Via Mezzaterra Historical Timeline

Origins

The street follows the ridge line of the hill Feltre is built on, which is why it climbs steadily and why the town's plan is long and narrow rather than radial.

Turning points

The sack of 1510, during the wars of the League of Cambrai, destroyed the town almost completely. Rebuilding began immediately, and Via Mezzaterra was rebuilt as a single sixteenth-century street.

Influential people

The painted facades were the work of local and Venetian painters over the following decades, and were commissioned by the families rebuilding their houses -- decoration and status display in the same gesture.

Cultural evolution

Feltre produced the humanist Vittorino da Feltre, born here in 1378, whose school at Mantua was among the most influential educational experiments of the Renaissance -- one of the town's claims well beyond its size.

Present-day significance

The street is still the town's main pedestrian route, with shops, cafés and homes, and the frescoes are conserved as a coherent group.