USEFUL INFORMATION
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MARKET DAY: Monday
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PORT: Porto Centrale - Piazza Maestro Giulio
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STATION: Viale Stazione, 18
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PHARMACIES: Giubertoni - Via Milano, 22; Ruzza - Via Marzan, 4; San Benedetto - Via Bell'Italia, 47 b
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HOSPITAL: P. Pederzoli - Via Monte Baldo, 2
HISTORY
Peschiera lies on the foot of the moraine hills where the waters of the lake flow into the Mincio drainage canal. Its historic centre, bordered by canals, is full of small restaurants and shops, long cycle paths and beaches.
This mix today makes it serene and cheerful while concealing its stormy military past.
Inhabited since prehistoric times, Peschiera is very important for palaeontology worldwide, uncovering no less than seven Bronze Age pile-dwelling villages. In the Roman period, it was called Arilica and housed the headquarters of two shipbuilders' guilds.
It was fortified as early as 101 BC to protect itself from the Cimbri. The current toponym dates back to the Longobard period when the richness of its waters was changed to 'Piscaria' Peschiera was in great demand because its location formed a hub of coastal and river fortifications. Dante also mentions 'her' in the 20th canto of Hell, during the battle between the people of Brescia and Bergamo.
In the 12th century, the Scaligeris encircled the Rocca and the village with walls and towers, later it was a bastion fortress of the Venetian Republic in the 16th century, a Napoleonic fortress and an Austrian stronghold in the Quadrilateral. Date to
to remember was 1917 after the rout of Caporetto, when King Victor Emmanuel III, together with the Allies and the Italians in the war against Austria, set up a barrier along the Piave River line to achieve victory a year later at Vittorio Veneto.
A few kilometres from the town, it is possible to visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino with its small lake that is home to coots, flamingos and swans. Its pond is listed by the European Union as a Site of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Protection Area (SPA), and is the subject of the famous legend of the farmer Broglia who was attacked by a snake and allegedly saw the Madonna appear.
