Frazione
:: CASAMAZZAGNO ::
COMUNE DI COMELICO SUPERIORE
BELLUNO
:: Dolomiti ::
Casamazzagno 3965 ft :: Population
Approx: 2500. Snow covered 8 months of the year ::
It is approximately 30 kilometers south of the Austrian border
and one of several villages
which make up the area known as Comelico Superiore. There is a
ski lift in the valley and
in winter Comelico is crowded with skiing locals and tourists.The
Comune is very wealthy.
It owns and manages over 1000 Acres of natural pine forests extenting
west from the town.
Some families own small blocks of forest in their own right: My
Zio Nino Tavan was one.
It controls the felling of tinber on the principles of selective
logging and sustainable forestry.
The comune provides free to all registered born, the necessary
lumber for building a family
home, and distributes free precut fire wood to all families for
the winter. During high summer
the comune provides a generous subsidy to the Anziani/elderly
to chaperon and bus them
down to a Rimini beach resort for a week including accommodation
and meals. It also provides
trained nursing staff to visit those elderly who are unable to
care for them selves, and in rare
cases of need, arranges free hot midday meals. Beautiful clear
clean fresh water flows freely
down several very small mountain streams thru the village, and
thru spring and summer the
fields are alive with wild flowers. With luck one can return from
a days walk in the Mountains
with a basket of fungi, a popular and favorite pastime of tourists
in the summer, which must be
presented before a specially trained official to select and pass
those mushrooms which are
edible and to destroy those that are deamed poisonous. One of
the main occupation for the
inhabitants in the region is in the industry engaged in the manufacturing
of Eye Glass Frames, a
multi million dollar industry. There are at least 40 major factories
and many smaller, employing
several thousand in the area from Casamazzagno in the north, to
Pieve di Cadore in the south.
It is indead a paradise: I am registered born in Casamazzagno,
and yes I have considered retiring there - but .......................
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:: COMUNE DI ANDREIS ::
PORDENONE
:: A Dying Village :: 
The Village of Andreis recently
celebrated the "Festival of the Millenium 996-1996".
Its origins
began around 450 AD as a Roman town called Caellina, the derivation
of which gave its name to
the river Cellina that is an integral part of the environs of
Andreis. Around 500 AD, a unique group
of Celtic herdsmen, escaping the consequences of the fall of the
Roman Empire, took refuge in the
valley and the settlement then became known as Andrea, and later
derivated to Andreis. Certainly
in antique times there existed many tribes in the valley. As for
Andreis it is noted from Statistical
data from the archives of Demographic Evolution, that in 1652
with the comming of the first Parroco
( Parish Priest ) it was recorded that there were "50 Fuochi"
( Fires - Refering to fireplaces) and this
translated into a population of approximately 300 inhabitants.
In 1864, in th mountains of Andreis, a
stronghold of Garibaldini soldiers engaged in and repelled an
attack from an Austrian battalion, the
resulting rout brought some fame to the Valley and it was about
this time that the Austrian dominance
of the north began to wane. The Population peaked in 1911 at 1795,and
from there it began to decline
until the present time 1998, the population is only 450. The village
is slowly dying . Mostly occupied
by retirees, many who had earlier left to find work in the big
cities and now returned to retire in peace
and tranquility on the pension. As in Casamazzagno it is snowed
in for half the year being only about
100 kilometers south of the Dolomites. Here also fresh clean mountain
water flows close by the town,
sourced from the snow permanentlly bound in the mountains behind
the village. The valley at one time
cleared for grazing, is now now fully forested again and continues
to provide the necessary winter fuel.
Sebastiano Tavan, one of my ancestors was elected Mayor in 1765,
another, Simon Tavan in 1766-67
and 1780-1782, and Gio Batta Tavan 1771. A new hydroelectric dam
is currently under construction
just out of town on the Cellina river and provides work for a
few Andreisians, sadly when completed
it will probably see more forced to seek work elsewhere, a resultant
further decline in the Population ::
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