Description

The traveler of today, Tovena comes from the first fleeting encounter, with old world charm, but to those who decide to venture for its narrow streets it is revealed fully.

The main square in fact shows only part of the beauty of the country and in particular the Church, built in the eighteenth century, containing a beautiful wooden baptistery of 1400, several works by Egidio Dall'Oglio and the relics of Saint Ottilia.

The alleys and streets that cross the country offer instead the essence of Tovena: many old stone houses, houses with shrines or votive frescoes depicting the Virgin or saints, devotional capitals and wonderful views of unspoiled nature.

At one time, the main square was the crossroads of trade between the valleys of Belluno and Treviso, today is a meeting point for all those who want to reach the Passo San Boldo through one of its scenic trails rather than riding a mountain biking along the Caldella.

Origin

The Community of Tovena has a long history (it already appears in the diploma issued by Otto I February 2 962, with which the same granted to the Diocese of Ceneda, the curtis Tovene).
The name of Tovena find its remote origin in the particular shape of the land on which stands the small village. Tovena probably derives from “toff” which indicates a harsh terrain and impenetrable. According to some, however, the term could indeed attributable to Trentino “tof”, with the meaning of the furrow erosion, referring to the narrow and rugged gorge that rises up to the step of San Boldo.

The cult of Saint Ottilia between history and myth

The second Sunday of November in Tovena we celebrate the feast of Saint Ottilia, the miracle-working abbess of Hoenbourg. The deep devotion of the native population towards this Santa has ancient origins and is partly explained by the fact that at the Church lies preserved relic of his boss.
Sant'Ottilia, lived in the eighth century, was rejected by his father because blind from birth and locked in the monastery of Balma, where he received his sight when he was baptized. From here became abbess and lived piously making several outstanding works.

Today the body of the saint is preserved in the monastery of Mont Sainte Odile in Strasbourg, and is actually devoid of the head. The vicissitudes to which the head of the saint has come to Tovena are lost
in legend. It is said that it has been brought into the village of Tovena by a pilgrim stranger around the middle of the fourteenth century.

From an unspecified country in the North, he would arrive exhausted in the country after descending the steps of San Boldo would have entrusted to local people the sacred relic, then disappear without a trace. The attempt of the people to carry their heads in church, it was not to be moving as if it were nailed to the ground.
The inhabitants of Tovena succeeded in their aim only after endless prayers and penances and numerous processions. Penances and processions that are renewed every year symbolically when, on the occasion of the celebrations of the Holy, the relic is exposed for adoration.
 

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