How Was Feltre Built

Via Mezzaterra runs the length of the ridge under continuous arcades, with the houses rebuilt in the decades after 1510 to a consistent pattern -- which is why the street reads as one composition.

The frescoed facades follow from that. Painting the plaster was far cheaper than facing a building in carved stone, and after the fire the town had to rebuild quickly and economically. The result was a poor man's ornament that has turned out to be the town's greatest asset.

Piazza Maggiore at the top is the set piece: the Palazzo della Ragione with a portico long attributed to Palladio, the church of San Rocco, a monumental stair, and the fountain by Tullio Lombardo of about 1520.

Above it the Castello di Alboino survives as walls and a tower -- ruined, open, and the best viewpoint over the Valbelluna.