The Roman Centuriation

This project involved the agricultural subdivision of the territory and then entrusting the plots thus obtained to veteran soldiers of the army.

Through simple but precise measurement systems, the gromatics (i.e. land surveyors) measured the land by creating a grid with a side of 710 metres; the squares thus defined were called centuries. The parallel and perpendicular lines that delimited the centuries were called cardini (kardines) with a north-south trend, and decumani (decumani) with an east-west trend. These lines could be concretely represented by roads or ditches, thus constituting a real road network of the territory, and at the same time an exceptional system of land reclamation and rainwater drainage.

In this system of measurement, the Cardine Maximus and the Decumanus Maximus were traced first, perpendicular to each other, and from which the tracing of all the others began, which were numbered based on their position relative to the first two.

Thanks to centuriation and the ensuing colonization, this previously almost uninhabited territory saw great demographic growth and the development of agriculture and livestock farming, as well as related artisan activities.

In the centuries that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, these territories experienced demographic decline due to invasions, epidemics, natural events, and not all of the Roman design of the territory withstood the events. In some areas the woods took over the cultivated fields and the lack of maintenance of the canalization meant that some areas stopped being cultivated and became humid and marshy areas.

Starting from the 12th century, the territory began to be populated again and roads and canalizations were recovered for the interest of the Church and landowners and for the benefit of commerce and agriculture, but it was with the advent of the Venetians in 1400 that land reclamation and agriculture they once again became primary for this territory.

From the Roman age until today, the original design of the Roman land surveyors, although suffering some losses and with modifications due to the development of society and human activities, has remained largely unscathed by change, and still constitutes the characteristic feature of the area North East of Padua. Today it occupies approximately 190 square kilometers and extends between the three provinces of Padua, Venice and Treviso.

With its parallel and perpendicular streets and ditches, the hedges and rows of trees still remaining to delimit the fields, which often still appear like the ancient centuries, the Graticolato constitutes a unique landscape, which Legislative Decree 42/2004 protects in its historical land structure.