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THE ORIGINS OF THE NAME “GARDA LAKE”
Garda Lake is also called Benàco or Bènaco. This name comes from the latin Benacus, even if the word Benacus comes almost certainly from Celtic origins, “Benacus” means “from the many headlands” and points out the geographical position of the lake, surrounded by mountains and hills.
The name “Garda Lake” has medieval origins and it probably has Germanic origins seeing that in this land the Germans dominated from VI to VIII century. The Germanic conquerors, maybe Lombard, considered it as the perfect checkpoint to watch the surrounding territories. The name “Garda” probably comes from the word "Warda", that means guard. |
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GARDA LAKE FORMATION
The Garda Lake origins are always controversial. The Garda Lake basin, born about 35 million years ago, is a tectonic depression formed by the retreat of the earth's crust that generated the deep lake bed and the contemporary rising up of the mountains all around it. Subsequently it is sure that Garda Lake was submerged by the Mediterranean Sea: that’s the reason why we founded so many specimens of sea fauna.
After that period of terrestrial changing there were the glaciations and the glaciers replaced all the valleys where today we find the Italian subalpine lakes. Cause to very low temperature, seawaters receded.
There were other four glaciations that have shaped the present-day morainic amphitheater at the foot of Garda Lake. The erosion of glaciers was fundamental for the birth of our lake. Geological surveys estimate that during the last glaciation, between 75000 and 18000 years ago, the glacier was about 300 meters sea-level nearby Sirmione basin, 400 meters at Punta San Vigilio (Garda) and 1000 meters nearby Malcesine. The bed of the Mincio river was probably born to collect the water released by the melting of glacial ice. |
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TERME DI SIRMIONE
The 24th August 1889 a Venetian diver first-named Procopio plunges into Garda Lake at a depth of twenty meters. Near the Catullo’s Caves he reaches the spring of warm water Boiola (69°C) and after many attempts he is able to pound a long channel into the rocky layer allowing the flowing of a warm sulphureous wash. The water of Terme di Sirmione has meteoric origin and before coming out from Boiola fount, it follows a long course of about 20 years. The water comes from the Baldo Mountain basin at an altitude of more than 800 meters, it falls to 2100 meters under sea-level where it enriches of minerals and it increases the temperatures until 69°C and at the end it reaches the Boiola spring. In 1900 inaugurates the first thermal center and from that moment Sirmione becomes one of the most important touristic and thermal site. |
