Palù del Fersina
Welcome to Palù del Fersina
Hello everyone! Welcome to Palù del Fersina, a small community of 167 inhabitants in the autonomous province of Trento. Located at 1,360 meters above sea level, here you can find different locations such as Sigismondi, Stefani, Lenzi (the seat of the municipality), Battisti, Tassaineri, Tolleri, and Canopi. In this text, I will talk about the history and etymology of this area.
The Etymology of the Toponym
The name "Palù del Fersina" comes from the Latin "palus-paludis," which means a marshy or damp place. The first document that mentions the toponym dates back to 1293, in a legal dispute between the inhabitants of Frassilongo and Fierozzo. The former were discovered using the territory of Mount Florocium for grazing and timber. The toponym appears later in various documents, but the first reference in the Mòcheno language dates back to 1533 with the Germanized form of "Palay."
Local Toponymy
The local toponymy is bilingual: for the toponyms known at the national level, the name of the locations is first in Italian and then in Mòcheno. This is regulated by provincial law that protects minority languages in South Tyrol, as provided in the Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano.
The History of Palù del Fersina
The toponym Palù del Fersina appears for the first time in a document dated 1293, but there is no memory of stable inhabitants in the area given the presence of the homonymous mountain. From the documents, it appears that the jurisdiction of the upper part of the valley belonged to the Castelnuovo di Caldonazzo counts, but it is not known how they came to possess it. In the Scena archive, there are four investment documents concerning Palù, all dated between 1324 and 1337. The first inhabitants of Palù and the left orographic bank of the Fersina river were called "roncadori" because they had to clear the land to make it fertile and build their homes. They accepted the toponym of Latin origin already in use for the area, transforming it into their native language, hence the current Mòcheno term, Palai.
Variants of the Toponym
The toponym has had numerous variants over time, such as Pallù, Palù di Fierozzo, Palù di Pergine, and Palù di Sant'Orsola. In the fascist period, the area was also called Palù dei Mòcheni. Only from 1959, with a regional law, was the toponym indicated in the current form, Palù del Fèrsina.
I hope I have made you discover a bit more about Palù del Fersina and its history. If you are looking for a peaceful place immersed in nature, Palù del Fersina could be the right choice for you!
