In the countryside of Trecenta, on the road towards Sariano, the water seems still. This is no ordinary pond. It is the Gorgo della Sposa (the Bride's Whirlpool), the largest of the gorghi of the Polesine and the Ferrara area: about seven hectares of water, with a basin more than twelve metres deep.
Its origin was violent. The gorghi of Trecenta were born from ancient breaches: the flood waters of the Tartaro overtopped the embankment, which takes its name from here, the Argine della Sposa, and scoured the ground on the other side. When the flood receded, deep hollows remained, fed by springs from an ancient branch of the Po. Clear water, at a constant temperature.
The Gorgo della Sposa is already mentioned in a deed of concession of 1269. It was so wide that it marked the natural boundary between the walled village of Trecenta and that of Sariano, both in the Duchy of Ferrara.
The name comes from a legend. It is said that a young woman was in love with a poor boy. Her family promised her instead to a rich lord, and she chose to drown in the gorgo rather than accept that fate. In another version she threw herself from the carriage on her way to the wedding. Ever since, on moonless nights, her lament can be heard.
But another tradition circulates in Trecenta, older and darker. The gorghi are said to have been sent as punishment for the wickedness of the people of ancient villages, swallowed by the water. And at night, from the depths, their sunken bells can still be heard ringing.
The Comune of Trecenta offers a reading that joins the two stories: these tragic legends very probably preserve the memory of real floods that carried away people and villages. A gorgo is always born of a hydraulic disaster, a trauma that neither the land nor those who live on it forget.
Today the gorghi are a protected area, part of the European Natura 2000 network. The Gorgo della Sposa, which is freely accessible, is a place of herons, moorhens and bitterns. The silence, especially at sunset, does the rest.
