San Giovanni Ilarione has 5,111 inhabitants in the middle Alpone valley, lying along one flank of it. The name has a curious history: the first document, a diploma of emperor Henry IV of 1091, calls it Sancto Joanne ad Aronna, after a weed that people here called la rogna, the mange; in the municipal statutes of 1382 it is even written Sancto Joanne habente la rogna. Then, in 1582, the suffix Hilarione appears for the first time, which sounds similar and reads a great deal better: from there comes today's name.
On Monte Calvarina, in a hollow sheltered from the north winds, there was a seasonal Neanderthal camp of about fifty thousand years ago. In the thirteenth century the castle was disputed between the Malacapella lords and the comune of Vicenza, which allied itself with Ezzelino III and won. The comune passed to the province of Verona only in 1923. On its coat of arms, recognised in 1936, there is still an eagle with the crown of the Napoleonic Kingdom and an N beneath a bundle of thunderbolts: it comes from the seal of Napoleon's mairies.
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📅 Every year, on 25 November; 2 February brings the Sagra della Seriola at Castello
San Giovanni Ilarione celebrates Saint Catherine of Alexandria on 25 November. On 2 February, the Sagra della Seriola is held at Castello, and on the last Sunday of Carnival, the float parade.
Eight points, powdered sugar like snow on a mountain: pandoro was born in Verona in 1894, patented by Domenico Melegatti.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside San Giovanni Ilarione, but an easy day trip away.
