Cartura

Cartura has 4,623 inhabitants in the countryside south of Padua. The name seems to come from a Latin word, cartorian, which was the mark stamped on terracotta building materials: an ancient tile and brick works has been found here, and it is likely the town is called after it. The first thing history does to it is ugly: in 1324 Cangrande della Scala, in order to take Padua, decided to starve it by destroying all the countryside around, and Cartura was among the places that lost the most, between ravaged fields, fires and killings.

Under Venice things did not improve for a long while. Then, after a century and a half of indifference, the Serenissima understood that a countryside that produces is also useful for defence, and in 1556 it began a great land reclamation here: the drainage system that came out of it still exists and is called the Fossa Paltana. The last story worth telling is from 1945. An Allied bombing raid aimed at the bridge of Cartura, missed it and destroyed the church of Cagnola instead; and it was precisely that bridge, left standing, that on 25 and 26 April let the retreating German tanks cross and get away.