Venice gave it two titles: in 1291 «first-born daughter of the Serenissima» and in 1511 «favourite daughter of the Most Serene Republic». Motta stands on the Postumia, a few kilometres from Concordia Sagittaria and from Oderzo, and in front of the castle of the Da Camino there grew the Porto della Mota, where the goods the Venetians brought from the East were landed to go on overland towards Europe. In 1412 a bloody battle was fought here between the Hungarians of Sigismund and the Venetians, who put three galleys and many other armed ships on the Livenza, and who won it.
The cathedral of San Nicolò is the result of a building site that lasted a century and a half. The church goes back to 963, as an old inscription found inside it in the sixteenth century says — proof that an inhabited nucleus existed already before the year one thousand, and before the castle of the Da Camino. The bell tower, ordered in 1497 and finished in 1501, began to give way two years later; then the earthquake of March 1511 finally compromised the walls, and in 1516 it was decided to rebuild them in living stone. Those who worked on it were the Venetian stonecutters Buora, sons of that Giovanni who had worked with Mauro Codussi; cardinal Girolamo Aleandro, born here, obtained from pope Paul III two hundred and eighty-one ducats for the work; and the consecration came only on 25 June 1672.
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📅 Every year, on 6 December; around 24 June a well-known soapy football tournament is held
Motta di Livenza celebrates Saint Nicholas on 6 December, in the cathedral dedicated to him. Around Saint John's feast, on 24 June, a very well-attended town fair is held, hosting one of Italy's most famous soapy football, or splashball, tournaments.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Motta di Livenza, but an easy day trip away.
