Anello di Cardenzan

The itinerary starts from the Pedavena center and it is possible to leave the car near the City Hall and near the Church or close to the parking lot of the Birreria Pedavena; from here a cycle and pedestrian track leads in 10 minutes to the center. From the starting point you can reach the church and then the crossroads in the Tornaol location, where you turn in the direction of Murle, turning off immediately after Via Cantolar.

Met Via Crico, follow it to the left to head towards Murle, admiring some houses of Feltre with wooden balconies, which were used for drying the harvest. You soon get onto the road that connects Foen to Pedavena and, at an old fountain, take the road that climbs to the right.

It overcomes some houses and runs alongside the stream, it continues up quite steeply through the woods. A little further from an isolated house, the slope eases and the surface becomes a dirt road. After 45 minutes you arrive in an abandoned house, near which a wooden crucifix was placed: the locality is known by the name of Brasil. Perhaps a reference to the lands where, at the end of the 19th century, many citizens of Belluno emigrated.

At a certain point, the scenario opens up and the village of Cardenzan appears in front of you, with Mount San Mauro as a backdrop. Going through a large lawn with some covered barns (barch), you arrive at the ancient church of Saints Pellegrino and Valentino.

Arriving on the paved road that connects Pedavena to Pren and Lamen, follow the downhill, admiring the panorama of Feltre basin, Mount Tomatico and the Pre-Alps. After about 400 meters, the road that accompanies you towards Carpene branches off on the right.

Passing in front of the old dairy (casèl), you begin to climb alongside a small valley covered with vegetation, where a large isolated chestnut stands out. The village of Carpene welcomes you in its little square, which houses a stone fountain, a wash house and the beautiful little church of St. Valentino. The road on the left of the church leads you shortly in Val di Faont in the lower stretch of the valley carved by the Colmeda stream, where the majestic Peaks form the backdrop to the cultivation environments, with corn, vines, apple trees and mown meadows.

Before arriving at the inhabited center, turn the left towards an old isolated house. A small bridge allows you to cross the Colmeda torrent and quickly reach the paved road, which must be followed downhill. Shortly after, a small but spectacular waterfall surprises you. In Val di Faont there is a hydroelectric plant, built in the 1930s. Having reached a group of houses on a slight climb, you come across the road that connects Pedavena to Norcen; then go down to the crossroads for Croce D’Aune where you take Via Trento.

Going all the way through it, you can appreciate the octagonal church of St. Anna and a suggestive glimpse of Villa Pasole-Berton. Then skirting the external wall, you arrive right in the center of Pedavena or alternatively, having reached approximately halfway along Via Trento, you can take a portico on the left, which leads you to a courtyard. You then cross a footbridge over the Colmeda, where you can still see the old canals that used to exploit the water for the operation of mills and sawmills and for the nearby wash house. 

FURTHER INFORMATION ON... The churches of Murle, Cardenzan and Carpene

To the family of the Ribaldoni, who was responsible for the construction of the current church of Murle dedicated to the Abbot Saint Antonio: an inscription dates the works back to 1470. Consecrated in 1621, it was restored in 1857-58 by the Cambruzzi family, the last owner of the building. In 1866, the voting operations of the first Municipal Council took place there. In the town the devotion to the Patron Saint is still very much alive, which culminates with the feast of the 17th of January. Connected with the ancient way that links Pedavena with Pren and Lamen is the little church of Saints Pellegrino and Valentino, a bit far from the village of Cardenzan, where the valuable manor house of the Marsiai family stands out. The Chapel, enlarged in 1619 as it appears from the inscription on the facade, has a stone stoup from 1661. The 17th century wooden altar with an altarpiece depicting the Madonna and the Child between Saints Pellegrino and Valentino is valuable. The walls retain traces of frescoes and the four Evangelists are depicted in the apse vault. In Carpene the church dedicated to the Saints Valentino and Urbano was erected as a noble chapel by the Guslini family and in 1640 equipped with an altarpiece by Girolamo Zigantello (1621-1661) from Feltre, depicting the Virgin of Carmel with the Saints Valentino, Carlo Borromeo, Pope Urbano and Fermo.