
Cadore (; ; or, rarely, ''Cadòria''; or ''Kadober'';
Sappada German: ''Kadour'';
Dizionario Sappadino-Italiano:
K. ) is a historical region
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
in the Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
region of Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
, in the northernmost part of the province of Belluno
The province of Belluno (; ; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.
It has an area of and a population of about 198,000 people.
Geography
Situated in the Alps, the province of ...
bordering on Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol ( ; ; ), often known in English as Trentino-South Tyrol or by its shorter Italian name Trentino-Alto Adige, is an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy, located in the ...
and Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...
. It is watered by the Piave River
The Piave (; ) is a river in Northeast Italy. It begins in the Alps and flows southeast for into the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice. One of its tributaries is the Boite.
In 1809 it was the scene of a battle during the Napoleonic Wars, in ...
which has its source in the Carnic Alps
The Carnic Alps (; ; ; ) are a range of the Southern Limestone Alps in Austria and northeastern Italy. They are within Austrian East Tyrol and Carinthia, and Italian Friuli (Province of Udine) and marginally in Veneto.
Etymology
They are ...
. Once an undeveloped and poor district, the former ''contado'' (countship) of Cadore now has a thriving economy based on tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...
and a small manufacturing industry
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the
secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...
, specialising in the production of glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically u ...
.
The celebrated Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
painter Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
was born in Cadore, probably in 1488–90, one of a family of four born to Gregorio Vecelli, a distinguished councillor and soldier[ descended from the counts. The painter's birthplace in ]Pieve di Cadore
Pieve di Cadore is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Belluno in the Italian region of Veneto, about north of Venice and about northeast of Belluno. "Pieve" means "Parish church". It is the birthplace of the Italian painter Titian. ...
, in a locality named ''Arsenale'' between the castle and the village Sotto Castello, is open to visitors. Titian's wife, Cecilia, was also born in Cadore, the daughter of a barber.
History
Originally populated by people who spoke Proto-Italic
The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. ...
, Euganei and then by the Celtic Gauls
The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...
, the area now known as Cadore was later conquered by the Romans during the second century BC and became part of the Regio X ''Venetia et Histria''.
In the Late Antiquity
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
era, Cadore was occupied by invading Germanic populations and was first declared part of the Duchy of Carinthia
The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies.
Car ...
and finally, in 1077, part of the Patriarchate of Aquileia
The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an episcopal see and ecclesiastical province in northeastern Italy, originally centered in the ancient city of Aquileia, situated near the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It emerged in the 4th century as a m ...
. From 1135 to 1335, Cadore was ruled by the da Camino family, the Counts of Cadore, who later became the ''Signori'' family of Treviso
Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...
. It was briefly annexed to Tyrol
Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...
and again was ceded to the Patriarchs of Aquileia
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in ...
. However, the ''comuni
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
'' of Cadore always enjoyed a certain degree of self-government.
When the Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
conquered the neighbouring Friuli
Friuli (; ; or ; ; ) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autono ...
region in 1420 and put an end to the temporal power of the Patriarchs, the rulers of Cadore were forced to choose between aligning with Venetia or the Imperial. It declared its loyalty to the former, becoming one of many parts of the ''Terra ferma'', administered by a local ''podestà
(), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a c ...
''.
The conflict between Venice and the Empire broke out again at the beginning of the 16th century, during the War of the League of Cambrai
The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and several other names, was fought from February 1508 to December 1516 as part of the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. The main participants of the war, who fough ...
. In the prelude to the war, the Venetians and the Cadorines defeated Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed hi ...
in 1508 at the Battle of Valle di Cadore, and again in 1509. Then, in 1511, Maximilian conquered the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; , ; historical ) sometimes abbreviated to simply Cortina, is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomites, Dolomitic) Alps in the province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the ...
, which was incorporated into the Empire in 1516. Cortina, formerly considered part of Cadore, has since developed a distinct identity.
Cadore remained part of the Venetian Republic until the Napoleonic War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
. A famous Venetian incumbent of the local post of ''Commisario del Cadore'' ('Commissioner'; in 1589) was Paolo Paruta. Napoleon I Bonaparte created a duché grand-fief, a rare, hereditary but nominal honor of ducal rank (extinguished in 1893) for his minister and admiral Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny
Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following:
Persons
* Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was K ...
.
Being a part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia
The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (), commonly called the "Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom" (; ), was a constituent land (crown land) of the Austrian Empire from 1815 to 1866. It was created in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna in recogniti ...
, Cadore was ruled by the Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
until 1866, when it was finally conquered by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
in the Third War of Independence. During the First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Cadore was on the Alpine Front and was the scene of many battles.
''Comuni'' of Cadore
Cadore is generally subdivided into Comelico, Sappada, Central Cadore and Boite Valley. The Cadore mountain community includes 22 comuni
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
:
* Auronzo di Cadore
* Borca di Cadore
* Calalzo di Cadore
* Cibiana di Cadore
* Comelico Superiore
* Danta di Cadore
* Domegge di Cadore
*Lorenzago di Cadore
Lorenzago di Cadore is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Belluno in the Italian region of Veneto, located about north of Venice and about northeast of Belluno. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 600 and an area of .All d ...
* Lozzo di Cadore
* Ospitale di Cadore
* Pelos di Cadore
* Perarolo di Cadore
*Pieve di Cadore
Pieve di Cadore is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Belluno in the Italian region of Veneto, about north of Venice and about northeast of Belluno. "Pieve" means "Parish church". It is the birthplace of the Italian painter Titian. ...
* San Nicolò di Comelico
* San Pietro di Cadore
* Santo Stefano di Cadore
* San Vito di Cadore
* Sappada
* Selva di Cadore
* Valle di Cadore
* Vigo di Cadore
* Vodo di Cadore
* Zoppè di Cadore
See also
* Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
* Tre Cime di Lavaredo
The ; ), also called the ; ), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. The three peaks, from east to west, are:
*Cima Piccola / Klein ...
* Lake Misurina
* Antelao mountain
* Cadorino dialect
Cadorino, a dialect of Ladin, is the language of Cadore, at the feet of the Dolomites in the province of Belluno. It is distinct from neighboring dialects, and though it has received relatively little attention, it is important to an understandi ...
* Alpine Brigade Cadore
Sources and references
Storia del Cadore
External links
Cadore web portal
Old postcards from Tai di Cadore
*
{{Authority control