The Cimbri
The Cimbri were people of Bavarian-Tyrolean origin who were called to the Venetian and Trentino Prealps starting from the 10th century, and colonized these areas by practicing the common work activities that they already carried out in their territories of origin, namely cutting wood, producing charcoal and breeding. The Cimbri arrived in Lessinia towards the end of the 13th century, mostly from the nearby Asiago Plateau, the first area of settlement, but also from the areas of origin of western Tyrol and southern Bavaria.
For years it was thought that this population could descend from those Cimbri who came down from the Jutland peninsula and were defeated in 101 BC by the Roman Consul Gaius Marius in the battle of the Raudii Fields at the gates of present-day Vercelli; according to this hypothesis, which after further historical investigations proved to be incorrect, the defeated Cimbri, in disarray, would have partly headed north to return to their lands of origin and partly taken refuge in the southern Alpine heights, including the Lessinian foothills. Even the name of the Cimbri population does not originate from these ancient Teutonic people, but rather from the word Tzimbar, linked to the activity of woodcutter to which many Cimbri were dedicated.
The colonists who settled in the new Lessinian territories “brought” with them habits and customs, traditions, language and rituals closely linked to their lands of origin; if toponyms of places present in the Veronese mountains are undoubtedly linked to the ancient Cimbrian language Taucias Gareida, curiosity arouses other similarities with the Tyrolean and Bavarian Alpine valleys; an example is the cult and devotion to Saint Leonard of Limoges, a saint venerated by the Cimbrian people. Even today there are churches dedicated to this saint in the Upper Venosta Valley and in Western Tyrol, buildings that present iconography, votive offerings and sacred objects completely similar to those found in the church dedicated to Saint Leonard on Mount San Moro in the eastern middle Lessinia.
The flow of settlers from the areas of origin continued also in the 14th century, but progressively in the following centuries, a process of "Italianization" of the Cimbri took place, which consisted in a loss of traditions, uses and customs that led to the almost disappearance of the Cimbrian culture; it is only thanks to the commitment and passion of enlightened and persevering people, to the meritorious work of the Curiatorium Cimbricum Veronense and the Regional Natural Park of Lessinia that the protection, enhancement and promotion of this ethnic-cultural peculiarity of the Veronese mountains is alive and present today and significantly characterizes the territories of central and eastern Lessinia also from a tourist-cultural point of view.
