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To visit: Dolomiti Ampezzane

Museum of Lenses and Glasses

C.so Patrioti, Agordo
Tel.: 0437.62641
Visits: upon request and booking to the Luxottica Group
The Luxottica Group is the world leader in the design production and trading of glass frames and in the occasion of its third year of work, in 1991, it has opened the museum "Optical and Glasses" that compiled one of the most complete collections of antique objects in the optical field. The collection includes more than twelve hundred pieces among which we can find glasses, binoculars, microscopes, optical instruments, as well as many iconographic material related to the subject such as printings, paintings, engravings and tapestry. There are about 700 glasses and the most precious one dates back to the 1500's. China and Persia are some of the countries from where the materials come. Amongst the small objects, there are interesting walking sticks, tobacco holders, hand-held fans and perfume holders all of that are incorporated with a lens. The binocular and spyglass section is mostly composed of Italian, Chinese, English and French objects (one of which belonged to the court of Luis XIV). The spyglass of Giuseppe Componi, dated back to 1682, which is 8 meters long, is also on display. The creation of glasses is commonly attributed to the English Franciscan Roger Bacon, who lived in the 1200's, is one of the major authorities in the optical field. In one of his works, he wrote that segment of glass spheres could enlarge characters of a paper many times so that it was possible for people with vision impairments to read them. We don't know who was the first actual maker of the invention by Roger Bacon; we only know about a few books written by Dominican friars of the time who wrote about having seen the first inventions of eye glasses in Venice, the city of glassworks. The first testimonies regarding the employment of eyeglasses date back to medieval times and more precisely in the monastery where the amanuensis friars dedicated themselves to the transcription of written documents, a historical and literary patrimony of the ancient civilizations. The most ancient iconographic testimony of eye glass employment dates back to 1352 in a painting by Tommaso da Modena, where the Cardinal Ugo da Provenza is depicted wearing a pair of arched eyeglasses (It is in the hall in the monastery next to the church of S. Nicolò, in Treviso). At the beginning of the 1700's, the English optical maker Edward Scarlett created and defined eyeglasses with arms. These glasses, called temple glasses, have short arms and when worn they press on the temples. Afterwards, a flexible joint was added to the bars making them longer and more stable on the head. Only at the beginning of the 19th century did the first frames with arms that rest on the ears appear. Soon afterwards, arms that follow the ear shape (called "hedgehog") were developed. In the same period, the so-called hand glasses Fassamano from the French "face a man" and the theater glasses spread. These were real jewels used by the women of the time for vanity and fashion.
The complete collection included 1200 pieces displayed in the restored hall of the old stable of the Manzoni Venetian villa.

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Mineral Museum

History museum of the people of Ladina

Museum of War and Photographical Exhibition

Collection by Pino Del Favero

I Murales

Cibiana di Cadore
Telephone: 0435.74018 (Municipio)
Cibiana is now hosting a particularly successful artistic moment thanks to the Committee for the Cibiana Art, which had the initiative to restore and paint all of the alpine village house fronts with paintings depicting moments of the inhabitant's lifestyle both in the present and the past. This has changed this little village into an open-air museum of contemporary art. The large paintings are perfectly inserted in the urban contest of the village of Masariè and liven up the old restored houses made of wood and stones. This murals represent the country lifestyle, family moments, farmers and hand-crafters as well as all of the arts: "the lute maker," "the beam maker," "the mill worker," "the poiata," and the "colonial shop." The idea of the people who organized it was to make available to all an open-air art gallery. It is art intended for the people. The murals send a message of high social content. The inhabitants believe that art and painting will help them to come out from isolation. Many artists participated in this project, among which we would like to remember Walter Pregnolato, Luigi Rincicotti, Ernesto Treccani, Roberto Joos, Vico Calabrò, Cesare Magnolato, Bruno Doria, who showed their ability by understanding and entering into the mind-set, problems and lifestyle of the little world of Cibiana.

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Cellula museale La Fudina

Palazzo della Regola - Largo IX Febbraio 4
Dosoledo, Comelico Superiore
Telephone: 0435.68830 oder 0435.470061
Agostino De Martin Fabbro, founder of the "fudina", was born in Dosoledo in 1869 to a family of blacksmiths/coppersmiths who worked in the nearby Austria.They specialized in the construction of the economic kitchen, wooden heaters and sawdust heaters.The family returned to Dosoledo in 1900 starting their own activities in the new home in via Roma 44.The twelve-year-old Pio helped his father as did his brothers Augustino, Pietro and Olivo later on.Leverage shears, benders, flanging machines, rolling machines, lathes and drills with manual traction all come from Saxon. With the arrival of electric energy, in the valley (1907) an electric motor was given to the lathe. The tools and the molds for mass-production were handcrafted. The zincing, when needed, was done with a constant fire 24 hours per day, so that the workers would work in shifts in order to obtain a regular galvanization. There were registers in which all of the processes were described: nothing was left unchecked.The raw materials came from Venice, Brescia and Milan. The finished products included utensils, normal pottery, high pressure cooking pots, sprinklers, wood kitchens and cylindrical wooden stoves. The company owned by Agostino De Martin Fabbro and sons had the patent on the cylindrical wooden stoves. The first important order came from the county of Comelico Superiore (1906-1907) that wanted to substitute the old ovens "da pan" with cylindrical stoves in the city hall rooms and in the rooms of the elementary schools in Dosoledo and Casamazzagno. Right after 1913, the stoves and the heaters spread all the way to Bolzano, at the time outside the Italian border and in the Austrian region, with which the son Pio corresponded in German, all the way the very far off Reggio Calabria.During the first World War, the family moved to Switzerland and returned to Italy in 1920.The family's political views were incompatible with the "Government" and caused the head of the family, the father, to permanently move to Austria where he lived until his death in 1944.The sons Pietro and Olivo recuperated the machinery that they had hidden underground during the second World War, behind their home and were able to restart their activities. With the death of the youngest brother, Olivo, the original factory changed purposes and the "Fudina di Fauri" has been reconstructed in this museum quarter at the palace of the Regola, by the "Cultural Research Group" of Comelico Superiore.
The Cultural Research Group of Comelico Superiore is engaged in the appraisal of the most significant aspects of the local culture. One of their main representations is in the museum display of the "la fudina" a particular testimony to an ancient industrial capacity connected to the activity of metal refinery: it is not by mistake that the man that started this activity was named De Martin Fabbro (which means the blacksmith): a name, a guarantee! The engagement, the innovation and the idea of social progress were the main thoughts on which their activities were based. To recover and conserve such testimonies means to appreciate and recognize the ability of this family of blacksmiths, oven and heater makers and whatever else was needed for the local commerce in the field of tools and domestic pottery.

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Historical Museum of the 1915-18 War

Contemporary Art Museum Mario Rimoldi

Ethnographic Museum of Ampezzo

Paleontology Museum Rinaldo Zardini

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Castle of Andraz

The Ciastel is the symbol of the Livinallongo valley. Its remains are next to state road 48 that from La Plié da Fodom gets to Fauzare. At km. 102, on the left, there is the little road that descends to the Ciastel. Just after the woods, the castle seems to be on top of a large boulder, in a dominating position over the valley, between the Ru de Valparola and Ru de Ciastel. It used to be an administrative and military headquarter, which reached the top of its splendor under the dominion of the Bressanone Princes-Bishops. This castle was also a strategic traffic point: this was the way to take if one desired to travel from Bressanone through the Jou delle Erbe, Val Badia and the Valparòla and reach the High Agordo area, Belluno and Venice. The castle was always in touch with Laste, Rocca Pietore, Avoscan, and Alleghe by visible signals (fire). It was also a bulwark against the expansion of Venice: the Dolomite area was very desirable for the wood and mining activities. In fact near the castle, in Colle S. Lucia, under the jurisdiction of Andrac, there was the Fursil mining site. Iron was extracted from the mining site, and around it there were many melting ovens (one of which inside the castle). The ingots were carried along the Teriòl de la Véna to Bressanone. The Ciastel, restored many times throughout the centuries, lost its importance when the mining activity ended (1753-55), and also because of the different political conditions (secularization of the ecclesiastic princedoms). In 1808, it was sold to private owners. In 1850, the roof and the furniture were removed. During the First World War it was also damaged. Then it was abandoned during the population years of poverty and only the main body and some ruins remained. Only after the tourist development, the Veneto region elaborated a few projects for the restoration of this castle, which are now in progress. The wooden altar that belonged to the castle's church is now held in the Church of Andrac, a village near by.
Today, only the perimeter walls of this castle are left. Unfortunately it isn't yet possible to visit it despite the past years work.

Castle of Botestagno

Castle of Zanna

Military charnel-house

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