Mount Tavagnone (Tavagnù in the local dialect) is a mountain in the Brescia and Garda Prealps belonging to the Tombea-Manos group and with its Dos di Sas summit, it reaches 1,010 m.a.s.l.
Physical geography Located in the municipal territory of Valvestino, it is part of the Alto Garda Bresciano Regional Park. The place was until the 1970s, before the abandonment of mountain farming by the last farmers of Turano, Magasa and Bollone, an area of mountain pasture and fodder cultivation, dedicated to cheese production, and can be considered the most secluded of the Val Vestino. The mountain is characterized by vast wooded areas and some grasslands with rural funds used in the past for fodder cultivation and cattle breeding. In addition to the Dos di Sas there are in the vicinity three other higher elevations, but two are unnamed and not shown on any map, from south to north: the first is Mount Gàs,Gas, gaz, gazzo, gac or gaccio is a toponym of Lombard origin and derives from the word "gahagi" or "gahadium," the sacred, fenced forest reserved for the Arimanni, the warriors and freemen of the Lombard hierarchy. In the Middle Ages the term denoted a public forest or land, that is, belonging to the community, in this case of Turano, where the cutting and removal of wood, even dry wood, or the grazing of livestock without the necessary authorization was prohibited. 1,128 m high, the second 1,143 m high, and the third 1,067 m high, which corresponds to the head of the Sas valley, and is known as Passo della Fobbiola.
At 980 m a.s.l., near Dos di Sas, on the watershed, is the Bocca della Véna pass,It is a very common toponym in Italy either as a hydronym, and it derived from the Latin word "vena" meaning conduit, artery, it is related to bodies of water, springs, fountains, streams, or as an oronym, being derived from dialectal parlance concerning the morphology of the terrain or relief that stands for a rock face or cliff. In this case, it indicates a passage in a rocky and precipitous place located towards the Val Cava. which connects the Droanello valley with the Bollone mill and Fucina in the Toscolano stream valley by a path. Along the path connecting the mountain with the Apene locality of Mount Camiolo, near the head of the Sas Valley, is the well-known Fobbiola Pass. The origin of the place name seems to derive, for some, from the Latin word "fovea," meaning a pit or depression; for others, it is Lombard and indicates the narrow, mid-altitude alpine passes. A few kilometers to the southwest, near Mount Spino, in the municipality of Toscolano Maderno, there is another pass with a similar name located at 961 m a.s.l.Vito Zeni, "La Valle di Vestino, appunti di storia locale", Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana, 1993, p. 17. while to the west is the Cavallino della Fobia in the municipality of Treviso Bresciano, to the north, in the municipality of Tremosine, the Malga Fobia is found instead, and to the east, in the municipality of Tignale, the Passo di Fobia at 907 m a.s.l.
In the whole mountainous area there is the presence of only two aquifers with a limited flow rate at the springs called Fontane or Acqua della Véna and Acqua del Pì, so in the past each cottage was used for food or livestock watering from cisterns or, mostly, rainwater ponds. In 2011, ERSAF Lombardy, with the project to safeguard these ancient ponds and the biodiversity of species in the Alto Garda Bresciano Regional Park, restored the one located in the Corsetti agricultural estate known as Prandini. Supporting the past agricultural economy are the ruins of kilns devoted to the production of lime, roofing tiles and numerous charcoal piles, locally called "giài," where charcoal traded on the Lake Garda was produced mainly to feed the furnaces of the Toscolano Maderno paper mills and the metallurgical industry.
The geology of Dos di Sas The section of the ancient trail that runs from Nangù Bridge along the side of the mountain is very steep, and the rock that forms the "skeleton" of the mountain, uncovered by soil and vegetation, surfaces here and there, pockmarked by the passage of the mule track. The rock shows a grayish coloration, as if dirty, as its surface is altered by frost, rain and sun and often "stained" by colonies of tiny lichens. Underneath this "crust" it shows a lighter hue, which confirms its belonging to the calcareous rocks, that is, composed mainly of the salt "calcium carbonate". More precisely. these rocks belong to the group of so-called "gray limestones" and have the age of about 190 million years. They were formed on the fjord of a very ancient sea as a result of the gradual deposition of mineral particles carried into the sea by watercourses. This process lasted millions of years and underwent frequent interruptions and variations, which today are evidenced by the layered structure of the rock, that is, the presence of overlapping layers. After the petrification of the sediment deposit, the rock was pushed upward by the immense forces that created the Alps (including Dos di Sas), so the layers have partly lost their original horizontal arrangement.
Origin of the name The origin of the word is completely unknown and could derive from an anthroponym, that is, from the name or nickname or an augmentative of the ancient owner of the mountain. To corroborate this hypothesis in the municipality of Magasa, at Cima Rest, there is a site with the same toponym, in fact, it seems that this draws its origin from a certain Gottardo Gottardi, known as Tavagnone or Tavagnù who in 1633 arranged in his will that, at his death, the proceeds from the rent of his two barns at Cima Rest and at Monte Denai should be spent in plenty of salt to be distributed to the population of Magasa.
The name of Mount Tavagnone first appears in a parchment dated October 31, 1511 when representatives of the Vestino Valley communities proceeded to the land partition, under the auspices of Count Bartolomeo Lodron, of Mount Camiolo and other mountainous areas, including Mount Tavagnone, which was assigned to the community of Turano.Gianpaolo Zeni, Al servizio dei Lodron, Comune e Biblioteca di Magasa, Bagnolo Mella 2007.Mario Trebeschi, I conti di Lodrone e la divisione di monti e pascoli in Valvestino, in Memorie dell'Ateneo di Salò, vol. VI, anno 1994, pp.85-121.
In the "Atlas Tyrolensis" by cartographer Peter Anich, printed in Vienna in 1774, which is the first detailed map of the County of Tyrol, it is referred to as Tavagnon. The summit of the mountain is called Dos di Sas, rock or stone hump, translated from the local dialect, and in fact it looks like a hump, with a sharp boulder on the summit and rocky on the slope located to the south.
History In the past centuries especially between 1426 and 1796, given its strategic position on the edge of the state border between the Republic of Venice and the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, the area of Mount Camiolo and Mount Tavagnone aroused in the Venetian superintendents of Salò a nagging concern about any possible enemy movement that through the passes or paths from the Vestino Valley could threaten the Salò Riviera. Thus the name of the mountain is mentioned in the report that superintendent Melchior Zane, dated June 3, 1621, secretly sent to the Council of Pregadi where he stated: "[...] The second pass that enters the municipality of Gargnano is that of Cocca di Pavolon with two roads. One comes from Cadria, a place of the Vestino Valley, passing through the mountain of Risech of the commune of Tignale, with horses and pedestrians, and the other from Camiolo, a place of the said Valley, goes up the mountain of Pinedo of the commune of Gargnano and goes into the river of Droane, coming even from the Cocca di Pavolon." The mount, between the late 1500s and the first decades of the 1600s, lent itself as a place of refuge and transit for bandits linked to the gang of Giovanni Beatrice known as Zanzanù and Eliseo Baruffaldi of Turano, who frequented a den at Martelletto di Droane, now called Cùel Zanzanù, and enjoyed favor among the peasants of Mount Camiolo, and in fact the path of the Martelletto and the Fobbiola Pass allowed a fast and elusive connection between the Droanello valley floor and the mountain funds, thus escaping possible control by local militias.
The geographic location of Mount Pinedo has raised some doubts in the past, in fact the Mount has been reported only in the "Atlas Tyrolensis" map of 1774 by Peter Anich south of the mouth of the Droanello valley and the stream itself, and in essence it would consist of the vast wooded slope, enclosed between Mount Prà-Lignago and Bocchetta della Cocca, which slopes into the Droanello stream belonging to the hamlet of Costa in the municipality of Gargnano. On the contrary, according to Mario Trebeschi's well-known research of the 1511 parchment, Mount Pinedo would instead correspond to Mount Tavagnone or its wooded appurtenances; in fact, in support of this thesis, Superintendent Zane's report mentions verbatim that the mule road from Mount Camiolo rises to Mount Pinedo and then descends into the Droanello stream and not as claimed by cartographer Peter Anich, who reports it south of the stream itself.
The toponym Pinedo finds its origin from the Latin "pinetum," meaning pine forest, and can be found in Spain, in Valencia, in Veneto with the locality of the same name in Ampezzo in Cadore, in Claut in Friuli, or in Trentino with Pinè, called in 1253 Pinedo, and would thus indicate a forest, normally of Scotch pine, where plant resination and extraction of black pitch was practiced.
It has been repeatedly affected by forest fires on its southeastern slope, which have impaired its wild pine forestation, most recently on June 28 and 29, 2021 on the Dos di Sas slope.
1511: the great division of pastures and forests of the Camiolo, Tombea, Dos di Sas mountains and the coast of Ve