THE ROMAN CRYPTOPORTICUS - VICENZA
In 1954, in the southern side of Piazza Duomo, has been discovered a Roman construction, quite unusual in the fabric of a northern Roman city: a cryptoporticus, a sort of underground gallery which floor is nowadays m 6,31 deep compared to the modern trampling level, constituted by the threshold of the square.
The condition of the structure allows us to get a good readability, especially in the most eastern part of the monument to which belong three wings and two quadrangular rooms. The walls of this section are plastered; a stucco moulding, underneath which runs a deep red band, underlines the springer.
The stairwell still preserves some traces of the high black base and the Pompeian red decoration above, with squares limited by thin, green and light blue bands.
The other sections of the complex, constituted by a trapezoidal room and an oblique gallery, are harder to read.
The three different floor levels testify that the building went through many different use phases: the oldest one can be traced back to the end of the I century b.C.
Information for visits: Centro Turistico Giovanile, ph. +39 0444 226626

THE RUPESTRIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN VAL D'ASSA- Roana (Plateau of Asiago) - Tunkebalt reachable from Canove or Roana
Val d'Assa is a deep valley, which divides the Altopiano into two parts, separating, on the West Side, Rotzo and some little villages in Roana from the other districts. The first discoveries in Tunkebalt (Bosco Nero), date back to 1979. 10,000 inscriptions were found in a 40 meters long and 7 meters tall location, where you can still see animal and human figures, cross-shaped and geometrical forms, sexual symbols, representations of the sun and building projects. Open for visits.

VALLE DEL BISELE near Val d'Assa
It is an archeological area characterized by the so-called "Laita Kubele": a large natural cave with paleontologic material.

VILLAGE OF BOSTEL
It is situated in Castelletto di Rotzo and is considered the first human village of the Altopiano with hundreds little houses, containing up till one thousand people. Open for visits.

THE FUNERAL MEGALITHIC COMPLEX IN SOVIZZO- San Daniele. (Copper age).
In 1990-1991, during the workings for civil constructions, prehistoric remains were discovered: an ancient Neolithic ground (end of IV millennium bc.) and a grave (III millennium bc.) were found in the area between Viale degli Alpini and Via Alfieri. In the south part of Viale degli Alpini, was the funeral megalithic complex of the same age. It is now an archeological area visible from the outside. Sovizzo is also famous for numerous Longobard graves, discovered at the beginning of 1900 in the propriety owned by Conte Giovanni Curti. The Villa is now visitable by appointment. Conte Giovanni Curti's precious belongings are instead exposed in the Museo Civico of Vicenza. Sovizzo is a residential area located few kilometers from Vicenza, not far from Colli Berici.

ALTAR KNOTTO
To sink into the legend you can reach the Altar Knotto, near Rotzo: a seat of revengeful gods as the ancient Cimbric people believed.
___________________________________________________________

INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY: SCHIO, THE ORIGINS OF ITALIAN MODERN INDUSTRY
The valley of Leogra river is an ample furrow that, from the lowland opening where the city of Schio, Italian capital of industrial heritage, is situated and proceeds in North-Westerly direction toward Pian delle Fugazze, to the base of Mount Pasubio. Schio inserts itself among the buttresses of Mount Summano and Novegno to the East and the Piccole Dolomiti, famous scenario of Word War I. The traditional agricultural and sheep-farming economy has been accompanied, since the Middle Ages, by craftmanship, evidenced by the dense net of mills, sawmills, drop-hammers and wool machinery, which sprang up along the course of the Leogra and of the Roggia Maestra (the main canal), the latter being a by-pass from the river itself constructed toward the middle of the 13th C., along the boundary of Schio with Pievebelvicino. The Roggia Maestra has determined the economic life of the population and the structure of Schio's city-centre, where there are 12 waterfalls regulated by a system of locks. The part of the roggia between Torrebelvicino and Pievebelvicino is, on the other hand, dated back to last century. The availability of hydraulic energy was fundamental for the industrial development, which occurred in the 19th century: it was, in fact a waterfall which moved the machinery through transmission chains. As in other geographical areas of Northern Italy, in the Val Leogra as well, one can observe the progressive transfer of the productive installations from the hills toward the lowland, the river always being necessary to the adoption of steam and then electricity as sources of energy. The pole of attraction not only of the valley, but of the whole Alto Vicentino (the northern territories of the Vicenza province), is Schio, which became around 1870 the capital city of the wool industry - the Manchester of Italy, or the "civitas" in the ideological conception of Alessandro Rossi based on the factory system. To testify to the ancient protoindustrial activity and the most recent industrial tradition of the val Leogra one can study various remains of different typologies from mills to sawmills, from spinning-mills to wool mills, from drop-hammers to mechanics industries, from the houses built for employees to the working class districts, etc. But dominating over everithing else, together the towering brick factory chimineys, is the Fabbrica Alta (high factory), real "cathedral to labour", eloquent sign of the European dimension of the Schio industrial phenomenon. To explore these testimonies means to reconstruct the net of relationships and of objects which sprang up around the workshops, the behaviours, the ways of being, the ideas that have gave to one of the most interesting chapters of the industrial civilisation of the Veneto region.

The Outdoor museum of Industrial Heritage

The Bureau of Culture of the city of Schio and the Teachers' Centre of Democratic Initiative, several years ago started a common action of conservation and revaluation of the evidences of the machinery civilisation, by developing and creating a favourable climate of opinion, in paticular that of the young people, by activating cultural tourism and organising, among the other activities, an Outdoor museum of Industrial heritage. The objects exhibited are the industrial monuments diffused in the territory of the Val Leogra and the Alto Vicentino in general, while the population is the soul and depositary of the historic memory.


FOR INFORMATIONS ABOUT MANIFESTATIONS IN SCHIO
Visitors Bureau
via Roma, 15
36076 Recoaro Terme
tel. 0445 75070 - fax 0445 75158
iat.recoaro@provincia.vicenza.it

Ufficio relazioni con il Pubblico (Public Relations office) - Comune di Schio
Piazza Statuto, 17
36015 Schio
tel. 0445 691212 - fax 0445 530143

CRUSTACEA AND FOSSILS IN VICENZA AREA
The territory around Vicenza, that spaces from the eastern Lessini to the flat land, from the Small Dolomites to the Grappa Massif, in the geological past was covered by the sea. The environments that came after each other during this long period of about 300 million years, were characterized by lands above sea-level, coral atolls and volcanic phenomena more or less violent. The presence of fossil crabs in our territory has interested the scholars since the past centuries; however, lots of new species have been discovered in the last twenty years during construction and street works, that surprisingly brought to light some full-blown crustacea layers.
The finds discovered in Vicenza area are nowadays kept in the naturalistic-archaeological museum of Vicenza, in the civic museum of Bassano del Grappa, in the fossils museum of Villa Godi Malinverni in Lonedo di Lugo, in the Priaboniano museum of Monte di Malo, in the paleontologic museum "Domenico Dal Lago" of Valdagno, in the museum "P. Aurelio Menin" of Chiampo, in the paleontologic museum ruled by the friars of Monte Berico in Vicenza and, above all, in the civic museum "G. Zannato" of Montecchio Maggiore, where we can admire the most complete and rich collection of fossils of all Vicenza area.
Extract from "Quinto quaderno di Natura Vicentina: protagonisti i granchi fossili"