Caldogno is a town and comune near Vicenza in Italy. It has a population of 11,337 inhabitants. The Villa Caldogno Nordera in its territory is attributed to architect Andrea Palladio. It is the birthplace of the football player Roberto Baggio.

Physical geography

Caldogno rises on a completely flat territory where the Timonchio river flows. Caldogno borders:

Origins of the name

Caldogno

In Roman times, Caldogno was the village located six miles away from the city and placed at the lower decumanus of the Vicentine Agro Centuriato of Thiene. For this reason, unlike other municipalities that have this particular location (such as Sesto San Giovanni in the province of Milan, but also Quarto d'Altino in Venice or Noventa Vicentina in Vicenza), it is strange that the name of the municipality is completely different or not derived from Sesto; many historians have tried to explain the etymology of the name. First of all, the author Mantese considers it derived from "Carturnium": a purely philological analysis, however, would like that while the alternation of dental r > l could be accepted, the resulting alteration of vowels and consonants is rare to encounter in a single word. The researcher Benetti connects it to "Calidarium", assuming that in the territory there were some hot springs or a hot bath establishment. However, there are two criticisms that can be made against this hypothesis, given the lack of evidence about the existence of such a place. The first one is that baths were usually designed to be in a city, not in a small agricultural village. Secondly, Caldogno was probably the seat of springs that fed the Roman aqueduct and therefore it must have been a place provided with fresh water springs rather than hot ones. The researcher Dani states instead that the name comes from the Latin noun "calleu", mangling of "valleus" (vallis), adjective form of calloneus that would mean "valley area". In addition to the fact that Caldogno does not rise in a valley, it should also be considered the high number of modifications that the name would have undergone to get to the current. Pendin, on the other hand, argues that the change of name from Sesto is to be found in some events that occurred after the Roman era. In the history of Caldogno there are two other possible hypotheses, both to be traced back to the Longobard period:

Cresole

Olivieri, a great scholar of the toponymy of the region, assures a Latin origin linked to the name of the ancient owner "Cresius", who first built, in the area overlooking the banks of the Bacchiglione, the huts that constitute the first residential nucleus. Pendin explains how the name could derive from "cretulae", a species of marsh reeds present in the area originally marshy.

Rettorgole

Both Formenton and Olivieri agree that the name of the hamlet derives from "rivus turgulus", “rivo o fiumicello torbido” for the appearance the water had when flowed into the various streams. Already in an act of 1499 the area of Rettorgole is called "villa de Roturgule".

Monuments and places of interest

Religious architecture

Civil architecture

Culture

Education

Schools

In Caldogno there are 4 state schools: a kindergarten (Giovanni Pascoli), two primary schools (San Giovanni Bosco in Caldogno and Carlo Collodi in Rettorgole) and a Secondary school of first degree (Dante Alighieri ).

Libraries

In the capital there is the Civic Library, which is part of the network of libraries in Vicenza "Bibioinrete", along with most of the libraries belonging to the Library Network of Vicenza.

University

In Caldogno there is one of the 22 venues of the University of adults/elders of the territory of Vicenza.

Sport

The main football team is the Calidonense that plays in “Promozione" and is affiliated to the L.R. Vicenza football team, while the other team of the municipality of Caldogno is “Cresole 80” with which there is a great sporting rivalry. It is known as the birthplace of the ex-football player Roberto Baggio.