Campo San Martino

In this territory there are no finds proving a stable settlement before the Romans: only, now and then, the remains of some dugout canoe come back up from the Brenta between Campo San Martino and Piazzola. A few kilometres to the north, however, ran the via Postumia, the consular road built in 148 before Christ which crossed the whole Po plain from Genoa to Aquileia, and the wealth of Padua came from the wool trade, favoured by exactly that network of roads and rivers. In 601 the Lombards of Agilulf attacked the Paduan territory, and the flight of the population towards the islands of the lagoon began; their kingdom lasted here two centuries and left a mark still visible in the dedications of the chapels, because once they became Christian the Lombards named them after their own patrons, saint George and saint Michael. The first document naming Campo San Martino is of 18 June 1130: the bishop of Padua, Bellino, grants some lands in fief to Gualperto and Palma and to their children Stenione and Algarda.

With the year 1405 the territory entered the dominions of Venice, which divided it into twelve provinces and these into podesterie: Campo San Martino, Marsango and Busiago ended up in that of Cittadella, while the parish of Busiago found itself astride two of them, because Busiago Vecchio and Busiago del Piovego lay under Camposampiero. The podesterie were divided into ville, small comuni headed by a degan assisted by the uomini di cumun, a kind of village council: both the degan and the uomini di cumun were elected by the heads of families, and since the comune had no premises of its own the meetings were held in church. Over it all watched the inquisitors of the Mainland, who reported to the Senate. Most families lived in houses of straw, on plots that rarely exceeded a single campo, between harsh farm contracts, taxes and the destruction wrought by passing armies. Today the comune is crossed by the Treviso-Ostiglia cycle path, and on the Brenta a footbridge is being built to carry it on towards Piazzola.