CHAPTER XI

Summary

Course of the P₀.—The Po affords a grand example of the manner in which a great river bears down to the sea the matter poured into it by a multitude of tributaries descending from lofty chains of mountains. The changes gradually effected in the great plain of Northern Italy, since the time of the Roman republic, are very considerable; Extensive lakes and marshes have been gradually filled up, as those near Placentia, Parma, and Cremona, and many have been drained naturally by the deepening of the beds of rivers. Deserted river-courses are not unfrequent, as that of the Serio Morto, which formerly fell into the Adda, in Lombardy; and the Po itself has often deviated from its course. Subsequently to the year 1390, it deserted part of the territory of Cremona, and invaded that of Parma; its old channel being still recognizable, and bearing the name of Po Morto. Bressello is one of the towns of which the site was formerly on the left of the Po, but which is now on the right bank. There is also an old channel of the Po in the territory of Parma, called Po Vecchio, which was abandoned in the twelfth century, when a great number of towns were destroyed. There are records of parish-churches, as those of Vicobellignano, Agojolo, arid Martignana, having been pulled down and afterwards rebuilt at a greater distance from the devouring stream. In the fifteenth century the main branch again resumed its deserted channel, and carried away a great island opposite Casalmaggiore. At the end of the same century it abandoned, a second time, the bed called “Po Vecchio,” carrying away three streets of Casalmaggiore.