Valle di Cadore

The village lies in the flat valley bottom at the foot of the Antelao, facing the Sasso di Mezzodì, and it is of ancient origin: there was a Roman castrum here, and through it ran the road called della Greola, which climbed from Perarolo and went on northwards into the Boite valley forming, from at least the eleventh century, the Antica Strada Regia. According to the topographer Alessio De Bon that stretch was, in Roman times, part of the via Claudia Augusta Altinate. From the ground a good deal has come up: a gravestone of the first century, a coin bearing the image of Drusus, vases, weapons and bronzes that today are in the archaeological museum of the Cadore; and, older still, jug handles with dedications in the Venetic language to a divinity named Loudera. At the places called Villa and Stean, remains of Roman villas with hypocaust and mosaics have surfaced.

In 1508, at Rusecco, the men of the Cadore together with the Venetians defeated the troops of Maximilian I of Austria: it is the battle of Cadore, and the palazzo Costantini Lanza where Bartolomeo d'Alviano, who commanded the Venetians, lodged is still standing. The church of San Martino, instead, has been remade a remarkable number of times: restored in 1473, demolished in 1509, damaged by the earthquake of 1709, rebuilt in 1719 and consecrated in 1739; inside are the canvases of Antonio Lazzarini and an altarpiece by Francesco da Milano. Then, on the night between 20 and 21 November 1869, a fire destroyed the village and left twenty-three families, a hundred and twenty people, without a house. The mayor of San Pietro di Cadore wrote then to all the mayors of the province to ask for help in money, and closed his letter with a sentence worth remembering: that solidarity in misfortune and mutual help are the best arguments to show that the unity of Italy is complete not only politically and geographically, but morally as well.