ItalianoIT

Keep a little mystery in your trip planning: flip this switch on and Explorer Picture Mode shows a stylized version of every place instead of the real photo, so you can go by the description and reviews first and picture it your own way -- turn it off again any time, or reveal the real photo for just one place at a time from its own page.

Create a free account to pick your own style (Vintage, Oil Painting, Illustration, and more) and have it remembered next time you visit.

World Europe Italy Veneto Belluno Learn

Belluno

Learn about Belluno

A concise introduction to Belluno, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

Changed

Belluno stands on a spur above the meeting of the Piave and the Ardo, with the Dolomites rising directly behind it. It is the provincial capital of the mountains that carry its name, and the main gateway to the Parco Nazionale delle Dolomiti Bellunesi.

The old town is smaller and finer than its reputation as a mountain base suggests: Venetian Gothic palaces, a cathedral with a campanile by Juvarra, and two medieval gates still standing. Piazza dei Martiri opens on one side to a view straight out over the valley.

It is also the town nearest the Vajont, where in 1963 a landslide into the reservoir sent a wave over the dam and killed close to two thousand people downstream -- an event that still shapes how this province talks about its mountains.

Geography

Changed

Belluno sits at about 390 metres on a terrace where the Ardo joins the Piave, with the Schiara massif rising immediately north and the long Valbelluna running south-west. It is the point where the Piave valley stops being alpine and starts being pre-alpine.

Read the full Geography guide →

History

Changed

Roman Bellunum, then a Lombard duchy and a bishopric, Belluno submitted to Venice in 1404 and stayed Venetian until 1797. Its modern identity is bound up with two things: emigration, which emptied these valleys for a century, and the Vajont disaster of 1963.

Read the full History guide →

Culture

Changed

Belluno's culture is mountain rather than Venetian, despite four centuries of the Republic. Its food, its dialect and its emigration history all belong to the Alps, and its two great artists -- Ricci and Brustolon -- are better known abroad than in Italy.

Read the full Culture guide →

How It Was Built

Changed

Belluno is built of the pale local Dolomite limestone, in a Venetian idiom adapted to a mountain town: arcades for snow as much as sun, and a defensive spur that dictated where everything could go.

Read the full How It Was Built guide →

Climate Patterns

Changed

Belluno has an alpine-influenced climate: cold winters with reliable snow, mild summers well below the heat of the Veneto plain, and high rainfall. The valley floor and the peaks above behave very differently, and the gap catches people out.

Read the full Climate Patterns guide →

← Back to Belluno overview