The chess game played with living pieces in the square every two years, which has made Marostica famous around the world, is a tradition begun in 1923. It is held to be inspired by an event of 1454, but there is no historical proof of it. This can be said without taking anything away from the square: the chessboard lies below the lower castle, and the castles, like the walls, were built by the Scaligeri — the two castles by Cangrande della Scala, the ring of walls by Cansignorio from 1372 onwards. The town also has the first chess museum in Italy.
Nor, for that matter, does anyone know where the name comes from. The scholars of the past thought of Marii ostium, believing that Gaius Marius had camped here during the war against Sulla; Giovanni da Schio derived it from the Celtic mar, «above», plus Asticum, the torrent that runs not far off; the Spagnolo brothers from the Venetian maro, «sheaf», for the shape of the hills. Dante Olivieri, who knew about place names, proposed a personal name with a possessive suffix, or else lama, «marsh», plus rostica, from rosto, «burnt»: the marsh cleared by fire. None has won. Meanwhile those hills go on producing cherries, which here carry a protected geographical indication.
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📅 Every year, on the last Sunday of October; late May holds the Cherry Festival
Marostica celebrates Saint Simeon on the last Sunday of October. Late May brings the Cherry Festival, spring the Festa di Primavera, while since 2007 the second Sunday of June has hosted the Palio dea Caretera, reenacting the old Marostica cart race held in 1956-1957-1958.
Stockfish, milk, oil and anchovies, cooked for hours over the lowest heat: baccalà alla vicentina arrived from Norway with a shipwreck in 1432.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
