Agna
The name Agna suggests this village’s possible Roman origin, which was most likely originally a small place for travelers to rest and change horses along what, as recent studies hypothesize, was probably the ancient route of the Via Annia; the town also had a very important monastic presence in the Lombard period. In the Middle Ages, this territory was fortified by the Lombards and in 950 AD dukes Franca and Almerico donated their fiefdom to the monks of San Michele di Brondolo, who promoted various works to reclaim the swamps. A castle already existed in 970 – perhaps of Roman, Lombard or Carolingian origin- and later, in 1230, when it was under the dominion of the Da Carrara, it is described with guard towers and bridges watched by soldiers. Starting from the 15th century, subsequent land reclamation progressively changed the structure of this territory which, since ancient times, had always been characterized by the presence of wide swamps and marshes. In 1534, it was Roberto Papafava who excavated the Sorgaglia drainage canal between Agna and Arre, which still today conveys all the waters into the Canale dei Cuori and the Brenta river. The present parish church of San Giovanni Battista stands on the site of an ancient Medieval church that was mentioned for the first time in 1297; the oratory of via Piera, the Oratorio della Pria, is the oldest monument of Agna and dates back to the same time, we also know there was a hospice for travelers near it. Serious famines and floods ensued in 1770 and 1773, throwing the country into a profound state of prostration, from which it recovered only during the Austrian domination in the 19th century. http://www.comune.agna.pd.it/
