Magasa

The most populated village

Magasa is the largest settlement in Val Vestino and municipal seat of the Municipality of Magasa. The natural environment is the most important aspect of Magasa area, which is rich in particularly interesting plants and animals, making it a real nature reserve of the Upper Brescia Garda Park.

Magasa is a small mountain village with a population of 109, set in a spectacularly green environment at an altitude of 976 metres above sea level.

Near the car park, the village welcomes visitors with a statue dedicated to the “bearer women” in memory of their heavy work during the First World War. The work was created by the Salò artist Aime and commissioned by the municipal administration to mark the first centenary of the end of the Great War.

Its origins are very ancient and date back to a settlement of Celtic populations. The name Magasa derives from the Celtic word “Mag” meaning field. Inhabited by the Stoni, the Gallic Cenomani, it was a Roman and Longobard dominion.

From 1200 to 1807, Magasa, like all the other six villages in the valley, was a fief of the Counts of Lodrone and part of the lands of the Episcopal Principality of Trento. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna reconfirmed the rule of the Habsburg Empire and the city of Trento over these communities.

From 1426 to 1797, a borderland with the Republic of Venice and, until 1918, with the Kingdom of Italy, it was for centuries the obligatory route for armies descending from northern Italy towards the Po Valley and which wanted to avoid the d’Anfo Fortress, which defended Lake Idro. Such armies in transit were many, as were the military occupations. In November 1526, Georg von Frundsberg, coming from Germany at the head of the mercenary Lansquenets, passed through the valley on his way to conquer Rome; in 1600, the bandit Giovanni Beatrici, known as Zanzanù, hunted down by Venetian soldiers, took refuge in the Droanello valley; in 1796 Napoleon’s soldiers requisitioned animals and foodstuffs; in 1800, Austrian and Garibaldi soldiers took turns in occupying the area; finally, in 1918 Magasa and the Vestino Valley passed out of Austrian administration and became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

In 1934, Magasa was detached from the province of Trento and became a hamlet of Turano. It returned to the municipality in 1947, thus re-establishing its old administrative autonomy; in fact, its renewed statutes date back many years to 1 October 1589.

As far as the Court of Appeal is concerned, Magasa is still part of the Trentino regional capital, as indicated on the land register and in the Theresian cadastral system set up in 1780 by Maria Theresa of Austria. You can now continue your visit towards the parish church.