The Banquet of San Martino
The Carbonari of Fratta and the dinner that led to the Spielberg
11 November 1818: in Fratta Polesine a patriots’ banquet ends in cheers. Then come denunciations, arrests, the Spielberg. The story of the Carbonari.
All routes
Villas, Carbonari and sanctuaries
Heading west into the heart of the Polesine. In Fratta, Palladio’s villa and the villa linked to the Carbonari banquet of 1818. Then the basilica of San Bellino, patron saint of the diocese, the villa at Canda, the Vangadizza abbey at Badia and, on the way back, the Pilastrello sanctuary in Lendinara.
Stops
- 1
Villa Badoer
La Badoèra, Palladio’s temple on the plain
The Polesine’s only UNESCO site: the villa where Palladio first used a temple front, with barchesse curving out like two open arms.
Villa Badoer - 2
Villa Grimani Molin Avezzù
The villa on the water where the Carbonari dined
A few steps from the Badoèra, a villa almost on an island. Here, in 1818, a Carbonari banquet opened a stirring chapter of the Risorgimento.
Villa Grimani Molin Avezzù - 3
Basilica of San Bellino
The martyr bishop who guards against rabies
A bishop slain in an ambush, relics found through dreams and Po floods: San Bellino is the resting place of the patron of the Diocese of Adria-Rovigo.
Basilica of San Bellino - 4
Villa Nani Mocenigo
The two-faced villa and the sorrowful countess
Two façades, a park of mythological statues and the legend of the sorrowful countess: Canda hides one of the Polesine’s most theatrical villas.
Villa Nani Mocenigo - 5
Abbey of the Vangadizza
The abbey that was both lordship and diocese
Badia Polesine is named after an abbey that was once a fief and a diocese. Its cloister, apse and leaning bell tower still hold that memory.
Abbey of the Vangadizza - 6
Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Pilastrello
The Black Madonna born of a stormy night
A small dark olive-wood statue, a stormy night and a spring that still draws pilgrims: the story of the Black Madonna of Lendinara.
Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Pilastrello
Related
Matteotti, the House and the Guarded Tomb
In Fratta, a tomb the regime feared
In Fratta Polesine, Giacomo Matteotti’s house and his tomb, sealed and watched by the police until 1945. A true story, with no legends.
Phaethon and the Tears of Amber
The myth of the Eridanus and the amber of Frattesina
The son of the Sun fell into the Po, and his sisters wept tears of amber. At Frattesina, three thousand years ago, amber really was worked.