The History of the Cimbri di Giazza Population
The Cimbri were a population of Bavarian-Tyrolean descendents called to the Venetian and Trento Prealps from the 10th century to colonise these areas and to continue practicing the traditional professions as they had in their country of origin, tsuch as wood cutting, the production of coal and farming. This population arrived in Lessinia at the end of the 13th century mostly from the first settlement in the Asiago Highlands but also from their areas of origin in Western Tyrol and southern Baveria.
For years we believed that the population descended from those Cimbri who came down the peninsula from Jutland and they were beaten by the Roman Consul Gaius Marius in 101 B.C. at the Battle of Campi Raudii at the doors of the now Vercelli. According to this hypothesis the defeated Cimbri, scattered, and some of them went to north so as to return to their lands of origin and some took refuge in the heights of the southern Alpines, in some cases amongst the Lessinian outcrops. This reconstruction has lost its historical credibility also due to the fact that the denomination of the Cimbri does not originate from this antique Teuton population, but from the word Tzimbar, which is connected to the woodcutters trade, a profession in which many Cimbri took part.
The settled Colonies in the new Lessinian territories brought with them customs and traditions, language, dialects and rituals all tightly tied to those of their homelands. If place names found in the Veronese mountains are undoubtedly connected to the ancient cimbra language Taucias Gareida, it arouses curiosity the fact that there are other similarities with the Tyrol Alpine and Bavarian Valleys;an example of this is the worship and devotion to Saint Leonardo of Limoges, the reveared saint of the cimbri population. Even today, in the Alta Val Venosta and Western Tyrol, there are Churches dedicated to this saint, buildings with artwork and sacred objects which are all so similar to those found in the church dedicated to Saint Leonardo sul Monte of San Moro in middle eastern Lessinia.
The movement of colonies from their original settlements also continued in the 14th century but slowly in the coming centuries a process of Cimbri " Italianization" took place, which consist of a loss of traditions and customs and it led to the total loss of the Cimbri culture. It is only thanks to the commitment and passion of determined and knowledgeable people ,whose praiseworthy work in the Curiatorium Cimbricum Veronense, and Lessinia Regional Nature Park who safeguard , enhance and promote this particular ethnic-culture of the Veronese mountains, that it is still alive, present and strongly characterizes the Central and Eastern Lessinian territories from a cultural and touristic point of view.
(Archivio Parco Naturale Regionale della Lessinia)
