Rivers of Mestre


(Text written by the Author mentioned beneath only for the site mes3.altervista.org, all rights reserved, forbidden reproduction with every mean and most of all in other web-sites)

Marzenego-Osellino
The Marzenego river gushes out from a resurgence in the locality of Fratta of Resana, it flows through Noale, reaches Mestre and here licks up the Rio Cimetto and apparently forks into the Branch of Muneghe and the Branch of Campana or of Saint Laurence (that in fact is a proxecution of Rio Cimetto). The two branches join again, under the bridge of Colombo Street, in the canal excavated in 1502 and named Osellino, that takes the waters of Marzenego to flow into the lagoon near Tessera. The Marzenego in the most ancient documents is also mentioned as Mestre or Flumen de Mestre, evidencing how much its history is closely linked to history of our city.
Musone
In ancient times named Bottenigo, the Musone is the only river of source and non of resurgence between Piave and Brenta. It rises in Castelcucco and in Monfumo, on the hills at north of Asolo. Then the two branches unite, get water from the Erega, the Lastego, the Viazza and of several other tributaries. Very rich in water, in the past the Musone, that flowed into the lagoon, often caused violent floods. Therefore its course was modified in 1612: the branch of Musone dei Sassi was put into Brenta opposite Vigodarzere, while the branch of Musone Vecchio was put into Brenta opposite Fusina (Mestre south).
Dese
The river Dese rises at Brentella, at north of Resana, then flows through Scorzč, Martellago and Marocco. It flows into the lagoon with two branches, one, the main, in th marsh of Cona and one in the locality of Mortiron.
Zero
At the beginning the Zero, that gushes out near Campigo, was a small river of resurgence tributary of Sile. Around 1530, the waters of Sile, together with the Zero, were diverted into the so called "ditch of Treviso" to take water to the activities of the mills and of the production of wool at Molini and at Folli, respectively in the current zones of Caneve Street and Spalti Street (Mestre center). But after that it was impossible to make the come out water flow back into the Sile and, since 1532, the Zero became definitively an autonomous river.
Sile
In spite of not directly flowing through Mestre, the Sile could be considered a part of the catchment-basin involving our city, as it was in the past an object of some projects for river deflection together with the above mentioned rivers.

The rivers of Mestre were in the past very rich in mills, specially in the zone of Zelarino (Mestre west). There were a good eight mills on the river Zero, nineteen on Marzenego and eighteen on Dese. Nowadays the mills are no more in operation and are mostly without the blades, but the buildings are still visible.

(Text written by the Author mentioned beneath only for the site mes3.altervista.org, all rights reserved, forbidden reproduction with every mean and most of all in other web-sites)


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