Pontemanco

Its name seems to derive from the initial absence of the bridge over the Biancolino canal, which still crosses it today coming from the locality of Mezzavia. It was famous until the middle of the twentieth century for the presence of an early milling activity, which ended in 1970 due to a fire at the mill on the left bank. In fact, Pontemanco is still referred to as "The Ancient Village of Mills." These structures are mentioned as early as the will of one of the Lords of Padua, Marsilio da Carrara, who died in 1338, but it is with the arrival of the Most Serene Republic of Venice that the golden period of the village begins, as in 1539 there was a record of as many as twelve water wheels. Such intense activity soon brought the necessary craftsmen such as blacksmiths and carpenters, but also "cavalanti" and barcaroli, who lived in the simple houses that can still be seen overlooking the canal, forming what is called a "calle." Unique is the symmetrical structure of the two nuclei that thus developed along the two banks of the Biancolino: one around the eighteenth-century villa Lovato Sperandio and one around Villa Grimani Fortini, formerly Pasqualigo, with the annexed seventeenth-century small Oratory of the Most Holy Annunciation. Inside, among the many works, one can admire frescoes from the 1500s by an anonymous quadraturist painter and two refined half-busts of Madonna and Christ, probably. The banks of the canal can be traversed on foot and by bicycle, using the ancient route defined as The Salt and Sugar Way. In fact, the waterway continues, contributing its waters to the canal called Cagnola-Pontelongo, which flows into the Adriatic Sea at Brondolo. It thus also configured as a valuable artery for the transport of goods, from Chioggia with salt to the inland areas, and from the latter, the foodstuffs including the precious sugar beet.