Riese, officially Riese Pio X, is a municipality in northeast Italy located in the province of Treviso in the Region of Veneto. The community's name, much like that of Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII, commemorates its most famous son, Giuseppe Melchiore Sarto, who later became Pope Pius X.

Physical geography

The municipality is located halfway between Castelfranco Veneto and Asolo in the upper part of the Venetian plain. Dominated by the Monte Grappa massif. The territory, entirely flat, is morphologically divided into two parts: the one to the east is made up of reddish, basically arid soil, the one to the west is instead characterized by the overlapping of alluvial deposits of the Muson stream.

Origin of the name

The specification "Pio X" was added to the official name of the municipality in 1952, in honor of Pope Saint Pius.

Contemporary history

After the end of the Serenissima, Riese went through the convulsive period that alternated between French and Austrian administration and vice versa, before becoming definitively Austrian with the birth of the Lombardy-Venetian kingdom. Like the rest of Veneto, it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. These events did not influence the economic conditions of the territory, which remained poor and rural. In the same 19th century, the two most illustrious personalities of the country stood out: Jacopo Monico (1778 - 1851), patriarch of Venice from 1827 to his death, and above all Giuseppe Sarto (1835 - 1914), who became pope with the name of Pius. In 1917, after the defeat of Caporetto, Riese found itself close to the front, located on Mount Grappa and along the Piave, and trenches were dug along the Musone and north of the municipal capital. In the Second World War, the partisan resistance was very active in the area, represented by the "Martiri del Grappa" brigade commanded by Primo Visentin of Poggiana, known by the battle name of "Masaccio" and awarded the gold medal for military valor. Piero Monico, Venetian great-grandson of the Patriarch of Venice and political leader of the Veneto CLN, also resided incognito in the Riese area. Sentenced to death by Mussolini, he lived in hiding between Riese and Castello di Godego, coordinating the local resistance. In 1944, on the occasion of the exhumation of the incorrupt body of Pope Pius, the municipality of Riese welcomed the empty sarcophagus of the Supreme Pontiff to be permanently kept in the parish church of San Matteo.

Monuments and places of interest

Society

Demographic evolution

Foreign Ethnicities and Minorities

As of December 31, 2022, there were 1083 foreigners residing in the municipality, or 9.9% of the population. The following are the most consistent groups:

Culture

Fairs and events

Administration

Sister cities

Mayors

Sport