Among the “Most Beautiful Villages in Italy,” just a breath away from Fiera di Primiero and San Martino di Castrozza, Mezzano proudly claims its rural identity and celebrates its traditions through themed itineraries dedicated to water, vegetable gardens, rural architecture, engravings, frescoes, and woodpiles that here become true works of art. It is an example of an Italy that never gives up and rediscovers the strength of values long forgotten elsewhere.
Now part of the association “The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy,” and framed by a moving Dolomite backdrop, Mezzano has always been a crossroads for travelers heading to more famous destinations. But for those who take the time — and have the curiosity — to stop and explore, the village stages its own unique show, enchanting visitors with its disarming simplicity.
Today, Mezzano is a living reservoir of Alpine life, an inexhaustible source of ideas that reveal themselves to wanderers in every hidden corner — along narrow alleys, small squares, and under the wooden balconies — forming a vibrant open-air museum. Themed itineraries invite visitors to trace the “Scattered Signs of Rural Life”: water, gardens, architecture, wall paintings, ancient inscriptions, and artistic woodpiles.
In recent years, a discreet yet captivating new form of art has emerged — unique in its simplicity. So simple that no one had thought of it before. The village has filled with wonderful, monumental artistic woodpiles.
Along the lanes, on balconies, in courtyards and squares, the traditional winter wood supply becomes beautiful through “Cataste e Canzei” (“Woodpiles and Racks”), an extraordinary initiative that every year invites established artists to create large-scale installations. There’s a wooden accordion stretched into a star shape, an hourglass framed by sun and moon marking the passage of time, and a towering wall commemorating the 1966 flood that struck the village...
And again — men cutting trees, and a delicately unbalanced pile collapsing in a choreographed fall. These artistic woodpiles are already scattered throughout the village, with new ones added each year.
In Mezzano, everything begins with nature — and returns to it. The many marked trails starting from the village lead, on foot or by mountain bike, into an unspoiled and touching natural landscape. Mezzano lies within the Paneveggio–Pale di San Martino Nature Park and borders the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park.
