8.5 km The old mother church of Lizzana, parent of Rovereto's churches, with two sixteenth-century frescoes on the façade. Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti 📍 Rovereto · 9.4 km Rovereto's bell, cast from the bronze of every belligerent's cannon. sacrario militare di Castel Dante 📍 Rovereto · 9.4 km The First World War ossuary on the hill above Rovereto, with about twenty thousand fallen of several nations. Castel Lizzana 📍 Rovereto · 9.0 km The scant remains of the Castelbarco castle above Lizzana, destroyed by the Venetians in 1439, in the memorial grounds.