History & culture

The human presence on lake Garda dates back to prehistory: the remains of the frequenting during the recent Mesolithic have been discovered in Manerba, while the riparo Valtenesi, a natural terracing located under the slopes of Rocca, testifies the existence of an important necropolis dating back to the Copper Age. The populations, following one another during the centuries, were united by the same awareness: the connection with the earth and water ways of the region put the area into a favourable position in peacetime, but in a dangerous one in wartimes. This is why in Valtenesi there are well-preserved castles dating back to the 13th century A.D. They were mostly built as “ricetti” (fortified warehouses) dominating the areas of the eight villages of Valtenesi. The castle tower in the old town centre of Manerba represents the point of convergence of a radial pattern connecting the towers of all the towns of the wider area. We know that these castles were built as shelters for the local people, who lived in typical living units within the walls.

It was built in the XII / XIII century on the remains of an early medieval fortress and a settlement dating back to the Neolithic, it was firmly anchored to the cliff of the Rocca di Manerba and overlooked the southern basin of Lake Garda. Formidable bulwark in the Middle Ages and imperturbable spectator of the long conflicts between Guelphs and Ghibellines, in the sixteenth century. it became an impregnable refuge for bandits and outlaws, forcing the Serenissima Republic of Venice to the complete destruction of the walls in 1576.

Established as a rural municipality around the thirteenth century, Manerba, with the other municipalities of the Valtenesi, enters the larger organism of the Community of Riviera (from Limone to Pozzolengo) with the capital first Maderno and then Salò. In the conflict between the Visconti and the Republic of Venice, after alternating events, the Community of Riviera becomes the domain of Venice, also taking the name of “Magnifica Patria”, divided into several “Quadre” including the “Quadra della Valtenesi” with the Municipality of Manerba main reference.
Even the city of Brescia continues to exercise a badly tolerated legal, administrative and judicial control (civil cases). In the state archive of Brescia there is the beautiful manuscript of the Municipal Statutes of Manerba (1490), containing the fundamental provisions for regulating the life of the Community in the period between the end of the Middle Ages and the first centuries of the Modern Age (administration, taxation, security, religious).

The Venetian domination has left significant marks in the customs, legislation and organization of the territory. The events of this fascinating period are kept in an important archive (“Archivio della Magnifica Patria”) well kept in the seat of the Municipality of Salò, which for some years has been studied and enhanced by a qualified team of researchers. With the end of the Republic of Venice (1796) the whole territory of the Riviera was involved in the dramatic but also exciting events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic rule , ending with the events of the Italian Risorgimento lived and participated in. with lively emotion on the part of local populations.

In Manerba the exploits of Garibaldi aroused particular suggestions, whose passage on the municipal soil, in June 1866, to reach the strategic observatory of the Rocca, was witnessed for generations by a plaque placed in the atrium of the old school building, while the community was handed over the memory of the five Manerbesi who were admitted to Garibaldi’s forces and paid for their daring with their lives. Since 1861, the year of the achieved unification of Italy , our territory has fully entered the history of the young and yet ancient and glorious nation and of the recent Unitary State, sharing its exciting progress and its dramatic and sometimes tragic events, without ever questioning the feeling of unity and love of country.