History and Culture

In 1971 were unearthed hundreds of flintstones, made by Mesolithic hunters (about 8,000 years ago) in rough stations, of which several sites were discovered near the small Colbricón lakes at 1,900 m. altitude, near Passo Rolle. The hunters would probably reach the lakes and the homonymous pass to catch and kill the local game.
In 1986, along the Schenèr Valley, when gravel was removed from the sides of the main road near Val Rósna, the grave of a hunter dating back to upper Palaeolithic times was discovered. They found his skeleton almost intact, buried 14,000 years ago, and the man’s hunting gear. His companions had placed over the grave some large stones, ochre coloured and with drawings of stylized men, deer and trees.
Roman coins from Imperial times found in Primiero, the presence (30 km away) of the town of Feltre, first Rhaetian and then Roman, and the passage of Via Claudia Augusta Altinate not far from the south entrance to Primiero, suggests the possibility of early Medieval settlements in the valley. This is confirmed by excavations carried out in 1995 under the floor of the Primiero archpriest church, which brought to light the foundations of an early Christian basilica (V-VI century A.D.) with similar dimensions to the present church. This last discovery has totally upset any previous speculation on the first settlements: it was actually thought that the first hamlets dated back to a time after 1000 A.D. However, the presence now of the remains of such a large and old church would indicate the existence of a stable community, with enough resources to build a large sacred building, long before that. Of what was found under the church floor, still to be seen is a baptismal font, placed in the left aisle – protected by a sheet of glass - where the sacrament was received by way of immersion.

(Reconstruction of a Mesolithic camp)

The architectural complex made up of the archpriest church, the small church of San Martino and the Palazzo delle Miniere (the Mines Palace) was built on higher ground: very likely an important and strategic place, a site of pre-Christian cults.

Before Fiera came to be, there were the four Regulae of Transacqua with Pieve and Sirór, Tonadìco, Mezzano and Imèr with Canal San Bovo. These were small rural villages, gathering at the foot of old alluvial cones and built facing the sun, away from the tumultuous waters of the Canali and Cismón torrents; the inhabitants lived of animal farming and subsistence agriculture and already since old times timber trade was a help to their poor economy. The logs were carried out of the valley by the waters of the two torrents. These villages were mostly inhabited by people of the nearby Feltre area and their upper Veneto dialect, still much in use today, is a witness to that. The communities built a church dedicated to Mary, and before 1000 A.D. this had a Romanesque character; it was the main place of worship, obeying to the bishop of Feltre. The Primiero villages built then some chapels – quoted in the statutes granted to the community in 1367 - that only became parishes in the XX century.
The main church – as it can be seen now – was rebuilt in the present late Gothic style at the end of the XV century, thanks to the will and resources of entrepreneurs and miners guilds from over the Alps, who had settled in the valley to work in the local mining industry. The church was enriched by precious vestments and plates, by spectacular altars with Tyrolean shutters and by wall paintings made by Venetian masters like Marco da Mèl (the “Römer” painting) and German masters (the mystic unicorn hunt). In the XVII century were then added numerous altars, placed in the aisles and enriched by valuable altarpieces.
During the Christmas of 1999, after more than 70 years absence from Primiero, the famous altar with shutter doors at last came back, taking its old place again in the presbytery. It was made entirely in wood by a Tyrolean workshop at the end of the XV century and celebrates the most important moments of the Virgin Mary’s life (Annunciation, Nativity...), coming together in the central scene: Mary’s coronation by the Holy Trinity.

(The archpriest church with the Pieve hamlet)

Close to the archpriest church is a small oratory: a small church dedicated to St. Martin. The building, now restored, could go as far back as the X century and was later apparently enriched by many paintings. Inside, a Last Judgement and in the apse – under a damaged fresco – the traces of a Medieval Last Supper. On the outside are clearly visible a crucifixion from the XVI century and a Baptism of Christ from the XIX century.
A little further up, an old house strikes us for its 16th century paintings at the entrance sides: two representations of the “Madonna della Misericordia”. In the left painting, among the crowd of the faithful sheltering under the Madonna’s mantle, we can see a member of the Scuola dei Battuti, wearing a white cowl, portrayed as he is flogging himself with a scourge.
Of the old rectory, which was in time a pilgrim’s hospice and the seat of the Confraternita dei Battuti, only the ground floor can be visited, where the town authorities have now reconstructed a typical old Primiero home. You can apply at the Palazzo delle Miniere, or the intercity Library situated in via Fiume, to visit it.

Next to the archpriest church was built at the end of the 15th century the Palazzo delle Miniere (Mines Palace), prestigious and fortified seat of the Bergrichter, the mining judge nominated by the Emperor to preside over the mines and forests of Primiero.
This building marks the peak of mining activities in the valley: deep tunnels were excavated around the villages to extract silver, iron and copper. The precious metal was guarded in this fortified palace, to then reach the Hall mint in Tyrol. On the building façade can be admired a series of crests of the cities subject to Habsburg rule until the first decades of the 16th century, from Antwerp to Pordenone. Inside the palace, the remains of valuable wall paintings, dated 1568, let us guess what might have been the splendour of the room colours; we must especially mention, in the bow-window on the first floor on the right, a picture of the Bergrichter, portrayed next to John the Evangelist in a crucifixion scene.
Today the palace hosts the Museum of Materials Culture in Primiero and an exposition dedicated to Luigi Negrelli. The street coming from the palace down to town is commonly called Rivéta and, up to the fire of 1902, several houses stood on both sides of it. It is believed that these were Fiera’s first houses: ancient buildings, as shown by the splayed windows and by double and triple lancet windows recovered on the front of some of them at the foot of the Rivéta. The street was the old access route to Fiera, touching all key buildings, the seats of administrative and religious powers in the valley.

Before we leave Pieve, we should pay some attention to a few buildings of the homonymous hamlet, in front of the church: the 18th century Palazzo dei Piazza with precious frescoes inside and, a little further up, Casa Lenzi, one of the oldest in Pieve, to visit with the owner’s permission. Facing the Dazio small square is the home of Luigi Negrelli (1799-1858), the engineer who designed bridges, railways and roads in Habsburg Europe and in Switzerland; he was the chief figure of the international team of experts who realized the Suez Canal. Particularly interesting are the lively memories of Luigi Negrelli’s father, Angelo Michele Negrelli (1764-1851), giving a detailed cross-section of the way people lived in Primiero between the 18th and the 19th century. The original work, held in the Fiera’s library, is going to be transcribed and published by the Trento History Museum

When Fiera still did not exist, markets were held on the open space to the right of the Cismón torrent, as Antonio Rachini recalls: Fiera was nothing but a vast wild meadow, full of gravel and scattered trees, where markets were held, and it had one house, the home of the Minerals Office clerk who collected the duties. On this “meadow”, at the mercy of the Cismón fury, in autumn and spring would take place two markets, fairs – hence the name of the new town - with trading of cattle and other necessary goods. This place, considered unsafe by the Primiero people, was chosen by the newcomers because it was central “…by the many foreigners – goes on Rachini – who started to build their houses here, and workshops to service the mines, so that the place became as it is now”.

At the end of the Rivéta stands the imposing bulk of the rose-coloured Palazzo Welsperg, turned after the First World War into Albergo Roma, complete with sign featuring a Capitoline she-wolf.

Among the most distinguished “foreigners” to arrive in Primiero were the lords of Welsperg – Monguelfo in Val Pusteria, who in 1401 acquired from the archduke Leopold of Austria the jurisdiction over the entire valley. They established themselves in the old Castel Pietra, dominating the upper valley (today only ruins, at the entrance to Val Canali). The castle had been the home of the representative in Primiero of the bishop of Feltre until the XIV century. The Welspergs, after staying there for a century and a half, wanted a more comfortable accommodation, to allow them to live in the new town. In the second half of the 16th century they bought a few buildings belonging to Leonardo Puocher, and put them together to make a large palace at the start of the Contrada – now Via Terrabugio –, dominating the access to the village of Fiera. In this imposing building the Primiero branch of the Welsperg family built up its fortunes during the following centuries: noblemen became counts and the family governed directly the valley until the death of their last local descendant in 1907.
A visit to the entrance corridor of the palace shows three different versions of the Welsperg coat of arms. Initially - writes Marco Toffol – the family coat of arms consisted in a simple shield quartered in black and silver, then, as the number of titles increased, the shield was counter quartered with the crest of the extinct Villanders family (a herringbone silver band on a red field) and still further enriched in 1571 with the addition of two quarters featuring a golden lion over three green mountains, reputedly the old Primiero crest. The very last addition, at the top of the coat of arms, was the black cake of the Raitenau family.

(Welsperg coat of arms over the Primiero community crest)

From Palazzo Welsperg we cross the street and reach the square, at one time popularly called brólo, with a statue dedicated to Luigi Negrelli.

The oldest villages would govern themselves in the following way: every year, in March, the heads of the various families gathered in a square where was held a meeting of the vicini, those who for generations had lived in the village and contributed to the many expenses to keep roads, bridges and public buildings.... They also enjoyed some rights: they could cut trees for building or get wood for burning in the community woods, they could take to pasture the cattle in the alpine pastures belonging to their village... . The vicini elected the marzòli, heads of various local administrations, a sort of majors, holding their office for 12 months only, and then leaving their post and presenting the balance for the year just passed.
Fiera di Primiero marked itself out from other communities, as Antonio Rachini recalls: Fiera, although in the centre of the Community, governs itself and does not intrude in the rights and elections of other towns, except for issues of common interest, in which case it gives one fifth. And every year, for its own particular government, it elects one of its people with the title of Bürghemaster (burgomaster), who swears to follow certain rules of good government in front of the general deputy (nominated by the feudal vassals, the Welspergs). Fiera still kept in the 18th century and up to the 19th century a deputy with a German name in remembrance of its origins, quite different from those of other Primiero Regulae.

(The white and the red rose, symbol of the village of Fiera)

From the little square we carry on for about 100 yards up to the stone gate bearing the Latin motto “vivit post funera virtus”: a person’s value lives on after his death.

The noble 16th century residence, as testified by the date carved over the double lancet window on the first floor, was a tradesman home and then a hotel at the beginning of the XX century, marking the peak of Martino Orsingher’s fortunes. Of humble birth, Orsingher was one of the best promoters of tourism and hotel development in Primiero. An all round entrepreneur, he owned the Valserena brewery in Nolesca above Sirór, supplying the valley with excellent beer. He was the founder of a Society dedicated to improving the place and increasing the number of foreign visitors – the Tourist Board of the time -, and he also promoted the building of the tower near the Madonna dell’Aiuto church, the tree-lined avenues and other initiatives aimed at developing the whole valley. The palace - today again a hotel - shows inside, on the first floor, a few painted friezes going back to the 16th century, with tondos portraying different seasons and a liberty oval, all to be seen with the hotel manager’s permission.

From the hotel we can carry on until we reach the bridge to Transacqua, where the Cismón and Canali torrents meet. Here can be enjoyed a beautiful panoramic view of the Pale di San Martino Group, up to Cimón della Pala. As we come back to the crossing, we proceed on a tree-lined avenue with benches lined up on both sides.

The short avenue was built to provide a nice walk, with a chance to stop and rest, for the first tourists in Primiero and the popular name “passégi” was quite right in designating a quiet place where to recover one’s energies, with the guaranteed coolness of the Cismón waters nearby. Through a footway over the torrent we reach the Clarofonte public gardens and walking up a further short, gentle slope, we get to see Palazzo Soméda. This is an imposing building of the end of the 16th century, witnessing the rise of the family of Pellegrino Soméda, a timber trader born in a hamlet near Moena, in Val di Fassa. Quite elegant is the double order of triple lancet windows on the south looking façade. The house still enjoys today a special tranquillity and has gone unscathed through the terrible floods of the torrents surrounding it, only losing the chapel built by its founders. Quite remarkable is the XVIII century little chapel inside the building, with various decorations, to visit with the owner’s permission

Arriving in piazza Cesare Battisti we can see the whole length of Fiera’s main street: the Contrada, now Via Terrabugio, dedicated to the musician from Fiera who led the Cecilian reform of liturgical music (his home, with memorial plate, is a little further on). On the left until 1937 was the Albergo Zum schwarzen Adler (now Caffé Aquila Nera), closed down after a fire.

In 1862 Josiah Gilbert and George Churchill, accompanied by their respective wives, stayed in this hotel, welcomed by the Bonetti family, by the burgomaster and by count Welsperg. The arrival of this little caravan of foreigners was quite an event for everybody. Even greater surprise was aroused by two women, Amelia B. Edwards and a friend who came to Primiero in 1872. Amelia Edwards in her book Untrodden peaks and unfrequented valleys dedicated ample space to the simple virtues of this inn: The rooms will turn out to be much more comfortable than the entrance might suggest. The kitchen and guest rooms are upstairs. We will find at last good food, rest and a really friendly welcome. It’s funny how soon you learn to be satisfied with these modest Tyrolean hotels and to consider as friends, or at least equal to us, the kind people who manage them.

Even though the XIX century restoration work and the town tower built in 1910 hide now its original form, the small church was commissioned in the second half of the 17th century by the Fiera community, who wished to have a “special” church. Once inside, we discover an imposing wooden altar dating from the end of the 17th century, recently restored and hosting a Hilfemutter painting (1768), the Madonna dell’Aiuto (The Helping Madonna). This is considered by the community as a real imago miracolosa (miraculous image): it was carried on procession during some of the most difficult moments in the town history. Last time it was taken up to the Cismón torrent, in November 1966, to pray that the water did not overflow and ravage the town. The prayer was answered and the centre of Fiera was spared, unlike other places in the valley that suffered considerable damage.
The writings, painted or carved on many lintels of the Contrada houses, say: CHRISTUS NOBISCUM STAT (Christ is with us). These are inscriptions put over the houses entrance in 1836, to ward off the cholera epidemic that, from Feltre, had then reached Primiero.

(The church façade before the restoration work)

A little beyond the church, we find an old palace which has recovered its true colours after restoration work. A mock corner ashlar, belt courses, marbled mirrors and frieze cornices make even more imposing what was in the 19th century the home of a powerful Primiero family.

In the city map of Giacomo Castelrotto, dated 1565, is given the old name of the building, Casa della Statèra; and so it was, because here is a statèra (balance), a large one and a small one on which are weighed all the things brought by foreigners, to sell them in the valley to those who need them, like wine, forage, flour, salt and similar other things. Later the building was used as local first instance tribunal, for civil and criminal prosecutions.
Along the Contrada we can admire impressive stone entrances, old double lancet windows and small wrought iron balconies, probably the same iron extracted from the valley mines, still in operation till the end of the XIX century. The perspective to be enjoyed – looking back along the narrow main street – is a peculiar one: we are inside an old hamlet, looking like a village from over the Alps, quite different from the Venetian style villages around it, as Amelia B. Edwards noticed: the houses scattered over the hill, completely different, are built in a Gothic-German style and they remind me of the medieval castle with sloping roof and many towers, portrayed on the background of a painting by Albert Dürer

Succinto ragguaglio della valle di Primiero… by A. Rachini,
1723Dolomite mountains by J. Gilbert and G. C. Churchill,
1862Untrodden peaks and unfrequented valleys by Amelia B. Edwards,
1872Vita e morte di un cacciatore di 14.000 anni fa by A. Broglio and A. Villabruna,
1994I ritrovamenti mesolitici del Colbricon by L. Secco and S. Toppo,
1978 (at Caffè Centrale in San Martino di Castrozza)Pale di San Martino by L. Marisaldi and B. Pellegrinon
Pictor Pinsit by Laboratorio del Tempo,
1997Guida al Palazzo delle Miniere by Public Library,
1999 Il Palazzo delle Miniere by V. Cerqueni, M. Toffol and S. Gadenz,
1995 I Welsperg: una famiglia tirolese in Primiero by M. Toffol,
2001 Any further information at the Biblioteca intercomunale (Library).
Period pictures, in colour and black and white by Sebastiano Gadenz from Giuseppe Maerjld’s archive; Mesolithic hunters drawing by Luigi Secc; modern colour photos by Fotostudio Enrico Longo.
Work plan, texts and co-ordination by Luca Brunet
Set up and printing by: Tipografia Leonardi Primiero, March 2002