Vicariate of Valpolicella information

Vicariate of Valpolicella Vicariato della Valpolicella
1405–1806
Coat of arms of the Vicariate of Valpolicella as depicted on the title page of Privilegia et iura Communitatis et Hominum Vallis Pulicellae, a 16th-century essay written by Giangiacomo Pigari.
Location of the Vicariate of Valpolicella (in green) in today's Veneto.
Capital	San Pietro in Cariano
Population
• 1630	11,769
History
• Devotion of Verona to Venice	1405
• Established	1405
• Disestablished	1806
• Peace of Pressburg	1806
Political subdivisions	Piovadeghi

The Vicariate of Valpolicella was an administrative entity created under the Venetian Republic following Verona's devotion to Venice in 1405, encompassing the Valpolicella territories that already constituted the County of Valpolicella established in the previous century by the Scaligers.

Throughout its existence, the Vicariate was able to enjoy an advantageous tax system, administrative autonomy, and certain privileges, such as being able to elect its own vicar. These concessions were made both because of the wealth of the territory and because of the need to be able to count on its loyalty being a border land. During the four centuries of the entity's existence, the territory was able to prosper, as evidenced by the many Venetian villas that were built there, and it was only marginally affected by the events of war that took place in neighboring territories. Even the underprivileged classes enjoyed relative affluence, when compared to the average of the time, but there was no shortage of epidemics and cases of malnutrition. Population growth was more or less constant, excluding the years when the region was affected by exceptional plague epidemics, such as the one in 1630 that caused the death of two-thirds of the inhabitants.

At the head of the vicariate was a vicar elected annually from among the patrician citizens of Verona, who took office on the first day of February, after a procession starting from Porta San Giorgio in Verona. He was assisted in his office by, among others, two notaries, an auditor, and four officers. The government was governed by the Council of Eighteen, this one elected for three years. Initially the Vicariate did not have a clearly defined seat, but from 1452 onward it is certain that it was established in the Domus Valli Pulicelle in San Pietro in Cariano.

With the final fall of the Venetian Republic and the subsequent Peace of Pressburg, on May 1, 1806, Veneto returned under the rule of the French, who abrogated the vicariates, including the Valpolicella one. Along with it disappeared the autonomies and privileges the territory had enjoyed for over four centuries.