Carbonera, Veneto

The name Carbonera has several possible origins. Carbonera in Roman times meant marshy, peaty and woody land. At one time some parts of castle fortifications were said to be carboneras, where charcoal was stored by blacksmiths and for the weapons that were used in raids or assaults. Here there was a castle that gave the name to a ruler, with the nickname of Carbonera or Castel Benardo perhaps by those who erected it.[4]

Carbonera could also have derived from the burning of wood to make charcoal. The Via Boschi (Woods) still exists today, where there are many trees. Also carboneras were the ditches along the city walls, so the name Carbonera could be linked to the proximity of the town to Treviso.[5]

When the Veneto became part of the Roman empire, Roman roads were built and passed through the present-day municipality area. Via Claudia Augusta was a great military road that started in Altino (near Venice), continued to Musestre, passed the Callalta (crossing from south to north at Mignagola and Vascon), then continued to Spresiano, crossing the Piave between Nervesa and Susegana and continuing towards the north usque ad flumen Danuvium (up to the Danube river), for a length of 523 km. The road originally was used to transport supplies to the conquered lands towards the Alps. It was a military road; in fact, along the road, castles and defense towers were erected. Today there are some traces of the road remaining in Mignagola and Vascon. Locally, along this roadway is the castle of Vascon.[6]

Also in the area is the Via Postumia, a famous Roman consular road. On this via, the Roman legions marched while the consuls and the soldiers passed by. It was used for military and political purposes, but its importance went further: it served to transit goods and traffic, thus uniting peoples and cultures, allowing the progress of the Roman civilization. Via Postumia left Genoa, passed through Piacenza, Cremona, Verona, Vicenza, Oderzo, Aquileia and continued towards the east. Given its importance, frequent watchtowers were set up and assigned to Roman settlers in the camps, so that they could also defend the road along with their properties. The surrounding countryside grew with villas (centers of agricultural production) around the castles and Vascon is an example. Treviso, which became a Roman municipality, built some connections with these roads[7] as well.

Treviso was also connected with nearby Oderzo. The Via Ungaresca passed near Vascon for Catena and Lovadina towards the Piave, at the Grave of Papadopoli. It remained in use until the Napoleonic-era construction of the Ponte della Priula and Pontebbana. At the Palazzon pass, there is evidence that Alboin, king of the invading Lombards, met the Bishop of Treviso, Felice, which meeting spared the sacking of the countryside and the city. The Roman road Caltrevisana, which linked the streets of Lancenigo with the Via Postumia to Maserada, was built to hasten the route to Oderzo.[8]

Carbonera once included these four villages: Carbonera proper, Bibano, Il Castello and Mignagola. The first written history of Carbonera dates to the year 1000. In 1115 the Cluniac friars donated the monastery of St. James the Apostle. In a parchment paper written on March 21, 1121, Oderico di Carbonera witnessed a donation of land to the church of Santa Fosca di Treviso. The church of Carbonera was part of the bishop's episcopal of Treviso.[9]

The old church of Carbonera was mentioned in 1217. It was a branch of the Pieve di S. Maria and San Giovanni Battista di Piovenzano and Lancenigo which, in turn, was part of the Archpriest of Quinto. The church was dedicated under the name Santa Maria Maggiore di Carbonera.[10]

During the Middle Ages, the region of the Podesteria of Treviso called Zosagna di Sopra,[11] was fortified and equipped with a castle that, conquered by Ezzelino III da Romano in the mid-thirteenth century, was immediately reoccupied by the Treviso and destroyed. After being among the possessions of various religious orders, such as the Certosini del Montello, the Dominicans, the Serviti and the Canons of the Trevigiano Chapter, it passed to the Venetian Republic, becoming one of the places chosen by the Venetian aristocracy for the construction of palatial living residences. The decline of the Serenissima followed the French and Austrian occupations and, in 1866, the annexation by the Kingdom of Italy.[12]

In World War I, Carbonera was near the front line with the Austria-Hungary after the Battle of Caporetto. In that last year of the War, Carbonera became a rest area for Italian troops rotating back from the front lines at the Piave River. In 1918 the villa Tiepolo became Red Cross Military Hospital - city of Milan no.7.[13] In 1943, due to World War II, the villa was abandoned by the family, who moved to Venice, because the house was first occupied by the military district then by a German anti-aircraft command, then used as the seat of the Prefecture and the Republican Police Headquarters of Treviso.[14]

The massacre of the Mignagola paper mill (Strage della cartiera di Mignagola) was perpetrated by elements of the partisan Garibaldi Brigades between April and May 1945, in Mignagola, Carbonera. The Partisans killed numerous soldiers of the Italian Social Republic and fascist-supporting civilians. Eighty-three bodies were found hidden in the vicinity of the Mignagola paper mill,[15] without taking into account those killed elsewhere or disposed in the river Sile.