Musile di Piave
Musile di Piave: a Venetian town between history and nature
Welcome to Musile di Piave, a municipality located in the metropolitan city of Venice in Veneto, with a population of approximately 11,328 inhabitants. The town is situated on the right bank of the Piave River, twenty kilometers from its mouth, near the Venetian Lagoon. The territory is flat, and it was reclaimed from swamps through land reclamation projects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The physical geography of Musile di Piave
Musile di Piave is a town immersed in nature, with spectacular landscapes and more. The territory extends on the right bank of the Piave and borders the Venetian Lagoon to the southwest. Much of the land was reclaimed from swamps thanks to land reclamation projects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The area is entirely flat and offers breathtaking scenery. In particular, the Croce area, located in Musile di Piave, is characterized by woods and pristine nature.
The origins of the name of Musile di Piave
The toponym "Musile" has an uncertain etymological origin and seems to derive from the Venetian term "mussa". This term has several meanings such as "dam", "embankment", "fence" or "raised place". In medieval times, "musil" or "musile" was synonymous with "closed pasture for grazing" or "meadow" in general. In the tenth century, an important market was held in Musile di Piave, probably hosted in the closed pasture on the riverbank.
The history of Musile di Piave
The area was a swampy territory in continuity with the nearby Venetian Lagoon. Although human presence was well-rooted, especially in Roman times given the proximity to the city of Altinum, the Croce area in Musile di Piave was characterized by woods. Musile was under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Torcello, while the Croce fraction belonged to the Patriarchate of Aquileia. In 1177, the town became a fief of the Ezzelini family. In the fourteenth century, with the transfer of Musile to the Republic of Venice, the landowners were the Venetian patrician families of Foscari and Malipiero. During the fifteenth century, the woods of Croce were exploited for charcoal production. The town also suffered the sack of the Scaliger troops in 1329. With the inclusion of Musile di Piave in the domains of the Republic of Venice, the land was purchased by the patrician family of Malipiero, who built a new church dedicated to St. Donato after the destruction of the previous chapel due to a flood of the river.
Conclusions
Musile di Piave is a town that offers many opportunities for nature and history lovers. The physical geography of the town makes the territory spectacular and full of surprises. The origins of the name and the history of the town tell us about its importance since the tenth century. The historical events that Musile has experienced and the hydraulic interventions are just some of the things that make this town a little gem of the metropolitan city of Venice in Veneto.
