San Pietro Viminario
The name Viminario recalls the obvious importance of this village as a centre for wickerwork (vimine in Italian) production; its name is already cited in 1054, while in 1165 Viminario is mentioned together with San Pietro, the name of its church.
The town developed after the year 1000 around the church and the monastery which were founded in this area by the Benedictine monks of San Pietro in Maone – in the province of Rovigo – when they were in search of a place to recover while escaping from the frequent floodings of the river Po. Even in the following centuries the history of the community of San Pietro Viminario was closely linked to the events of the convent and the church.
In 1517, after Pope Leo X separated the order of the Minori Riformati dell’Osservanza from the convent’s monks, San Pietro Viminario remained with the former, who kept it until their suppression (1769) when their possessions were given away and the church was given to the archpriest of Pernumia. However, the people living in this area, who had attended the church of San Pietro for four centuries and who had their families laid to rest in its cemetery, asked for a parish to be built in 1770, and their request was granted by Bishop Dondi dell’Orologio around thirty years later.
