Comelico Superiore

Comelico Superiore is a comune with no town of its own name. It is a scattered comune: the seat is at Candide, and the other settlements are Casamazzagno, Dosoledo and Padola. It is also the northernmost comune of the Veneto, leaning on the Austrian border under the Sesto Dolomites, and it speaks Ladin: Cumelgu d Sora. Candide is old: in 1186 the Caminesi, feudal lords of Cadore, drew up the deed by which they sold Monte Ombrio to the inhabitants, that is the mountain sold to the people who lived beneath it. Casa Gera, also at Candide, was built between 1100 and 1200 and has belonged to the Gera family since 1500.

At Dosoledo stands a palace with a claim written on its face. It was built in 1663 by the Zandonella dall'Aquila, who were so called because they maintained they had had their noble title from the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire himself; today it holds the Algudnei museum, given over to Ladin culture. Padola has another, the Museum of Alpine and Ladin Culture of the Comelico, with more than four thousand records of mountain life. The churches here are late and by known hands: Giuseppe Segusini raised San Luca at Padola between 1862 and 1869 and took over the neoclassical Santi Rocco e Osvaldo at Dosoledo after the architect Colusso; Sant'Antonio Abate at Candide is of the sixteenth century, the work of master Nicolò Roupel, and the neighbouring Santa Maria Assunta is known for its historic organ. The church of the Beata Vergine della Salute was blessed on 21 November 1870, on the very day of her feast.