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The Middle Ages

The late Roman age and the first centuries of the Middle Ages are characterized by a progressive Christianization, of which several evidences remain (Feltre and Belluno were among the oldest bishop's seats in Veneto). Under Byzantine, Lombard, and Frank rules, the territory of Belluno during the early Middle Ages is part of what during the 10th century was called Marca Veronese and, from the beginning of the 13th century, Marca Veronese Trevigiana. The government - also the political government - of the two mountain towns is entrusted to the bishops, who, probably from the beginning of the 12th century, exercise the same political powers of all the land signories. In the second half of the same century, both the bishop's seats suffer from the expansionist aims of the township of Treviso which is not able to change its features. During the 13th century, Belluno and Feltre suffer the consequences of the expansion of the signory of Ezzelino da Romano first, and of Da Camino family after. In the 14th century, while the bishops' temporal power inexorably declines, they are disputed between the Scaligeri, Carraresi, important German families (Luxembourg and Brandenburg), and Visconti. Already from the half of the 12th century, the initiatives of the two Cathedral Chapters regarding the role of the mountain hospices take on great importance, as well as the initiatives of important ecclesiastic authorities of the plain and piedmont belt. Feltre and Belluno fall under the rule of the Venetian Republic, for the first time in 1404, and definitively in 1420.