Calliano

On 10 August 1487 the troops of the Republic of Venice, led by Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona and heading for Trento, clashed here with the Tyrolean and Trentine forces of Friedrich Kappler and Gaudenz von Matsch. The Venetians suffered a heavy defeat and Sanseverino himself drowned in the Adige: that was the battle that stopped the Republic's expansion northwards. Five years later, in 1492, archduke Sigismund of Austria had a church built at Calliano in memory of the victory and dedicated it to Saint Lawrence, because 10 August is that saint's day. Ever since, the patronal feast falls on the anniversary of the battle: the village, that is, celebrates the saint and the feat of arms together every year.

That fighting should happen here was almost inevitable: Calliano lies at the narrowest point of the Vallagarina, between the Adige and the mountain, right at the mouth of the Terragnolo valley. Dominating the passage is Castel Pietra, built on an enormous boulder that fell in ancient times from the Cengio Rosso: it was a border fortress between Tyrol and Venice, and from the castle a massive wall, the murazzo, ran down to the Adige, where those travelling on the Imperial Road had to pay a toll. In 1796 it was Napoleon himself who took it, having artillery placed on the Cengio Rosso above. The last blow came in 1944: lying right beside the Brenner railway, the village was heavily bombed by the Allies and lost about three quarters of its houses — without, fortunately, any civilian casualties.