Cison di Valmarino is a village and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' with 2,613 inhabitants in the

province of Treviso The Province of Treviso ('' it, Provincia di Treviso'') is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso. The province is surrounded by Belluno in the north, Vicenza in the west, Padua in southwest, Venice in the so ...

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

, north-eastern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is a member of the

I Borghi più belli d'Italia I Borghi più belli d'Italia is an association of small Italian towns of historical interest, that was founded in March 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the , with the aim of preserving and maintaining villages of quality herit ...

("The most beautiful villages of Italy") association. The village was the seat of the county of Valmarino (also spelled Val-Marino), formerly encompassing 2 castles and 20 villages and from 1439 belonging to the family of the Brandolinis, the counts of Valmareno.

History

Prehistory

There is evidence that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times from archaeological discoveries in Follina from the Paleolithic Mesolithic eras, to roof tiles and other fragments from the Bronze Age found in Valmareno. During the Roman period the

Via Claudia Augusta The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (encompassing parts of modern Eastern Switzerland, Northern Italy, Western Austria, Southern Germany and all of Liechtenstein) across the A ...

a very important Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (modern Austria) across the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, ran through this area. The area became an important defensive position against barbarian invasions during the European Migration Period, with the fortress of CastelBrando being expanded and refortified. The 15th-century Villa Casagrande is now the home of Contessa Ghislaine Brandolini d’Adda.

References

Cities and towns in Veneto Borghi più belli d'Italia {{Veneto-geo-stub