Bleggio Superiore

The main village is called Santa Croce because of what is kept in its parish church: the Santa Croce del Bleggio, a wooden cross which popular faith holds to be thaumaturgic, able to grant graces to whoever invokes it, and how many have invoked it is told by the ex-voto panels hanging in the church. The Bleggio was one of the Sette Pievi delle Giudicarie, which for centuries worked with a certain autonomy from the prince-bishop of Trento, to whose authority they were nonetheless subject: the bishop held direct dominion over particular territories of these valleys — the castle of Stenico, over in the Banale, was his — but not over the pievi. The comune is a scattered one: the pieve stands at Santa Croce, and then there are the churches of Cavrasto, of Bivedo, of Balbido, which has two, of Cavaione and of Rango.

The municipal arms, approved in 1990, take up the emblem granted in 1929 to the single comune of Bleggio, that is when the Bleggio was still one. Rango, one of the hamlets, is among the Borghi più belli d'Italia. And there is a curious thing happening now: part of the building growth of Santa Croce, the main village, is taking place on the territory of another comune, Comano Terme, which used to be Bleggio Inferiore. The village, in short, is spreading onto the half from which it was divided.