Montebelluna

The name is a compound, and the second half is disputed. Monte- is the hill of Mercato Vecchio, at whose foot the town grew; -belluna might come from the cult of the goddess Bellona, or else from the city of Belluno, which in the tenth century had stretched its jurisdiction beyond the Piave thanks to the conquests of its bishop. In the year one thousand the place already appears in a document as capite montis Belluni. On the hill a market was held, and that market was exempt from duties: Venice confirmed the exemption chiefly for political reasons, because the loyalty of the country folk counted for more than that of the urban classes. Running the exempt space paid very well, and the post of administrator was elective and much coveted — so much so that the sources tell how the rich peasants, who were also the local money-lenders, bound dozens of indebted families to themselves until they took over their estates.

In 1872 the market was moved down to the plain, and from that comes the Montebelluna of today, with its great squares and the Loggia dei Grani that holds them together. Since 1990 the town has re-enacted the old labour: on the first Sunday of September the contrade compete by hauling a farm cart loaded with local produce from the town hall up to Mercato Vecchio, two kilometres uphill, the road the merchants had to take to reach the market. In 1885 the only significant non-agricultural activity was seven silk-cocoon mills, employing a hundred and forty women; less than twenty years later, in 1904, the district was already fourth in the province for installed power. From there came all the rest: Montebelluna is the capital of the sportsystem, the district of sports footwear where the brands grew that put ski boots, hiking shoes and football boots on half the planet's feet. The museum of the ski boot is in a Venetian villa, and it tells of a know-how that began with mountain cobblers.