Ancient Hunting on Lake Garda evokes a dramatic chapter in the cultural and environmental history of the Benaco, from the untamed expanses of the ancient Lugana forest to the rugged crests of the Morainic Hills.
While contemporary debates in the Italian Parliament centre around modern wildlife management, conservation limits, and habitat restoration, the ancient practice of hunting across the Garda basin was once a fierce, theatrical test of martial prowess. In his classic 19th-century chronicle Benaco, Giuseppe Solitro documented how barbarian migrations following the fall of Rome fundamentally altered the relationship between local inhabitants and the surrounding wilderness, transforming hunting into rigorous training for warfare.
Solitro describes the spectacle with vivid immediacy: kings, emperors, courtiers, abbesses, and bishops, resplendent in martial garments, entered the dense labyrinth of the woods on spirited chargers. Preceded by dog handlers, falconers with hooded raptors, and beaters sounding brass horns, personal rivalries and political animosities were momentarily forgotten in pursuit of the chase.
The Benaco emerged as a premier hunting theatre. In a celebrated imperial diploma dated October 6, 879, Charlemagne’s Carolingian successors granted expansive territories south of the lake to the Monks of San Zeno in Verona, conceding perpetual rights to hunt wild boar, stag, and roe deer without interference. At the time, the primeval Selva Lugana spread uninterrupted between Desenzano and Peschiera, teeming with deer, wolves, and bears.
According to 16th-century historian Gratarolo, big game hunting remained widespread until the great plague of 1630 decimated the populace, leaving farmsteads overgrown and allowing wild beasts to reclaim abandoned vineyards. As agricultural reclamation and deforestation subsequently accelerated in the 18th and 19th centuries, the grand forests receded, bringing an end to the heroic medieval hunts of the Benaco.
Curated by Osvaldo Pippa for GN Magazine.
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