Prehistory and antiquity

Traces of human occupation dating from the Mesolithic have been found along the north-east edge of the Montello, above the boroughs of Ciano and Santa Margherita, which at the time were on the Piave river. The main finds are chipped stone tools that appear to be fishing spear points.

Ciano takes its name from an ancient Roman temple devoted to the cult of Cyane. The temple's focus was the Buoro di Ciano spring, which presently lies at the end of a 10-metre (33 ft) long grotto, and whose water was reputed to be beneficial to the health.^[4]

Rural beginnings

In the Middle Ages the temple was replaced by a chapel dedicated to Saint Mamertus, patron of harvest.

Up to the 11th century, the area was still a sparsely settled woodland, plagued by lack of water and periodic flooding by the Piave. In the 15th century the Brentella Canal] or Bretella Canal (Brantea in Venetian) was built to draw irrigation water from the Piave. The Bentella, which presently bisects the town in the north–south direction alongside Via Gugliemo Marconi and via Erizzo, was to become a major landmark and economic benesse for Crocetta and its surrounds three centuries later.

After Republic of Venice turned the Montello into an off-limits timber reserve, the displaced hunters and woodsmen who used to live there became a class of landless, homeless and jobless miserables, the bisnenti, who survived on odd jobs and occasionally crimes.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the area was occupied by a few large manorial properties belonging to the Venetian nobility, many small family farms producing wheat, maize, rye and oats, and a few small vineyards on the hill slopes. Some wickerwork was produced at Ciano, and the town had a few smiths and coopers. A sawmill, powered by the Brentella, operated near Via Rimembranza.

In the second half of the 19th century, silk production became popular across northern Italy, and the raising of silkworms became an option for local farmers. The first silk spinning shop, the Filanda Marcato Ancilotto, was established in 1870.

The Canapificio Veneto

In 1882, Andrea Antonini, who owned a hemp rope mill in Venice, joined with fellow businessmen Pacifico Ceresa and Angelo Zorzetto to build the Canapificio Veneto Antonini Ceresa, on the west bank of the Brentella, which opened its doors in May 1883. The Canapificio dominated the town's economy for more than seven decades (1882–1958), and Antonini, its main owner and manager, became one of the most influential personalities in the town's history.

The first workers were recruited among the bisenti, but as the mill grew it attracted workers from the neighboring towns as well. Antonini sponsored the construction of popular housing for those workers along Via Sant'Anna (1890) and Piazza Cadorna (1896), and the establishment of basic services.

The first two electricity generators of the town, driven by the Brentella, were installed in 1883 by the Canapificio.

Antonini first had his own residence built inside the Canapificio, but in 1898 he started the construction of a new house, Villa Antonini, which is now a landmark of Crocetta. His old residence became the worker's ballroom.

Independence from Cornuda

Crocetta - tram station

Throughout the 19th century, Crocetta was only a suburb of the municipality of Cornuda. It only became an independent municipality on July 2, 1902, by detaching the hamlets Ciano and Nogarè. The split was an initiative of Lodovico Boschieri, then mayor of Cornuda, who became the first mayor of Crocetta.

In the years following the split, Crocetta gained a post office, an asylum, a pharmacy, a barber shop, a cooperative drugstore, and an aqueduct. Schools were opened at some of its boroughs. A dormitory for the girls who worked on the silk mill was also built at that time. Antonini himself established a semi-industrial bakery and a spinnery in Crocetta (1904), a brick kiln at Ciano (1905), and a lime kiln at Crocetta (1910). Another electric plant was built upstream at Croce del Gallo, and a third one downstream from the Canapificio (1911).

A worker's union (the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, "Worker's Society for Mutual Help"), was established in 1910. In 1913, workers went on a 20-day worker's strike for better living conditions, which ended with a promise by Antonini to build a professional school.

Between the two wars

Mortar shells outside Ciano Church during World War One.

Crocetta found itself on the front line of World War I. The Montello hill was the stage of the Battle of the Solstice between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops (June 15–23, 1918). Many buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, including the Canapificio and all the town's churches.

In the years after the war, some of the local business gradually resumed their activities, including the Canapificio. In 1920 a merger turned it into the Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale, with Ceresa as one of the directors, while Antonini chose to sell all its holdings. Crocetta's bakery and lime kiln, however, closed their doors.

The town's original name Crocetta Trevigiana was changed in 1928 by the Benito Mussolini government, to honor the soldiers who died fighting for control of the Montello hill during World War I. An orphanage, the Orfanotrofio Pontello, was built in the same year.

Over the following decade, the fascist regime took control of all freetime activities of the country's population through its Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro ("National Leisure Organization"), or OND. At Crocetta, the OND took over the Arts and Crafts school as its local headquarters. In 1935, the regime turned the Anonini Cultural Center into the Casa del Fascio ("House of Fascism").

Crocetta was badly hit by the global economic turmoil between the two World Wars, especially by the downturns of 1922 (the Post-World War I recession), 1927 (the Great Depression), 1933, and 1938. The Canapificio gradually reduced its operations and finally closed its doors in 1938, leaving many people without a job and triggering the bankruptcy of many local business that depended on it.

The Second World War

The first years of World War II affected Crocetta only indirectly, by conscription and shortages. However, after the Allies landed in southern Italy and fascism retreated to the Republic of Salo, Crocetta found itself again in the crossfire. Allied bombing, resistance guerrillas and German reprisals took a heavy toll on the town and its inhabitants.

Foreign ethnicities and minorities

As of December 31, 2021, foreigners residents in the municipality were 649, i.e. 10.7% of the population. The largest groups are shown below:^[8][9]

1. Albania: 141
2. Morocco: 125
3. China: 89
4. Romania: 81
5. Macedonia: 48
6. Brazil: 44
7. Ucraina: 34