Baveno is on the west shore of Lago Maggiore, 13 miles
North West of Arona by rail. Although Baveno is recognised
as being of ancient origin, little or no trades of its
past can be found in comparison to Feriolo for example.
It may be that the Lakes water level was many meters higher.
Th region appears to have been originally populated with
descendants of Celtic stock with an Indo-European influence,
notably in the Iron age.
The Roman culture can be traced back to 1st Century BC
with little or no military infuence and mainly trading.
Christianity proved that Verbano became an important strategic
defence position from the maurading "Germanic" hordes
and subsequently the French. In the first decades of the
eight century whilst then under Austrian rule, Baveno profited
in a period of economic prosperity. The commericial successes
of trading in wine, wood and coal with their lomabrdy neighbours
brough a period of wealth.
This territory however was subsequently given to the Savoia
that marked a period of economic slump. In the early ‘1800's
Napoleon instructed the construction of the Simplon Road.
Since those times, many large properties arose in this
region, some of which become hotels and helped develop
tourism, mainly from the English. From Byron to Lamartine,
from the Czarist Alexandra to Queen Victoria of England,
from Wagner to Umberto Giordano - who composed the opera
Fedora in the namesake villa - and to finish Churchill
who is portrayed in some Parrocchiale watercolors. Baveno
is what's more famous for the red granite cave, it opens
onto the foothills of Mt. Camoscio (890 meters) at the
back of the town, from which also rise the mineral water
springs called "Fonti di Baveno".
Baveno is also recognised as being a famous health- thermal
resort. Among its monuments two important structures: the
Parrocchiale of St. Gervasio and St. Protaso of the 12th-13th
centuries, adapted in the 7th-8th century, with Romanesque
bell and the octagonal baptistery, this too restored in
the 18th-19th cent. |
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