TABLE 7

KOSTELABA POZZA
KOSTE-COSTO mountain coast
LÀBA mountain pasture pool

Kostelàba_ (a. 1812) the name derives from KOSTE pre-Latin COSTO (widely attested) and from the Cimbrian LABA “pool”. We are on the border between Cogollo and Roana with the Zovo pass (Zuveno a. 983) of the Ancient Costo Road also called locally Joch, Giogo, that is, wider and easier than the overlying Zovetto-Jecchele, small Giogo.
The mountain pasture pools are small artificial basins in beaten earth between 50 and 100 cm deep created in the pastures to conserve rainwater collected by surface flow or through small ditches from the surrounding meadows and roads.
Generally the pools exploit the natural depressions in the ground and have a circular shape. They were made by spreading layers of clay mixed with hand-beaten beech leaves and trampled by cattle. They were often surrounded by limestone slabs, stoanplatte or dry stone walls adapting to the morphology of the terrain.
The Kostelàba pool, created like others on public land along the ancient road from Mosson to Asiago, was used to water the flocks in the “montegare” and “desmontegare” of the mountain pastures, avoiding interference with the neighboring pastures.
The pools are environments of biodiversity ideal for the reproduction of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. Equally characteristic are the insects such as dragonflies, dytiscus, water striders and velids that move quickly suspended on the water. It is important to conserve these precious ‘islands’ of biodiversity, created in a karst terrain, scarce in water. The Kostelaba Pool was restored by volunteers from Montagne e Solidarietà APS in 2024 to preserve its natural environment and historical memory.