Bolca is a village in the

Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

, on the southern margin of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. It is a of the ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of Vestenanova, in the

province of Verona The province of Verona (Italian: ''provincia di Verona'') is a province of the Veneto region in Italy. On its northwestern border, Lake Garda—Italy's largest—is divided between Verona and the provinces of Brescia (Lombardy region) and Trentin ...

. The area is famous for the marine fossils from the

lagerstätte A Fossil-Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that preserves an exceptionally high amount of palaeontological information. ''Konzentrat-Lagerstätten'' preserv ...

of '' Monte Bolca''. It was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

Geography

Bolca lies in the Lessini Alps. Monte Bolca was originally at the bottom of the

Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

before being uplifted from the ocean floor during the formation of the

. This happened in two stages, one 24 million years ago and one between 30 and 50 million years ago.

History

The area was settled in prehistoric times, there are remains of a hill fort on Monte Purga dating from around 1000 BC. The Romans were active in the area, and by 1000 CE the village had come under the control of a convent of the Augustinian Eremitani. In the thirteenth century the fortunes of the Vestenanova area were closely tied to the Ghibelline

Ezzelino III da Romano Ezzelino III da Romano (25 April 1194, Tombolo, Veneto, Tombolo7 October 1259) was an Italian feudal lord, a member of the Ezzelini family, in the March of Treviso (in modern Veneto). He was a close ally of the emperor Frederick II, Holy Roman ...

family, the Lords of Verona, whose estates were razed in 1260. The Mezzagonella's castle of "Bubulka cum Vulpiana" was seized by Mastino I della Scala, Ezzelino da Romano's successor, from Ludovico count of San Bonifacio during the 1269-70 war between the

Guelphs and Ghibellines The Guelphs and Ghibellines ( , ; ) were Political faction, factions supporting the Pope (Guelphs) and the Holy Roman Emperor (Ghibellines) in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages. During the 12th ...

. From then on the village was part of Verona, but gained its independence in 1326 by edict of Cangrande I della Scala. In 1387 the area passed to the

Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan (; ) was a state in Northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti of Milan, Visconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277. At that time, ...

; under

Gian Maria Visconti Gian Maria Visconti (or Giovanni Maria; 7 September 1388 – 16 May 1412) was the second Visconti of Milan, Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti. He was known to be cruel and was eventually assassinated ...

it fell to Venetian rule from 1410 until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. After the defeat of Napoleon, the

Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (), commonly called the "Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom" (; ), was a constituent land (crown land) of the Austrian Empire from 1815 to 1866. It was created in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna in recogniti ...

became part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, during which time

Francis I of Austria Francis II and I (; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Francis II from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria as Francis I from 1804 to 1835. He was also King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and served ...

spent three days in Bolca. In 1821 Bolca was split from Volpiano, the former being joined to Vestenanova, whilst Volpiano became a ''frazione'' of Crespadoro, a town now in the

province of Vicenza The province of Vicenza (; ) is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza. The province has an area of 2,722.53 km2, and a total population of 865,082 (as of 2017). There are 113 ''comuni'' (municipalities) in th ...

. The fossils at Monte Bolca have been known since at least the 16th century, and were studied intensively in the 19th century once it was definitively proven that fossils were the remnants of dead animals.

Fossils

Strictly speaking, the Monte Bolca site is one specific spot near the village of Bolca in Italy, known as the ''Pesciara'' ("The Fishbowl") due to its many extraordinarily well preserved Eocene fish fossils. However, there are several other related outcroppings in the general vicinity that also carry fossils, such as Monte Postale and Monte Vegroni. The term Monte Bolca is used interchangeably to refer to the original site, or to all the sites collectively. The entire formation consists of of

lithographic limestone Lithographic limestone is hard limestone that is sufficiently fine-grained, homogeneous and defect-free to be used for lithography. Geologists use the term "lithographic texture" to refer to a grain size under 1/250 mm. The term "sublitho ...

, all of which contain fossils, but interspersed in which are the lagerstätte layers that contain the highly preserved specimens. Within these layers, the fish and other specimens are so highly preserved that their organs are often completely preserved in fossil form, and even the skin color can sometimes be determined. The normal rearrangement of the specimens caused by mud-dwelling organisms in the layer before it turned to stone has been avoided—it is assumed that the mud in question was low in oxygen, preventing both decay and the action of scavengers. Fossils from Monte Bolca are commonly available for sale by commercial fossil dealers, and due to their popularity and preservation regularly sell for several hundred euros. Fossil species include the moonfish '' Mene rhombea'' and '' Mene oblonga'', the batfish ''Eoplatax papilio'', the spadefish '' Exellia velifer'', the "angelfish" carangid, '' Ceratoichthys'', a

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

, ''Crocodilus vicetinus'', and a snake, ''Archaeophis bolcaensis''.

Economy

The area is dependent on tourism and agriculture; the famous wine regions of

Valpolicella Valpolicella (, , ) is a viticultural zone of the province of Verona, Italy (wine), Italy, east of Lake Garda. The hilly agricultural and marble-quarrying region of small holdings north of the Adige is famous for wine production. Valpolicella ra ...

and Soave lie just to the south. In the village there is a museum with three rooms of fossils from the area.

Notes and references

External links