Segonzano & Segonzac

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The name Segonzano, the town on the left side of the valley, famous for its castle and for the battle that occurred in its vicinity more than two centuries ago, derives from the Latin *Secundianum, that is the estate of Secundius (of the gens Secundia), with the classical Latin suffix -ānum of the praedial toponyms, i.e. related to a prædium (a landed property.)
(see Toponomastica trentina page 282, Storia di Cembra page 320, Segonzano e Sevignano page 67 and Nomi d'Italia page 605)

Dr. Lino Calliari (in Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche # 2, 1981, page 195) advances a hypothesis according which Sogonzano could have been found by Romanized Gallic people coming from the French area of the Gironde: in that territory there are several towns called Segonzac (from *Secundiacum, with the typical suffix -ācum of the Celtic praedials.)

As a matter of fact the municipality of Segonzano, probably because of the assonance of the name, is twinned with the little French town of Segonzac, in the Poitou-Charentes department, by the much more famous Cognac; the friendship between the two towns is periodically reaffirmed by cultural exchanges and mutual visits.
On August 15th of year 2005 it was celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the twinning (which dates back to April 26th, 1985): a delegation of the French town has come to see the Cembran friends. They prepared to welcome them: for instance a basic course of French was organized for the citizens of Segonzano.
On the occasion a stela has been placed on the outside of the town hall. A selection of the most significant pictures of the twenty years of friendship have been collected into a book: Segonzano-Segonzac 1985-2005: vent'anni di scambi, edited by Giovanna Focolari and Luisa Mattevi, coordinated by Mr. Giuseppe Calliari.

On the other hand the name of the hamlet of Sevignano, which derives from the praedial *Sebinianum, from Sabinius or Sævinus (see Toponomastica trentina page 285 and Storia di Cembra page 320) 1 , should share the etymology with several Savignac, Sévigny, Savigny and Sévigné, in France (see Toponomastica Italiana page 321 and Linguistica Romanza page 32).

The town of Segonzano is also twinned with Durach, in the German region of the Allgäu (in this case the assonance between Durach and Segonzac is purely coincidental.)

The church of the Holy Trinity, in Stedro
di Segonzano, seen from the pyramids
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© 2006, Fabio Vassallo