Ospedaletto Euganeo

The name is not the diminutive of hospital: it comes from the medieval Latin hospitium, a place of hospitality for people on the road. It was a plain building, a lodging where a passing pilgrim found shelter, bread and a blanket, and it was founded in 1162. They built it three miles out of Este for two practical reasons: pilgrims preferred to stop outside the larger towns, and after sunset the city gates were shut anyway. For a long time the place was called simply Villa de Hospitaleto, then Ospedaletto d'Este; the addition of «Euganeo» dates from 1867 and serves to tell it apart from the other Ospedalettos scattered across Italy.

In 1468 the sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Tresto was raised, on the spot where the Madonna was said to have appeared to a boatman: inside it are kept a miraculous image attributed to Jacopo da Montagnana and a fifteenth-century suit of armour given by Bonifacio de Rossi. The fair that goes with it has been held without a break since 1469 — the year after the church — on the fourth Sunday of September, and lasts about nine days. In 2012 Ospedaletto and Este began proceedings to merge into a single municipality; the plan finally collapsed in 2015.