Conegliano celebrates 1000 years of history
Conegliano is a medieval town in Treviso, Veneto, that in 2016 celebrated 1000 years of history.
I visited Conegliano on a Sunday in June 2016 with other Instagrammers. We did a tour of the town and participated to the historical reenactment in the evening.
The first documents of Conegliano date back to 1016. At first there were only some houses, then a castle was erected, on top of the hill, and later a whole village was built around the castle. In the Middle Ages Conegliano was quite important in the trade business, and the many frescoes on the outside walls of the houses of the town testify it. But the frescos have suffered bad damages in the last century, due mainly to the pollution.
Conegliano was a walled town with two gates, one of which is still visible while the other has been substituted by two more modern towers; a central lane connected the two gates and cut the village in half. There were 72 towers, of which only 2 have remained. During the Venetian control, the doge thought it would be easier to rule the town if there were no towers, in case its people would uprise.
Part of the castle is still there, on the hill, with a great view on the whole town. It now hosts a bar-restaurant and a beautiful garden.
The main square in town is named after Giovanni Battista Cima, better known as Cima da Conegliano, its most illustrious citizen. Cima was born here towards 1460 and became a famous painter after he moved to Venice. He was mainly commissioned paintings of saints, but Cima often used his beloved Conegliano as backdrop for his paintings; his paintings are an important testament of how the town looked like at the time.
For the last 30 years Conegliano in the month of June has organized a 10-day long festival, with various shows and events in medieval settings; a dinner with decorations and food from the Middle Ages, a parade in medieval costumes and a live checkers game in historical costumes are the main events. On the Sunday that we were there, we could marvel at the parade, but unfortunately the live game was cancelled due to the rain. People have been working at the festival for months, tailoring costumes and training for the parade and the game; the rain was a real drag.
Nowadays Conegliano is the heart of the production of Prosecco, the world-famous sparkling wine. Spades and drawbridges have left place to vines and barrels.
You can see more pictures from Conegliano on my Facebook page:
