Baveno, incoming and kindness

"If a man is kind with a foreigner, he demonstrates of being a citizen of the world, and his heart is not an island, detached from others, but a continent that joins hem ".

This well known phrase by Bacone Francisco, sums up the spirit of the people who live in Baveno, beautiful town situated in one of the most evocative shores of Lake Maggiore. The welcoming ness and kindness of its inhabitants makes it a serene and unforgettable stay. The different initiatives are mainly cultural and folkloristic are one of the great attractions of Baveno, always ready to offer the maximum level of entertainment.

History

Historical signs can be traced back in the archaeological findings from the prehistorical age and relate exclusively the area of Feriolo. The absence of these types of findings in Baveno, could be because of the level of the lake, which was 14 meters higher than it is today. In those years the excavations of copper metal along the mountains above the village where very frequent. In the following ages the territory was inhabited by the Leponzi, a population formed, following recent studies, from not the Indo-European but from the Liguria, on which an Indo-European stock of Celtic influence during the Iron Age. The arrival of the Roman culture in these areas is relatively late (I st century B.C.), however numerous the archaeological findings, among which, the tomb stones Roman and slabs recovered on the facade of the Parochial Church and the remains of the tombs in 1844 and 1868. A military occupation from the Romans in these areas is excluded, while it is believed that the exchanges of goods was the main trade. With the spread of the Christianity the areas of the Verbano becomes important for to the strategic defence of the plain from the Alemannic invasions and subsequently the French. By the name of the church of Baveno, known as Gervasio and Protasio, it can be asserted that the Christianisation in this area happened around IV the century, with a strong tie with the Ambrosian influence, which spread in the religious centres. There have been findings in document of the X sec, that claim that the Church was one of the main ones in the ancient times on Lake Maggiore. Main town of the Vergante area before that, the centre at the beginning of XIII the century was then changed to Lesa. Following the changes in the property of the land by the lad owners, passing from Conti di Stazzano to those of Castle and then to the Visconti, which in 1441 assigned it to the Borromeo. In the first decades of the seven hundreds, under the Austrian domination, Baveno profited of a period of economic prosperity, with the lake commerce of wine, firewood and coal with the Lombardy neighbour. But, as a result of the treaty of Worms, the territory was given to the Savoia and that marked a period of economic regression. A particular development for Baveno occurred in the first part of the ‘800s, when Napoleon constructed the important Simplon Road and the navigation with steam boats begun. Since those times, many villas rose on this territory, some of which become hotels and then gradually developing a foreign tourism, mainly by the English. Among the historical villas of Baveno we can recall the Neo-Gothic Villa Henfrey (now Villa Branca) that it where Queen Victoria (of England) stayed and Fedora Villa where the composer Umberto Giordano stayed.