Bibione, History

From prehistoric times to Early history

To write about Bibione and its history surely can be called a daring enterprise.

It is already rather difficult to reconstruct the true run of history, if there exist testimonies and documents, but if there are only fragments it is a problem to collect the sources and events of a region like the actual Bibione.

Apart from these problems Bibione certainly has an own history.

The remoter one that is connected with the geographic region of Veneto-Friuli and the own one, less remote, that has made it become “the town of summer-holidays”.

The region that has originated from the saliferous components of the Adriatic sea and from the components of fresh-water of the river Tagliamento, before man came about had had the aspect of vergin soil, where all the living beings had been totally exposed to the dynamics of nature.

The whole region from the mountains to the sea was a big wood that was traversed by water-courses and swamps situated in the cover of the coast.

After the last glacial period in the Paleolithic age (40.000 to 10.000 BC), the socalled würm, numerous human traces where found mostly in the pre-alpine regions, although the most important settlement were in the quest inundations.

However, it can be taken for sure that the soil of today’s Bibione has been born by the sea.

During the first period of the tertiary the water-surface of the Adriatic sea extended as far to the foot of the Alps and formed a big bay.

During the age of quartiary the extension of the sea was reduced for many miles due to the change of climatic conditions, whereas the sea extended once more during the inter-glacial periods.

This territory was inhabited by man, who lived of hunting and fishing, initially without fixed abode and later on, since the end of the 5th millennium BC due to the beginning of agriculture and stock-farming also in villages.

Numerous finds in the Friulan plain testify the existence of Neolithic traces: plaster-stones, pottery and fossils of domestic animals, which were found also on the right bank of the Tagliamento.

Reconstructions of houses of these first settlers let us conclude that their culture was as far advanced as that of the well-know European Neolithic settlements.

The paleovenetians and Celts that immigrated during the first wave in the first Iron-Age and in a second wave between the 5th an the 3rd cent.

BC build huts, which were the result of the composition of the soil (swamps and dry places) and the available materials (reed, trucks, straw, clay and timber).

The Venetians appeared in this region at about 3.000 years ago at the begin of the first millennium BC.

Althought there have been made important finds at Este, near Padova, in the year 1876, which attribute to them a highly developed pre-roman civilization, their origins are woven into a secret.

Their settlements in the lagoon-areas, where nowadays Bibione is situated, can be attributed to the necessity of the undefended people to find quiet and remote places.

The civilization of the Venetians certainly was far developed: inscriptions and finds of things testify their value and confine also their territory of settlement (at about today’s Euganean Veneto as far as to Carinthia in the north and to Trieste in the east), also the Venetian language derives from the Etruscan alphabet and is spoken only in this region.

In the east of it, that means in our territory, there was the frontier to another people, the socalled Carnians, a Celtic people of central-European origines that in the course of time had settled in the territory of the Venetians and mingled with them.

Exactly they settled in the area between the rives Livenza and Timavo.

The Celtic settlements in this region in pre-roman times are a fact, but there exists only few knowledge about the extension in time and the way it came about.

There is no precise knowledge about the immigration of the Carnians that at the begin of history had been so important that plinius called the whole region “ Carnorum region “, the Carnian region.

Ptolomeus gives us precise denotations by describing Carnian towns like Aquileia, Foro Giulio and Concordia and there fore by proving that the river Livenza was already then the frontier between Carnians and Venetians.



The Colonization By the Romans

There exist only few and no testified suppositions about the pre-roman history of Bibione, but it is sure that the territory of and around Bibione was settled by the Romans.

The armed Roman intervention of the year 187 BC in the east of the Venetians was caused by the immigration of Gauls that had come from the other side of the Alps.

The newcomers probably had immigrated through the Vipacovalley and settled al about 12 miles outside the later town Aquileia.

Plinius the older describes this event as an peaceful settlement.

However, the Romans considered this territory their own and therefore saw the settlement as an act of aggression.

As a consequence they organized a military spedition under the Consul M. Claudius Marcellus and destroyed the newcomers.

The Gauls retreated and remained in this region.

The Romans brought civilization, their language and their culture; they built roads, Fori and aqueducts.

They colonized “Venetiae” and advanced into Friuli, and there in the year 181 BC they founded the town Aquileia, which was of strategic importance, in order to control the unsicure regions of East-Istria.

The real history of our region starts with the arrival of the Romans; who occupied the Friulan Plain permanently and who divided the land from the Isonzo to the Tagliamento among their tenants and legionaries.

These people later on cultivated and colonized the whole territory.

In order to keep the occupied areas the Romans built an adequate road-net.

So in 148BC they built the Via Postumia from Genova to Aquileia, in 131 BC Via Annia that joined at the Adriatic Sea with the Via Popilia that came from Rimini, passed Concordia and led to Aquileia and the Via Aurelia from Padova to Asolo.

The Roman Empire consolidated also in the north-east of the Italian peninsula, and in 8 BC the Emperor Augustus divided Italy into eleven regions in order to carry out his second census.

The tenth one, “Venetiae et Histria” included today’s three Veneti: Giulian Vento, Euganean Veneto and Tridentum.

Probably in these years Bibione had his greatest development as a settlement.

From this period there exist irrefutable documents that prove the existence of the so-called “Insulae Bibioni”, islands that were exposed to the sea and connected with the lagoon and the territory of Bibione by a narrow spit of land.

Nowadays we don’t have any absolute security about their existence and their disappearance.

The archeological material that was found mostly at Bibione Pineda, and more exactly on that belt of sands that faces the Val Grande or the Conte None at the so-called locality Duna Muttarone dei Frati, proves the presence of habitations and life during the period of the Roman Empire.

In this part of Bibione there were already made excavations in the years 1883, and an accurate report appeared in the documents of the Academia dei Linci of Rome in the same year.

There we can read that there were found old Roman stone-houses with black-and-white mosaic-pavements.

Furthermore, there were found ruins of old buildings at about half a meter under ground. “… a wall that begins near the lake and continues towards the cultivated fields encloses a room of about 7m length and 5m breadth.

The nearly completely preserved pavement of this room consist of a black-and-white mosaic of little stones of 1 cm2…”

From here on the description continues correctly and in an interesting way.

During the excavations they found a copper-coin of the Emperor Julian (355-363 AD), one of Flavius Vittorius (388AD), two coins with portraits of the late Roman Empire that unfortunately are so much corroded that they are illegible, green-blue pieces of glass, a vase with four balls as a base, Bricks and tiles with relieves: PANS and C.TI. HER ME ROTIS, where later on was added VARISTI and L.Q.T., which prove that the “X regio” and the stamp “PANS” correspond with “Tiberi Pansiana” or “Claudia Pansiana” which both date from the 1st cent. AD.

The presence of coins of the Emperors Julian and Flavius Vittorius let us conclude that the house was of a late date or that at least the locality was used by the Romans until the 2nd half of the 4th cent. AD.

Further excavations took place under captain Bedinello in the year 1884.

They should continue the excavations that had been made fifty years ago.

And so there were found other basements of buildings and utensils.

The area of the “Mutterone dei Frati” (monks) (one does not know where the name derives from for there have never been monks at Bibione), a landscape of sand dunes that are covered with a thin layer of humus, was the main-point of archeological finds, and therefore it was supposed that it belonged to a blooming culture.

Cassi underlines that for the first time during excavations in the territory of the Upper Adriatic Sea there have been found buildings of the Roman upper class. The excavations were buried under a layer of sand, probably due to the lack of money.

And it is there that testify the memory of the first inhabitants of Bibione.

The consistence of the soil and the type of excavations let us suppose that Bibione was no real town but a group of small islands, the so-called “Bibiones” that were situated at then former mouth of the Tagliamento and more correctly on the line Mutterone dei Frati, Porto e Baseleghe.

They are mentioned in three medieval documents as islands situated between Grado and Caorle that belong to the Duchy of Veneto.

Probably they were inhabited by fishermen, but also by families from the near town of Concordia.

Bibione is mentioned for the first time among other settlements in a document of the 2nd December 968 AD, in which Otto I confirms his alliance with the Venetians “…Equilo, Caprulus, Bibionibus, Grado, Capite argelis…”

Furthermore it is mentioned in a paragraph o the “ cronaca Venetians” or “Cronaca Sangurnina” by Johannes Diaconus, in which he describes the invasion of the Longobards in the Eastern Alps in the years 568.

These “Winnili” or “Vinili” , which means “Winning warriors”, were those “ab intactae Ferro barbae longitudinal” later Longobards that were so important for our history.

Their native-country is not yet known: some historians suppose it to be Scandinavia and others the territory on the other banck of the river Elbe.

This people occupied the country the blooming towns and the plains, and the inhabitants once more fled on to the islands where they found shelter.

On the whole it were ten islands, among them also the “insula Bibione”.

Some historians derive the origin of Bibione from the flight of the people after the fall of the Roman Empire.

They fled from the invasion of the Goths, the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, the Great Danes, the Huns under Attila, the Longobards and the Franks under Charles the Great from the plains into the shelter of the lagoon.

However, it can be taken for sure that fall of the Germanic tribes in Italy.

The proof that there lived mostly fishermen can be found in a chapter of the “Chronic on Venetum, Vulgo Altinate” that refers to the visit of the patriarch of Grado to the beach of Bevazzana at about 581 AD (the year was between 580 and 599 AD).

In this chapter we can read that the prelate in order to justify his fishing-rights did not have to go farther as to the beach of Bevazzana, where the patriarch was waiting for them” “… venit post eum littore litus, qui apellatur Taliamentum, quia Helias patriarcha per littoris longitudo taliada fecit, tenet miliaria duodecim. Post hec venit in littore Biaçianum, quia toti piscatori Bibonensium hic illorum recia ponebantur. Tenet miliaria novem. Item est silva ipsum littore pertinente. In eo littore fundari debet ab antiquitus due basilice. Insignia item posita fuit, sed minime fecerunt: propter hoc litus due basilice appellatur sive ausunum dicitur. Totum in unum silva cum littore est pertinendum…” Afterwards the patriarch confirms his hunting and fishing rights addressing among others also “…ad mayransesnium et Bibinensium populum cum aliquantis Finsusium…”

At that time Bibione had already grown and its name appeared more frequently in documents and descriptions.

As to the origin of its name some studies have proved his Latin or Romanic origins.

Furthermore there exist thousands of suppositions that are studied more deeply in the study “Historical And Linguistically Remarks About The Name Of Bibione” by Prof. Giovanni Frau.

Although there is confirmed the existence of the town in early times, there is no indication of the real root of the name.

Some historians derive it from “Bibbio” from the Latin word “pipio” , the famous cranes that sleep on one leg: “piccione da vipio” , a type of crane which by scientists is called “anatra marigiana” or “anas fistularis”.

Others derive it from “bibio-ones”, witch means swamp fly.

The last ancient document dates from the 18th September 1197, where was mentioned a “Bibions” that has already been identified with Bibione by Paschini.

Furthermore the research of the canon Ernesto Deganin must be mentioned.

In his well-known opera “the Diocese of Concordia” he points out a castle that might have been situated at one end of Baseleghe (today’s Bibione Pineda).

Deganin their fruitless defence from the invasion of Attila , had fled into the lagoon built the castle of Noves that is also mentioned by pope Gregory the Great in a letter to the bishop of Ravenna.

However, Deganin points out that these are only suppositions.



The Colonization By the Romans

The fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Germanic tribes surely altered Bibione and it hinterland. After the arrival of Christianity at about 1000AD the territory of the big island of Bibione was given to the bishops of Concordia by the German emperors.

This fact is historically proved because it refers to a document of the German Emperor Otto III° that was set up in Verona on the 11th September 996.

In this document the Emperor granted to the bishop of Concordia Benone and this successors the vast woods between the sources of the River Livenza and the sea and “… the decade of all villages Tagliamento an Livenza, between the mountains and the sea, etc…” (which means also Bibione)

The secular possessions of the bishop of Concordia are also mentioned in another important document, when on the 25th September 1185 the Archbishop of Milan Umberto Crivelli was elected as Pope Urban III°. On the 13th march 1186 Urban III° confirmed after request of bishop Gionata of Concordia the latter’s secular as well as ecclesiastical rights in the above mentioned territory. In this document are mentioned the “settlement Cesarolo” and “the other settlements towards the mouth of the river”, i.e. Bibione, Bevazzana, Pradi, etc. in accordance with the feudal investiture of the 13th and 14th centuries the bishops of Concordia divided the region in two juridical territories: the upper one of Cesarolo and the lower one that includes the bank of the river and the wasters of the lagoon.

Some historians suppose that in this era the islands of Bibione have grown to the mainland and therefore formed the beach of today’s Bibione.

In the middle Ages the earl of Gorizia extended his feudal territories, and after 1000 he possessed the whole region of the Tisana (north of Bibione).

With the rise of the republic of Venice in the 14th cent. And afterwards in 1420 the whole waters of Bibione came under Venetian domain, because they were regarded as “ waters of the lagoon “.

Later on the region of the Latisana was given to the Venetian family of nobility Vendramin by the Earls of Gorizia, while the territory on the mouth of the Tagliamento at Baseleghe came into possession of a certain Costantini and later on of Antonio Caccia of Trieste.

The following centuries were those of abandonment. Although the territory was still inhabited by fisherman. The pine-woods were extending and wild animals as well as wild horses appeared.

In 1806 the so-called “feudal domain” took an end, but already in 1796-97 there had been an interruption because of the invasion by the French.

As it had been touched by the great historical events, Bibione remained forgotten for some centuries.

After the treaty of Campoformido on the 17th October 1797 after the retreat of the French the Australians moved in and restored the old order.

In 1805 after the battle of Austerliz Napoleon reconquered Venice and the Veneto and united them with the Italian reign: they remained there until them 1814.

At the beginning of the Austrian reign due to the imperial issue of the 19th September 1814 the province of Venice was fixed in nowadays form , and the river Tagliamento became the eastern frontier from Villanova della Cartera to Bibione.

In the treaty of Vienna of 1815 Austria created the Lombardian reign, and the Veneto as well as the territory around Bibione belonged to it until 1866, when on the 27th October it became annexed to the Italian reign as the consequence of a plebiscite.

It was rather difficult to restore order in this region, juridically as well as legally, because the land was poor and the climate insane.

The people on the hinterland dwelled on agriculture , where regularly were inundations in each season; all sorts of illnesses, like typhus, cholera and tuberculosis caused many victims. As far as the malaria is concerned the fight against it started with the land reclamation at the begin of our century.



The Land Reclamation and The Modern age:

The new history of Bibione certainly can be territory from the sea to the mainland and to the village San Michele al Tagliamento at the beginning of the 20th century.

As already has been mentioned the soil of this territory had been covered until recently by the lagoon, swamps and extended woods.

Nowadays there are left two pine-woods at the mouth of the Tagliamento. The real reclamation started in 1904 when some voluntaries wanted to free the territory from the malarias and make it productive.

In the following year the “farmers’ syndicate” was founded. Initially it was called “land reclamation of the territories on the right bank of the Tagliamento as far as the canal Lugugnana” and later on due to the foundations of other farmers’ syndicates it was called “ Farmers’ syndicate of land reclamation of San Michele al Tagliamento”.

The farmers’ syndicates began its work with the construction of canals.

They were deepened, the paths were bettered, the dams heightened and the beds of the rivers deepened.

This enormous project divided the territory in seven basins and cultivated a surface of 10.700 ha; 10.300 ha from Cesarolo to the sea have been made fertile and productive.

In order to underline the work completed by the farmers’ syndicate we want to enlist some numbers. There were built 94 km of dams, most of them out of earth or concrete, in order to protect the land from the sea.

In the territory of the syndicate there were built 90 canals with a length of 208.5 km and 5.000 km of ditches for the single basins.

One of the most important works of the farmers’ syndicate San Michele al Tagliamento was the construction of a road-net of 80 km; afterwards 53 km of it were nominated country and communal-roads.

In the reclaimed territories electricity was installed, and four of the wire-lines were installed by the syndicated. In the course or the land reclamation the basin of Bibione, number six, was reclaimed in 1930. at that time out of the beach and the pine-trees grew the beginning of what was to became one of the most beautiful sea-resorts of Italy: Bibione.

Its growth for tourism started in 1950 and made rapid progress.

At the end of world war II° at the beach of Bibione there had been only the ruins of a holiday-camp for children C.C.A. and the buildings “solarium” , a camp directed by the sisters of the “divina volontà” and the villa of Dr. Mecchia without a roof.

Bibione was destined to remain so for some years. Only in 1952 today’s pensione Paron was built. At that time parts of the territory of Bibione were bought by the firms Zerman-Pasotto of Verona, Cesare Branchi of Cremona, the society Bibione Pineda of Padova and by various social and religious relief organisations.

In 1956 numerous pioneers had already invested their savings in the old Bibione , and the first hotel was built in the quarter “monti” : the “Bibione” 1957.

In the following year the receptive structure for tourists was enlarged and the until then unsicure future of Bibione was confirmed, also because the society Bibione Pineda began to plaster the old road that goes from “urtus” to the barracks of the financial guard.

In 1962 Bibione for the first time was enlisted in the general yearbook of the touring club. The official name Bibione had already appeared on the military-map “porto Baseleghe” (p. 55/4th annotation of author) of the military geographical institute of Florence in 1951.

So after centuries for the first time the name “Bibione” reappeared as a significative return to the old placename, the discovery of which was made thanks to prof. Gellio Cassi: “… in order to confirm an old tradition – that is that an old settlement had existed on the lower Tagliamento – the name Bibione that was proposed by Dr. Zelindo Mecchia was accepted after the end of the excavations at “Mutterone dei Frati” in 1932.

They were sure that once there had been the town with this name …”. However, the official confirmation happened in January 1960 in a decret of the President of the Republic, and in the May of the same year Bibione was declared a sea-resort.

Bibione entered in tourism in 1953, when the so-called “Pro-loco” Bibione was founded.

The statute was set up and proposed by the communal secretary of San Michele al Tagliamento, Lorenzo Greco, and the lawyer and Senator Bruno Lepre became its first president.

On the 21st March 1963 the “Pro-loco” (tourist agency) was acknowledged and confirmed by a ministerial decret in order to realize tourism in Bibione. The following history belongs to actuality and one does not have to mention that the development of Bibione is assured.



Dal libro "Bibione" edizioni Savioprint a firma Franco Romani