Conegliano, between wines and painters

Conegliano is a large Venetian town in the province of Treviso, with 36,000 inhabitants. Birthplace of the famous 15th century painter of the Venetian school Cima da Conegliano, as well as the second most important city of the Treviso area. It rises at the foot of the homonymous hill where the grapes from which the famous Prosecco and excellent red wines are produced are grown. It is in fact the seat of the oldest oenological school in Italy. The village is of medieval origin and was built around the castle of the tenth century, then in the thirteenth century it became a free municipality and therefore lordship under the Scaligeri and the Carraresi who fortified it. In the fourteenth century it passed to the Serenissima until the advent of Napoleon. Of the original structure of the castle, large tracts of the walls and two towers remain: the mound and the bell. Today it houses the civic museum. Inside the circle of walls there was the porticoed contrada Granda, today Via XX Settembre, flanked by the frescoed facades of the noble palaces of the XV and XVII centuries. On the same street is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Leonardo, whose splendid frescoed façade integrates perfectly with the portico of the other buildings. Inside there is a valuable altarpiece by Cima da Conegliano from 1495. The portico and the bell tower are also beautiful. Above the portico are the hall of the beaten or scourged, with marvelous frescoed walls in 1500 and the chapter room where the most important decisions were made. The expansion of the city took place in the nineteenth century with the construction of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II with an adjoining tree-lined promenade.