Via Mezzaterra Site Features

The street is narrow and arcaded in stretches, climbing steadily from the lower gate to the square, with the buildings pressing close on both sides.

The houses are of the sixteenth-century rebuilding: three and four storeys, plastered, with regular windows and, on many, a full scheme of exterior fresco -- mythological scenes, architectural illusion, coats of arms and grotesque ornament.

This was normal in the Veneto in the sixteenth century, including in Venice itself, where the Fondaco dei Tedeschi was frescoed by Giorgione and Titian. Almost all of it has since weathered away. Feltre's survival rate is the point: the street gives an idea of what a painted Renaissance townscape actually looked like.

The Porta Imperiale closes the lower end and Piazza Maggiore the upper.

The frescoed houses

Sixteenth-century exterior painting surviving in numbers, which is very rare. The reason to walk the street slowly.

The climb

The street rises the length of the ridge from gate to square, so the town unfolds as you go.

The arcades

Sheltered stretches with shops, and where the town's ordinary life happens.

Porta Imperiale

The gate closing the lower end, and the natural starting point for the walk up.