Portobuffolè

Portobuffolé is the smallest comune in the province of Treviso, both by population and by area, and its old centre is still enclosed within walls, like Asolo or Castelfranco. It stands ten metres above sea level, on both banks of the Livenza, on the Friuli border. The oldest settlement is the hamlet of Settimo — Septimum de Liquentia, from the seven miles that separated it from Oderzo — and a lease of 997 between the bishop of Ceneda and doge Pietro II Orseolo already mentions a castle and a river port there. The name of the main village appears in 1242 as portus Bufoledo, and for Dante Olivieri it comes from the Latin bufalus: the place of the buffaloes.

On 2 October 1307 the castle was assigned to Tolberto da Camino, husband of the Gaia whom Dante names in the Purgatorio; the house attributed to her now holds the cycling museum. But the decisive move was made by another woman: in 1336 Samaritana Malatesta, Tolberto's second wife, threatened by her husband's relatives, took back control of the castle with Venetian support — and from there to 4 April 1339, when Portobuffolé was declared part of the Republic, was a short step. Its best years began then, with a podesteria and three councils. The cathedral, tradition says, was made out of an old synagogue, reconsecrated according to some sources in 1559.