History

In the mid-19th century, the Austrians, who had ruled Lombardy-Venetia since 1815, began construction on the railway that would connect Milan to Venice. As can still be seen today, the railway cut through the Fracanzana, dividing it into two parts: a strip between the current S.R. 11 and the railway, and another south of the railway line extending towards Monticello di Fara.

On April 8, 1848, the Battle of Sorio, which marked the beginning of the First War of Italian Independence, involved the Fracanzana area. Some Italian volunteers took refuge in the farmhouse that later became Casa Marchioro, from where they fired upon the Austrians. The house was plundered and burned by the Austrians.

With the annexation of Veneto to Italy in 1866, we enter the more recent period. The last owner of the farmhouse, before its transformation into Hotel La Fracanzana, was the Marchioro family.

It is not known exactly when the Fracanzan family gained control of the Montebello lands subject to tithes, probably in the late 14th century or during the 15th century. What is certain is that they left their name to the area, which has been called La Fracanzana from then until today, and it is likely that a farmhouse was built near the now-disused church of San Pietro.

In the 16th century, a woman from the Fracanzan family of Orgiano married Oldorico da Poiana, bringing him the Fracanzana lands as a dowry. The lands subject to tithes were granted by the Municipality of Vicenza through an auction system, where they were awarded to the highest bidder as tithes in exchange for the periodic allocation of the lands. Oldorico da Poiana had no scruples about obtaining the concession of the lands, often using not-so-veiled threats against other bidders and resorting to force if necessary (to the point that he was also prosecuted in Vicenza), and he frequently secured such concessions. With the Poiana family in the Fracanzana area at the end of the 16th century, rice cultivation began due to the presence of spring waters. However, the inconsistency of rainfall and the resulting periods of water scarcity eventually led to the abandonment of this crop. With the arrival of Napoleon and the subsequent upheavals, the use of tithes disappeared, and the Fracanzana territory passed into the hands of other owners.

In the past, the territory, rich in water and springs, which still leave traces today, was often marshy and not easily accessible. Moreover, the rivers descending from the nearby hills (the Lessini) periodically overflowed and, according to the natural terrain formation, flowed southward.

The construction of the consular road Postumia in 148 BC, which connected Genoa to Aquileia, had the purpose, like all Roman consular roads, of facilitating the rapid movement of Rome's troops and the political control of the gradually conquered territories. However, the Postumia, named after the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus who was responsible for its construction, also served as a barrier for the various rivers, usually with limited and irregular flow, descending from the hills of Montebello and Gambellara, forcing them to divert westward. Some underpasses along the Postumia allowed the water to flow southward.

The presence of springs ensured water availability and probably facilitated the settlement in the locality, which more than fifteen hundred years later would be called La Fracanzana, of a Mutatio for horse exchange and a Mansio (mansiones were small centers with inns). The anonymous author of the Itinerarium Burdigalense (a very schematic account of the journey of a pilgrim in the 4th century AD [333-334] from ancient Burdigala, present-day Bordeaux, to Jerusalem) undoubtedly passed through these areas, providing brief but fairly precise indications of the places he visited. He also mentions the names and distances of the various stages, which, as far as we are concerned, are: civitas Verona - mutatio Cadianum (Caldiero) ten miles - mutatio Aureos (Montebello) ten miles - civitas Vincentia eleven miles (the Roman mile corresponds to about 1480 meters).

The mutatio ad Aureos, a term from which some local history narrators erroneously interpreted the origin of the name Montebello (ad Montes? Aureos), corresponds to the ancient location of the early Roman mutatio and mansio in the Fracanzana area.