|
MUNICIPAL
DISTRICT OF BAGOLINO - Province
of Brescia - Territory, produce, traditions and history
- Gabriele D’Annunzio Airport of Brescia -
Montichiari, from 1st of July to 31st of August 2005. |
|
| |
|
Bagolino
and Ponte Caffaro represent a territory of 109 km2 where
you can enjoy yourself, an area of 4.000 friendly and
hospitable inhabitants, lake and mountains with a rise
in altitude from Ponte Caffaro, at 400 metres above sea
level to the mountains tops near the Mount Blumone, at
2.500 metres. This is a wonderful territory where you
can go in for water or mountain sports: Canoe, Kajak
Sailing, Surfing, Swimming, Fishing, Trekking, Mountain
Bike, Free Styling, Rock Climbing, Horsemen Meeting,
Trials, Excursions and all traditional sports. There
are a lot of woods, valleys, springs, refuges and farmhouses;
the water and the air are clean.
|
|
|
This area is a mountain holiday resort,
a picturesque place at the north side of Vallesabbia,
on the border with the province of Trento (in the east),
with Vallecamonica and Valletrompia (in the west) and
it is linked with them through the Crocedomini Pass and
the Mountain Ridge of Maniva respectively. The imposing
peak of the Mount Blumone is a magnificent monument of
the Adamello mountain chain and it dominates the territory
of Bagolino, also called Valle del Caffaro, in which
flows the river with the same name. This river rises
on the Termine Pass (mt. 2334) and runs down in the valley
of Gaver; it alternates steep slopes with false level
grounds and after about 16 Km, it arrives at the village.
Then, it bends suddenly near Ponte Prada, it goes in
the Oneda level tract and runs in the river Chiese, near
the lake of Idro.
|
|
|
The parish
church of St. George stands out for its majesty: it is
the third church for its size in the territory of Brescia
and it is the casket of many works of art of great masters,
such as Tiziano, Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane, Torbido,
Sandrini, Lucchese... Near the parish church, there is
the church of St. Lawrence: now, unfortunately, it has
a recent architecture (1926), but it is an ancient graveyard
chapel and the first religious building of Bagolino.
The church of St. Rocco is intact and interesting for
the series of frescos of Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo (carried
out between 1483 and 1486), an example of Lombard painting,
which passes from International Gothic to Renaissance.
The little church of St. Jarvis and
Protasio draws people’s attention because it serves
as a sentinel for the villagers from the tops of the mountains.
This building dates back to the half of the 16th century |
Bagolino is characterised
by a lot of frescos on houses and farmhouses (with a protective
value against calamities and illnesses) or on small sanctuaries
built at the crossroads of the streets or pathways. The
more important the crossroads was, the richer the structure
of the sanctuary was. Some interesting and deserving examples
are those of Cascina Cavra, the Curlo with a fresco of
Da Cemmo and the Poor Souls. |
The cheese
called “Bagòss”, the “puinì”,
home-made salami and cold pork meat, mushrooms, honey,
wild chicory, “comede”, asparagus,
nettles and “sgresole”, perch, “aole”,
pike, trout and all the fish products of the lake, restaurants,
hotels, inns and refuges are available in order to seek
the old tastes, which still represent a lively reality
in Bagolino. Try penne “alla Bagossa” and
polenta “Taragna” with cheese “Bagòss”,
ask for “Mareconde” and taste the fish-fry
of the lake of Idro.
The “Bagòss” is
the local cheese with a distinctive and well-known taste,
as Cocchetti pointed up in 1858. This cheese has always
been highly valued and it was given a prize, collected
by G. Scalvini, known as “Zorzara”,
at the exhibition in Milan, back in 1874. |
 |
The unique
taste of “Bagòss” is due to the fodder
of the pastures of Bagolino and especially of the mountains
Vaia, Bruffione, Misa and Maniva. The expert of the alpine
grazing specifies that the pastures should be fertilized
only with manure.
My “guides” add (underlining the importance
of this detail) that the fodder picked up in the meadows
of the “solìf”, that is in the
meadows exposed to sunlight, produces a kind of milk that
should be cooked on a high flame because the fodder is “strong”.
The grass grown in the meadows of “Vac”, that
is in the meadows in the shade, produces a kind of milk
that needs a slower heat in order to reach the right temperature. |
|
|
Although Bagolino is geographically isolated, it has
developed an age-long tradition, which is well-known
also beyond the regional boundaries: the “Bagosso” Carnival.
The attractions of this folk Carnival are the Dancers,
the Musicians and the “Maschér” (the
Maskers). The music and the dances, which are the keystone
of this tradition, can be considered, as Sordi hints
at: “… a unique event in Italy, with few
comparable events all over Europe; moreover, it provides
a striking example of the order of complexity, at which
a popular and musical civilization can arrive…”.
In confirmation of the great level of rooting of the
carnival tradition, there are some extracts of municipal
documents of the 16th century.
|
In one of
these documents, which dates back to 1518, you can read
that the municipality of Bagolino made arrangements in
order that the Laveno Company, arrived in the village
to gladden the carnival, was rewarded with a cheese.
You have to consider that at the time the villages used
to exchange mutual invitations on the occasion of festivals.
The documents of a pastoral visitation, occurred in 1694,
reveal that the bishop Giorgio Sigismondo Sinnersberg reprimanded
some priests, who “dared wander about wearing fancy
dresses during carnival time”.
Buccio, a fellow countryman of the 19th century, remembers
that in his time the Carnival was celebrated with great
cheerfulness and there was the election of some “managers”,
whose task was to watch over in order to avoid disorders.
At this festival, Buccio adds: “… the invitations
were mutual… between the communities of Storo and
Condino… also with reciprocal banquets they cultivated
society, love, reciprocity of feeling…”.
In 1929 Don L. Zenucchini, the curate of Bagolino, wrote
these words to Salesian Missionaries of Ivrea: “… The
Carnival of Bagolino is characteristic and, although it
isn’t accepted by the ecclesiastic authority, for
obvious reasons, however, for the age-long tradition…it
is still going on, in general, you don’t do any harm…even
seventy years old men go around wearing fancy dresses…”.
As old men remember, the “Bagosso” Carnival,
repeated year by year in the same way, follows old and
rooted traditions: the dancers and the local maskers
during the days of the festival. |
|
|
|
|
