Chapter 3.2.1

The distinction between the three different production areas of Bardolino wine in the nineteenth century mentioned by Giovanni Battista Perez also corresponds to the administrative subdivision into Districts that was in force at the time. As Fabio Gaggia underlines in his work “I Distretti ovvero i Commissariati distrettuali veronesi nel XIX secolo”, in Lombardy and the Veneto, the District constituted an intermediary circumscribed area – both in terms of size and importance – between the Province and its municipalities (or communes).

Chapter 3.2.2

The first subdivision of the Verona area dates back, however, to the time of Napoleon, when the Department of the Adige split up its territory (to the right of the Adige) into two districts. In 1815 Austria increased the Veronese districts to 12, which in 1818 became 13, adding that of Bardolino, formed with the towns on the lake that had previously been assigned to Caprino and with the addition of Castelnuovo (taken away from Villafranca).

Chapter 3.2.3

From the 1870s onwards, the districts began to be dismantled. A law of 10th February 1889 no longer refers to “distretti”, but rather to “circondari” (“surrounding areas”). However, again in the “Piccola enografia italiana” by Pompeo Trentin, published in 1903, the three wine-producing districts within the Bardolino area - Bardolino, Caprino Veronese and Villafranca – are mentioned.

Formally, the official abolition of the district commissariats in the Provinces of the Veneto took place as late as 1912. The district commissariat seemed however to survive in that certain administrative centres of the old districts (for example, Caprino, Bardolino and Villafranca) maintained the buildings of the “preture mandamentali” (“local magistrate’s courts”), around which the political and electoral wards and military districts became consolidated.