Marone (

Brescian Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of Lombard, a Gallo-Italic dialect 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 ...

: ) is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

'' in the

province of Brescia The Province of Brescia ( it, provincia di Brescia; Brescian: ) is a Province in the Lombardy administrative region of northern Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 (as of January 2019) and its capital is the city of Brescia. With an ...

, in Lombardy, Italy.

Physical geography

Territory

Marone is located on the eastern shore of

Lake Iseo Lake Iseo or Iseo lake ( ; it, Lago d'Iseo ; lmo, Lach d'Izé, label=Eastern Lombard), also known as Sebino (; la, Sebinus), is the fourth largest lake in Lombardy, Italy, fed by the Oglio River. It is in the north of the country in the Val ...

at about 200 m a.s.l. The territory is mainly mountainous. It borders to the north with Toline, a fraction of the municipality of Pisogne; to the east with the town of

Zone Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

and to the south with Sale Marasino. There are two main water streams: the ''Bagnadore'' and the ''Opol''. The latter descends from Passo Croce di Marone, receiving the Sestola stream, which has an underground channel that has been very important for the industrial development of the town.

History

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, Marone was crossed by an important consular road, the Via Valeriana, which connected

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Ise ...

( lat. ''Brixia'') with the Camonica Valley (lat. ''Vallis Camunnorum'') coasting

(lat. ''Sebinus lacus''). Some archaeological findings found in the remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...

in a locality called "Cò de Ela" could demonstrate the fact that the first settlements occurred in Roman times. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the inhabitants settled in more defensible locations, far from the lake and streams, such as Pregasso, where in the

10th century The 10th century was the period from 901 (CMI) through 1000 ( M) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the last century of the 1st millennium. In China the Song dynasty was established. The Muslim World experienced a cultural zenith, es ...

there was a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, which was later destroyed by a fire. Marone became the administrative centre from the second half of the

16th century The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th centur ...

, when its development as an industrial center began.

Economy

Since the

, Marone has been considered one of the most important industrial centres of Lake Iseo. Currently the main activities are the processing of

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

, the production of felts and the extraction of dolomite. Panoramic view of Marone

In recent times, starting from the 10s of 2000, olive-growing has spread, from which the typical Lombard

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...

is produced. The municipality is also part of the national association "Città dell'Olio" since 2001.

References

Cities and towns in Lombardy {{Brescia-geo-stub