Gargnano () is a town and (municipality) in the

province of Brescia The province of Brescia (; Brescian: ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 (as of January 2019) and its capital is the city of Brescia.With an area of 4,785 km2, it is the ...

, in

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, Italy. It is situated on the western shore of

Lake Garda Lake Garda (, , or , ; ; ) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, between Brescia and Milan to the west, and Verona and Venice to the east. The lake cuts into the edge of the Eastern Alps, Italian Alp ...

. The municipal territory includes the artificial Valvestino Lake, created in 1962.

History

The name of the village appears for the first time in a document of 937 as Garniano, perhaps derived from the Latin stem ''Garenius''. Passages of the Roman historian

Titus Livius Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

and inscriptions on headstones testify to the presence of Etruscans, Celts, Cenomani and Romans. From 1350 to 1426 the territory of Gargnano was a dominion of the

Visconti of Milan The Visconti of Milan are a noble Italian family. They rose to power in Milan during the Middle Ages where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as Lords then as Dukes, and several collateral branches still exist. The effective founder of the V ...

, later a dominion of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

. In 1866 Gargnano was bombarded by the Austrian navy during the fighting on Lake Garda which formed part of the Third Italian War of Independence.

Notable residents

* Giovanni Beatrice, called Zanzanù, and Eliseo Baruffaldo, brigands of the 17th century *

Pietro Bellotto Pietro Bellotti (1625–1700) was an Italian painter active in the Baroque period. Life and work Bellotti was born in Volciano di Salò in 1627 (1625 according to Orlandi), he gained fame as a painter of portraits and heads of characters. He was ...

, Baroque painter * Lorenzo Fiorini, Domenico Pattuccelli and Tommaso Chiaromonte, volunteers in the southern army of

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

during the military campaign of 1860 * Alexander Bettoni Cazzago, soldier, partisan and horseman. Won the Siena Square dressage competition in 1942. As colonel of the Third Regiment of the Savoy Cavalry in 1942 he led charges in the Russian campaign that are among the last uses of cavalry in modern warfare. * Erika Blanc, actress * Cesare Lievi, theatre director, poet and dramatist *

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

, during the Italian Social Republic (the Republic of Saló) lived in the Villa delle Orsoline (Villa Feltrinelli) *

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

, novelist lived in Gargnano from 18 September 1912 to 30 March 1913 with Frieda Weekley von Richthofen * Uto Ughi, violinist * Oscar Ghiglia, guitarist * Giuseppe Maria Bernini, Capuchin friar and missionary

Sources

Cities and towns in Lombardy Populated places on Lake Garda {{Brescia-geo-stub