Lagarina Valley (, ) is a valley in northern Italy, used to define the lower mountain course of the Adige River. It is mostly included in the province of

Trentino Trentino (), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento (; ; ), is an Autonomous province#Italy, autonomous province of Italy in the Northern Italy, country's far north. Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the Regions of Italy, region of Tren ...

, with the lower section being part of the province of Verona. The largest town is

Rovereto Rovereto (; "wood of sessile oaks"; locally: ''Roveredo'') is a city and ''comune'' in Trentino in northern Italy, located in the Vallagarina valley of the Adige River. History Rovereto was an ancient fortress town standing at the fronti ...

Geography

The upper limit of the valley is generally set at the so-called "Murazzi", north to Besenello and about south to

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

. Above this it is known as Val d'Adige. The lower limit is the entrance in the

Padan Plain The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (, , or ) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetian Plain, Venetic extension not actu ...

, near the ''Chiusa di Ceraino''. As with the Val d'Adige, the Vallagarina is of glacial origin. Orographically, it separates the

Brescian Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of Lombard, a Gallo-Italic language spoken in Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua, in the area around Cremona and in parts of Trentino. Its main variants are ...

and Gardesane Prealps to the west from the Venetian prealps to the east. Castello di Avio vanaf de Autostrada del Brennero

History

The valley is home to several forts built by 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 ...

in the 19th century and older

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

s, such as Castle of Avio which dates to the 11th century. In the locality Lavini di Marco, near Rovereto, are several dinosaur footprints attributed to the genera ''

Camptosaurus ''Camptosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic Period (geology), period of western North America and possibly also Europe. The name means 'flexible lizard' (Ancient Greek, Greek (') meaning ...

'' and ''

Dilophosaurus ''Dilophosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 186 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserv ...

''. The same locality is mentioned by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

in his '' Inferno'' (Canto XII).

Gallery

File:Lavini_di_Marco_-_Colatoio_Chemini_01.jpg, Dinosaur footprints at Lavini di Marco. File:Vallagarina.jpg, Satellite view of the Lagarina Valley (red box).

External links

Castles in the Lagarina Valley

{{Coord missing, Italy Valleys of Trentino