The town of Cerea, located not far from Bevilacqua, is famous for the cultivation of rice and for the production and restoration of classic and antique furniture. It is a small inhabited center, where time passes slowly and traditions are handed down from father to son. This graceful reality is located south of the province of Verona, where once marshy lands were the masters, in a unique and wild way, enriched by the customs and customs of its inhabitants.
In this country, moreover, we can find one of the classic examples of the sumptuous eighteenth-century residences, namely Villa Dionisi, symbol of Cerea, which houses important works of the eighteenth century from Verona. Characteristic is the English green lawn with some remains of statues to remember the past.
The city hosts a small nature reserve, characterized by an ancient marshy habitat, called Palude del Brusà, located on the right bank of the Menago river. The Oasi Valle Brusà consists mainly of what remains, and which one tries to protect, of the Menago Valleys, an ancient marshy area that extended within the paleo-riverbed of the Menago river, from the areas of Bovolone to the Valli Grandi Veronesi.
Paleoalveo means a stretch of land occupied by the waters of a course or a body of water no longer connected by the river. Until a few centuries ago, the marshes of Cerea occupied an area of over two thousand hectares, today only a hundred remain. A territory particularly exploited during the various eras, used by man for fishing, hunting, the collection of marsh reed, for sedge, used for stuffing chairs, and for the cultivation of poplars and various vegetables.
The whole oasis is rich in both flora and fauna, with numerous species of mammals living in this habitat, such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and crustaceans, immersed in a typical hygrophilous forest, with an ecosystem that usually extends along the banks of rivers or lakes.
Areas mainly dominated by white and gray willow, from poplar, to mulberry, from elm, to maple. All located within a unique and wild environment, where the municipality of Cerea tries to enhance these protected areas for school groups or for in-depth activities.
The Oasi Valle Brusà is open from March to October, which can also be visited with the accompaniment of expert guides on the second Saturday afternoon of the month and every last Sunday of the month.
