The Municipality of Marano di Valpolicella extends across the valley of the same name (the smallest of the valleys making up Valpolicella, situated between those of Negrar to the east and Fumane to the west) and the eastern slope of the Valle dei Progni as far as the Valsorda torrent.
Height above sea level varies from 150 m at the valley bottom, near the boundary with San Pietro in Cariano, to the 788 m of Monte Noroni, one of the first ridges of the Lessinia Hills, which extend to the north in the Municipality of Sant’Anna d’Alfaedo.
The northern part of Marano di Valpolicella is located in the Lessinia Regional Park.
The Marano valley is traversed by the torrent, or ‘progno’ of the same name, which then passes through the Municipality of San Pietro in Cariano and joins the Adige at Nassar.
Contrada Pezza
This contrada is one of the best preserved in the valley, with its rural courtyards accessed by way of grand arched portals. Similarly enchanting is Via Fontane, which closes the contrada on the north side and leads to a monumental fountain with washing troughs. In the past, Pezza was the trading centre of the upper Marano valley: there were three general food stores selling meat, two ovens, three taverns, a blacksmith, two carpenters, a haberdasher… The contrada was inhabited to the extent that it was the location of the primary schools, and the final classes were attended by pupils from the chief town Marano, and from Purano and San Rocco.
Valgatara: chiesa di San Marco
This is one of the many small Romanesque churches hidden away among the fields and courtyards of Valpolicella. We are in the contrada Pozzo. In the middle of a field, occupied until 200 years by the cemetery, the church presents a structure of Romanesque origins (13th century), with its the plain gabled façade and the typical low bell tower.
On the south side, a splendid frescoed Crucifixion, and in a corner of the south wall, a Roman stone slab bearing the inscription IOVI OM. The interior, a single nave with trussed roof, is decorated with frescoes dating to the end of the 14th century. In the north chapel, the fine altarpiece signed by Flemish artist Michel Meeves is 17th century.
