Spera

The history of the Valsugana in the early Middle Ages is interspersed with a series of invasions, with different populations
passing through or settling in the area: with the Erulians under Odoacre (476-493), the Ostrogoths under Theodoric (493-526), the Byzantines and, lastly, the Lombards under Alboino from 568 on. These invasions were followed by a period of rule under the Franks, beginning in 774. After a century of relative peacefulness, the invasions and insurrections resumed. These continued throughout the Middle Ages, at least up until 1413, when the entire Trentino Valsugana passed first into Tyrolean and then Austro-Hungarian jurisdiction, under which rule it remained until the end of the First World War. Ecclesiastically, the valley remained a part of the Feltre Diocese until 1786. The Roman Municipium of Feltre, which extended as far as the city boundaries of Trento, probably controlled its territory with the Via Claudia or a similar major road. According to the itinerarium Antonini, a register of the stations and distances between the towns on the many roads of the Roman Empire produced in the first centuries after Christ, the city of Venice was linked to Tridentum by the Ausugum. Tradition has it that one of these roads passed by the town of Spera as it lead down from the Tesino area through Strigno. According to local beliefs, the section of road circling the Penile hill and entering the town is also of Roman origin - and while this is possible, there is no certain evidence. This road may have been an access route to a fortification (maybe originally a Rhaetian castellar and then a Roman outpost?) built on the ‘levelled hill that appears to have once been surrounded by a wall of large blocks: it dominates the road leading from Forcella Tesino to Bieno excellently, as well as Castello d’Ivano and the valley floor with the Brenta river’. This was a particularly ideal site for controlling the valley. The old church of Santa Apollonia in Spera is of Mediaeval origin. The church dates to at least as early as the 14th Century, as demonstrated by the magnificent frescoes from that era by a provincial painter, with influences from the Paduan school of the time. The three graceful wooden altars are a later addition.