Origins
Equilo, from the latin word equus=town of horses,and
according to transcriptions also Equilio, Esquilio, Esulo,
Lesulo, Jexollo and today Jesolo has its roots in the times of
the Roman Empire as vicus (= village), on an island next to
the mouth of the Piave: it was at the time one of the many
places used by merchants in their journeys inside the lagoon,
above all in winter, sheltered from winds (the Bora) and
storms, on the way from Ravenna, port where the grain of the
9th Augustean Region called Aemilia was embarked, to the great
town-fortress Aquileia, rampart of the Eastern Roman border.
Exposed to the continuous barbaric invasions (from the 5th
Century on ), a part of the helpless inhabitants of Altino,
Oderzo and of the areas around Treviso and Belluno, in their
escape, following the river Piave, chose Jesolo as last refuge.
The first Doges and the war between Jesolo and Eraclea
With the
fall of the Roman Empire, Jesolo and the other towns of the
Venetian estuary (Rialto, Murano, Burano, Torcello, Malamocco,
San Pietro in Volta, Chioggia, Brondolo, Fossone, Eraclea,
Fine, Caorle, Grado and Cavarzere), remained without a
political direction, they formed a congregation and created
their own autonomous government by electing in 697 as head of
the government Paoluccio Anafesto, the unforgettable first
Doge; capital was Civitas Nova (Eraclea) located in the middle
of the Venetiarum Commune.
The inhabitants of Jesolo could hardly stand that the
government had its seat in Eraclea, as they considered the
origins their town more important and more ancient, and asked
without success to become seat of the Doge. When the Eraclean
Doge, Orso Teodato, moved in 742 the centre of the power to
Malamocco, which granted the interposition of a large expanse
of water, in order to have more security from an inner and
outer point of view, and to keep a distance from the enemy
Equilio, the complaint towards the Eraclean Doges grew.
In 755 Galla from Equilio encroached on the power of the Doge
and briefly rose the fortune of the town; he was removed from
his office by Domenico Monegario from Malamocco who, at his
turn, undergo the same fate and the supreme authority went
into the hands of an Eraclean family, the Gabbai, who kept the
power for almost half a century.
In 804 Equilio with Malamocco managed to defeat the old enemy
but could not rise itself. The Tribune Obelerio from Malamocco,
proclamed Doge by the Frank partisans escaped to Treviso (in
the small new-born State there were those who took the side of
the Bizantines and those the one of the Franks according to
their own interests), with the help of the inhabitants of
Equilio forced the Gabbai to escape and dismantled Eracliana,
centre of the Bizantine party. But at the arrival of the ships
coming from Costantinople in support of their friends,
commanded by Niceta in 807 and by Ebersapio in 809, Obelerio
and his son, who shared the power with his father, had to
escape and choose exile; the principality went back into the
hands of an Eraclean, Agnolo Partecipazio [Particiaco].
The following year the fleet of the Franks, commanded by
Pipino son of Charlemagne, invaded the lagoons and damaged
every centre except Rialto, a safe rampart and Rialto itself
became in 810 seat of the government and Equilio and Eracliana
went to the background like all other small centres. (G.
Pavanello, L'Antica Jesolo e la moderna Cava Zuccherina, in
L'illustrazione Veneta, n. 9, anno 1927).
The floods of the Piave
Together
with wars and invasions the region was hit by environmental
disasters, provoked by the Piave which changed his course
several times in the past. In the history of our region an
important event was the flood of 589 two decades after the
invasion of Longobards. Paolo Diacono reports the flood in his
2nd book of the "Historia Langobardarum" at chapter 23: in
that time there was a deluge in the lands of Venice, Liguria
and other regions of Italy never so big since the times of
Noah. Lands and farms became lakes and there was a large
number of deads among human beings and animals. Streets and
paths were cancelled and the Adige swelled so much that the
water almost reached the upper windows of the basilica of the
Blessed Martyr Zenone, which is out of the walls of Verona;
but according to what the blessed Gregory wrote, who was to
become later , no water went into the Church. The walls of
Verona were in some points damaged by the flood. This happened
on the 23rd of October. There followed lightnings and thunders
hardly to be heard in Summer. Verona was half destroyed after
two months in a fire.
Wladimiro Dorigo in the book "Venezie sepolte nella terra del
Piave", page 106 (Rome 1994), wrote that the catastrophic
flood of the 23rd of October 589, which probably changed the
courses of rivers like the Adige, had a tremendous effect on
the hydraulic structure of the territory. The flood was not
isolated; according to other certain sources it happened
within an extremely difficult climatic period which sees the
presence of a series of floods. Dorigo indicates from 389 (the
time of Teodosio) to 886 (just before the coronation of
Berengario I) a dozen of dates of similar phenomena which left
memories of incredible death and destruction. The months most
reminded for the floods (October and November) reveal the
nature of autumnal swollen rivers and bring us to the
catastrophic events of the last decades.
Other historians report less detailed information about the
flood events, though they tell about the damages provoked by
the waters in the lands around Jesolo.
Giorgio Piloni in his "Historia di Belluno" (1607), reports
the flood of 1512 when the Piave flooded also Treviso: "The
rivers swelled for the great rains this year and flooded with
serious damages in all the region; they ruined bridges, trees
were uprooted and the countryside was ruined. And the Piave
horribly swollen went out of his bed and flowing towards
Treviso entered the town breaking the bridge of Bethlehem".
Most important are the causes of the flood according to the
author; it looks like the report of a nowadays researcher:
"the cause of the flood is well known by everyone, when trees
are cut and woods in the mountains uprooted, when the ground
is digged, the waters of the rain do not stop and flow down
carrying mud into the creeks and from there to the river
Piave, which swelling with water and mud floods out of its bed
and damages the lands around until it reaches the lagoon of
Venice and silts up the ponds and canals of that town. This
did not happen in ancient times for the mountains were not
cultivated and waters flew clear between leaves and grass,
slowly and in less quantity".
The invasion of Hungarians
|
The rests of the Santa Maria Assunta Basilica of Equilio |
The
Piave began slowly to modify the environmental balance of
Jesolo and of other Islands, and with its frequent floods
began a progressive silting up impossible to stop with the
means of the time.The water expansion separating the islands
from the mainland grew always smaller and created huge
problems to the port activities of Jesolo, and easied the
arrival of foreign people to the town. Jesolo was invaded once
again by Hungarian nomads who needed preys not lands: they
distroyed the Marca Friulana and reached Verona sacking with a
incredible fury the whole land defeating easily the stronger
defences of towns and castles.They went up to Pavia, capital
of the Reign of Italy, from where Berengario I left to fight
against them and managed to send them back to the Venetian
lands. Tradition reports that on June, 29 900 they were
defeated in the attempt of reaching Rialto. They had built
rafts, leather bags, skins and other boats. But they managed
to invade other towns: Eraclia, Equilio, Chioggia and
Capodargine (Cronaca of John the Deacon).
Trade
Though
its economic power was reduced and slow because of the fights
against Eraclea, by the barbaric invasions, Jesolo grew and
strenghtened its trades with in-land towns and with the East
by sailing on the sea, exporting fish, salt (there were 32
salt-mines) and manufactured products and imported wood,
spices and fabrics: its port frequented by travellers and
merchants who stopped for the precious wares brought by the
sailors of Jesolo. In 1000 the Doge Orseolo left from the port
of Jesolo with its fleet steering towards the Istrian and
Dalmatian costs, defeated the pirates who infested the upper
Adriatico and submitted them.
Decay
After a
couple of centuries of prosperity there came a decay.
Few people remained in Jesolo slowly abandoned by nobles, with
their capitals and servants, who preferred to move to Rialto
and Venice, new political and economic capital of the lagoons,
and those who remained were unable to face the floods of the
Piave. In the autumn of 1466 Paul II suppressed the
Diocese remained without believers and the territory was
joined to the Patriarchate of Venice.
At the beginning of the 14th Century the Bishops of Jesolo
began to stay in Venice most of their time and went seldom to
Jesolo and only for urgent reasons leaving the cure of the
dying episcopate to canons of the cathedral.
Marco Cornaro (wrote between 1442 and 1443), thought that the
abandon of the lands of Jesolo was due to the growing
desolation of the environment; Jesolo had been destroyed by
the floods of the two rivers Piave and Livenza, the land,
turned into a marsh, had been gradually abandoned though the
past architectural richness of its many churches.
The last pinnacle of the Cathedral of the 10th – 11th Century
is still there to show visitors the splendour of the past.
Buried under a few centimeters of ground the ancient town is
waiting for diggers-archeologists and enthusiasts who could
bring back to light its structure, showing to everyone the
grandeur of the civilization of Jesolo.
Waterways
|
Caligo Tower where those who passed by had to pay a tax |
Around
the half of the 15th Century, the Serenissima was interested
in developping the trade using the waterways in Friuli and
began the works, lead by Liberal from Oderzo, in 1440 of
escavation of a canal (no more existing), which had to join
The Piave to the Revedoli, making it possible for crafts to
sail from Venice to Caorle or Grado, without going out at sea.
The opening of the canal (spring of 1441), favoured the birth
of stores and houses for workers or keepers as well as nobles
who invested their fortunes on the territory. At the end of
the 15th Century the nobles Gradenigo, Malipiero, Soranzo and
others began to bonificate the lands and easied the settlement
of many colons. On the 3rd of January 1495 the Patriarch of
Venice, Tommaso Donà, accepted the requests of the nobles and
workers and estabished the Parish of San Giovanni Battista,
the most ancient in the Basso Piave.
The new urban centre left the old location next to the Mura
and developed at about 700, 800 metres from there, in the
crossing between river and canal, next to the new church.
After a few years the upkeeping of the canal was given to
Alvise Zucharin and his heirs (November 20, 1499) and that
surname gave slowly a new name to the old Equilio-Jesolo,
which would become Cava (canal) Zucharina (from the name of
the family Zucharin), reported in various manners in the
venetian documents: Cava Zuccherina, Cavazucharina,
Cavazuccherina. The name was maintained by the town and by the
Commune (established by Napoleon on the 22nd of December 1807)
until the 28th of August 1930, when endly the king Vittorio
Emanuele III allowed the re-use of the historical name Jesolo.
Deviation of the Piave and of the Sile
In order
to eliminate the frequent floods of the Piave which threatened
the lagoon, on the 7th of March 1534 the Serenissima Republic
decided to build a bank (San Marco bank, ended in 1543),
beginning from Ponte di Piave going South, arriving to Tower
Caligo in the territory of Jesolo.
But the work did not solve the problem of security neither for
the law lands of Jesolo nor for the Venetian Ports, therefore
in order to better the connection with Friuli and Istria, a
new canal was began, the Cavetta, which had to let flow the
Piave directly to Cortellazzo. The new work favoured the
trading but did not prevent the silting up provoked by the
river, of the Venetian port San Nicoḷ.
Even the Sile damaged the Northern part of the lagoon, above
all the area around Torcello, so the Venetian Government
decided to divert both the rivers. Thousands of navvies coming
from every place in the State were employed and began in 1642
the works to deviate the Piave towards Palazzetto (South of
San Donà) barring its ancient course with a "testadura" and
leaving dry the last 20 kilometres. But the river after
covering with its waters a large expanse (lake of the Piave),
instead of in Santa Margherita (Caorle), found its way out to
sea (autumn 1683) in Cortellazzo. On the old mouth of the
lagoon three large passes (Portegrandi), connecting the river
with the old bed of the Piave (Capo Sile) the Sile had finally
in 1684 a new course which lead it to Jesolo.
The great works of divertion of the rivers, which did not had
the large banks of today, did not better the environment of
Cavazuccherina which was considered, for the following four
centuries, cradle of the tremendous malaria, defeated with the
bonification of the lands that lasted until the 30's of this
century.
The
Great War
Fame
arrived for these lands together with the sad tragedy of the
war. Chronicles and bulletins during the Great War reported
after the defeat in Caporetto (October 24, 1917) the events
happening in this lands; the name Cavazuccherina kept in
anguish thousands of mothers and fathers of both fronts whose
sons were fighting in flooded trenches where the malaria
killed more than rifles.
The target was to conquer Venice and the Austro-Ungarian army
first passed the Piave on the 14th of November 1917, occupying
the territory of Jesolo and after a few months of preparation
made the final assault, the Battle of the Solstice (15-24 June
1918): foot-soldiers and blue jackets anchored to the right
bank of the Old Piave-Cavetta, resisted and after a
counter-attack (July 2 – 6, 1918), repelled the enemy beyond
the new Piave until the final victory of the 4th of November.
The inhabitants of Jesolo underwent untellable sufferances in
those years; they had to move quickly away from their homes
taking their few things and seeking refuge in the far
back-lines (in the whole Peninsula) or worse they were shut up
in prisoner-of-war camps from where many never returned.
In memory of that tragedy the Commune wanted a bridge-monument
to be built, which was inaugurated on the 9th of October 1927
by Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta, Commander of the 3rd
Army that had stopped the enemy in this area. On four obelisks
were engraved the names of the soldiers of the San Marco Army
and the 181 "sons of Jesolo" who had died for their country.
Tourism
The
first information about Jesolo as touristic centre go back to
the end of the 19th Century when the first bathing
establishment was opened on the beach in front of Piazza
Marconi.
After the Great War the touristic activity grew quickly and
villas, holiday camps and hotels were build. In 1937 there
were in Jesolo 47 licences of rooms for rent, 24 public
facilities and 4 season hotels. After three years the rooms
for rent were 11, the apartments were 57, in addition to 2
inns, 1 restaurants, 3 boarding-houses and 6 hotels. In 1938
the tourists were 10.780. In 1939 the rooms for rent were 20,
the apartments and villas were 76, the inns were 5,
boarding-houses 3 and hotels 8; but it is after World War II
that Jesolo found its way in tourism. The lido (beach) of
Jesolo drew the attention of Venetians and Lombards who had
capitals to invest in the new development of tourism, and
built hotels, apartments, camp-sites, wet docks and villas,
but also shops, restaurants and sports-facilities.
Lido di Jesolo at a few kilometers from the enchanting Venice,
with its 15 kilometres of fine dolomite sand, accomodates
every year over 10 millions of tourists (including those who
overnight and those who stay for the day) who spend their
holidays making escursions in the greenery of the pinewood and
in the encahting valleys of the lagoon, who entertain
themselves in the modern discos, in the squares with hundreds
of shows of every kind, the coloured fun fairs and above all
Via Bafile, the longest pedestrian way in Europe.
"Once upon a time there was a village called Equilio, later
Cavazuccherina, today Jesolo and not far a desert beach wet by
the waters of the Adriatico Sea. Once upon a time.... And it
will look like a fairy tale, the story of Jesolo, real miracle
of our times, natural paradise, symbol of men's work who could
build buildings that mirror in the sea and give to the sky the
thousand colours of beach-umbrellas.... The fairy tale of man
and his going on the long way of civilization, way which lead
him from pile-dwelling to modern building, here in Jesolo, as
in every place of the world". (A. Policek, C'era una volta –
Once upon a time)
