TERRITOIRES

Toscolano Maderno (Toscolà Madéren in the dialect of the lake garda) is an Italian town of 7.877 inhabitants of the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. Than the capital is in the north-east at a distance of about 40 kilometres. It is located on the brescian shore, then west, of the lake of Garda. It is part of the regional park of Alto Garda Bresciano. In this municipality, is located the monte Pizzocolo. Toscolano and Maderno are two distinct centres, divided by the river Toscolano; former independent municipalities until June 14, 1928, the date of their merger into a single municipality. Toscolano has a roman origin: in The sec. d.C. the noble family of the Verniers Arrii, he built a sumptuous villa in the area between the current port and the paper mill, whose admirable remains, after several excavations, are now fully open to visitors and passable. In 1310 Maderno became the chief town of the riviera of brescia, with its headquarters in the old castle, surrounded by double ditches and four towers (remains only the bell tower). Among the glories of the administrative and decays, and economic, domination of the "Serenissima" (closed with the napoleonic period) and then the austrian rule, Toscolano Maderno he finally came to the Unity of Italy. And of the 1300, the first paper factory; in 1700, between the Valley of the paper Mills and of the rooms, if there were to be thirty, in addition to the workshops, ironworks (thanks to the hydraulic energy of the river Toscolano). Olive, mulberry trees and silkworms, lemon citrus, laurels for the oil from leaves and berries (exported in northern Europe, up into Russia) complete the picture of a local economy that is destined, however, to disappear in the course of the century. XX.