Fonzaso Tour

The path flanks the oratory of the Madonna delle Grazie, called the Scoletta as it was the place where the members of the School of St. Filippo Neri met, much loved by the inhabitants of Fonzaso. Worth a visit fot the stuccoes and frescoes contained therein.

The seond stage winds towards the Church of Sant'Anna, the mother of Our Lady, very dear in particular to future mother. The building must have been much older, but its current form is due to Pio Corso Canossiano. Going on, then, towards the Pedesalto gorge, where in a viewpoint over the Val Cismon and along the old road that once led to the Primiero, stands the small church dedicated to Santa Giustina. It is an ancient building, simple with a single nave, which contains, however, in the apse valuable fifteenth-century fresco painting cycle, by John of France.

Continuing we arrive at the Fort of Sant'Antonio, also called Tagliata. It was a fort that belonged to the Brenta-Cismon defensive barrier, whose purpose was to block the step towards Val Cismon. Like many Italian works, it was immediately outside the area of operations and was then disarmed. It was also decided to degrade it to the role of a mere powder keg. In November 1917, Captain Candoni decided to blow up the work, the nearby hydroelectric plants and the Serra bridge, to stop the enemy's advance.

The Pedesalto power plant makes us take a dip n the history of the energy industry in Italy. It stems from a request for the use of the waters of Cismon by the company "Impresa Tullio Tommasini" of Fonzaso in 1898. Built by the company "Forze Motrici Cismon Brenta" (purchased in 1912 by the group SADE), it entered service in 1909, one of the first in Belluno. The original characteristics were the three 2900 kW Francis turbine-alternator units, for a total capacity of 8600 kW with a 58.3 meters jump and a 22 cubic meters/sec flow rate. This is a castle-type building.