Mel, named “Bandiera Arancione” by the Italian Touring Club in 2003 and one of the most beautiful villages of Italy in 2017, is a wonderful Venetian get-away in front of the Dolomites which boasts the third place in the ranking of the “Borgo dei Borghi” contest in 2018.
From its privileged position on the top of a hill, it dominates the Valbelluna. As a millennial village inhabited already in the Neolithic by the Ancient Venetians, it obtains Roman citizenship in the 1st century B.C. Occupied over the centuries by Ostrogoths, Byzantines, and Longobards, in 1404 it joins the Serenissima.
Its center still resembles a Venetian square, dominated by the imposing Archipriest Church, and surrounded by Sixteenth-century noble palaces that enclose their wonderful private gardens.
The “Karera”, a beautiful ancient road went up the hill and passed under the arch of Palazzo Pivetta-Stefani. Not far from the square you can visit the “Giazera” with its ingenious method for food storage and the Paleoveneta necropolis with its characteristic funerary stone circles.
The Castle of Zumelle and the “Olt de Val d’Arch”, located towards the pre-Alpine ridge, are evident testimonies of the disputes over the borders during the medieval wars.
Borgo Valbelluna
© 2022 Comune di Borgo Valbelluna | C.F. 01225000254 | Credits web: ofprojects.com photography: robertodepellegrin.com
