In 589 a great flood shifted the course of the Brenta, and from then on Curtarolo found itself on the crossing: from here you forded the river and went straight on to Padua. The name may come from just that, from Scurzarolo, short cut, though the likelier explanation derives it from Curtis Rodulo, the court of a Lombard landowner. That crossing was fought over for a long time: in the fourteenth century between the Carraresi and the Scaligeri, then with Venice, and in 1509 between the Venetians and the imperial troops of the League of Cambrai.
At Villa Bozza, on the road to Arsego, lived Pietro Bembo. His family set up the first industry of the place here, a mill on the millstream; in 1825 the Agugiaro family took it over, and out of that mill grew one of the largest food businesses in the Padua area. Another name from these fields ended up higher still: Jacopo da Sant'Andrea, lord of the lands of Non, is in Dante's Inferno.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Curtarolo
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
