"Whoever has some culture joined to a kind sensibility for the country's
memories, as soon as they come to the country and become acclimatized,
immediately feels taken by a special charm that exhales from the still
throbbing ruins of the past."
"The big, beautiful and illustrious Fratta, a name that knows Roman origins" (Bocchi), rises on the shores of the ancient river Scortico, a channel
whose origin loses itself in the darkness of the centuries.
The historians want Fratta to have been built before the birth of Christ,
a hypothesis now confirmed by archaeological discoveries made in Frattesina,
a place whose settlements go back to the "protovillanoviana" era.
Nevertheless, the first news that starts to have historical consistence
goes back to 1054, the epoch in which the Bishop of Adria, Benedict I,
obtained the Feud including: Vespara, Presciane, Castelguglielmo, San
Bellino and Fratta (then known as Villa Comedai).
In 1104 the Bishops built you a Castle around which terrible struggles
took place for its possession between the Bishops, the Veronesi and the
Estensi and it was destroyed and rebuilt several times, until it passing
into the hands of the "Pepoli"; the last vestiges of the Castle had definitely
disappeared by the beginning of the XIX century.
In 1395, Fratta passed under the control of the Venetian Republic and
followed its fates up to the peace of Campoformio in 1797.
The Venetian Republic always took particular care of this area and many
Venetian nobles built very handsome and magnificent patrician Villas:
Villa Badoer by Andrea Palladio, built in 1570, declared a monument of
world patrimony by UNESCO; the palladian Loredan-Molin Villa, now Avezzù,
XVI century; the town hall, Casa Campanari, XVIII century; Palazzetto
Villa-Cornoldi now Fanan, of the XVII century; Villa dei Conti Oroboni
(Villa of the Oroboni counts), XVIII century; Casa Dolfin, now called
the Divina Provvidenza, XVIII century; Casa Matteotti, XVIII century;
Palazzo Monti, now Viaro; Villa David now Franchin; Palazzo Boniotti now
hosting the "Manegium"; Villa Labia, a nineteenth century construction
with its superb park; the Parish Church dedicated to the Saints Peter
and Paul: an erection based on designs by Zuane Bellettato in 1552 and
reconstructed in 1682.
Since 1400, there has been the small church of St. Francis, the only example
of Romanesque style in Polesine. With the Congress of Vienna, Fratta passed
under Austrian domination and they stayed that way until 1866, the year
of the third war of Independence.
In this period, Fratta participated with true enthusiasm and true devotion
to the causes of the Risorgimento. The circumstance of the Carbonari of
Fratta is one of the most glorious and painful pages in the dawn of the
Risorgimento.
This event began on 11th November 1818, when Cecilia Monti, a woman of
Fratta, offered to the Carbonari, at her home (Villa Molin), the famous
lunch that gave origin to so many disasters. A few days after that fatal
conference, all the participants were arrested. This is the first germ
of a long series of processes that opened the painful doors of the Spielberg
and other hard prisons, like Venice and Lubiana.
Count Antonio Fortunato Oroboni, Cecilia Monti, Angelo Gambato, Antonio
Francesco Villa, Don Marco Fortini, Giovanni Monti, Antonio and Carlo
Poli, Giacomo, Sebastiano and Federico Monti, Domenico and Antonio Davì,
Vincenzo Zerbini, Domenico Grindati: these are the names of the "Carbonari
of Fratta".
Having grow up with the doctrine and example of these brave people another
great citizen of Fratta offered himself as a victim for the love to liberty
and social justice: Giacomo Matteotti, killed by fascists 10th June 1924.
This is a brief history of Fratta Polesine, shrine of historical memories
unknown to most, but alive and throbbing.
