Because of its geographical location, Comelico has had relations with Austria, Friuli, Bolzano, and the Venetian plain. This has led to an array of cultures, suggestions, and influences you will find in the many churches in the area.
Start your journey at the Parish Church of Santo Stefano in Santo Stefano di Cadore, matrix of the other churches in Comelico. In addition to the various works inside, you can see the wooden altars donated by distinguished families and a monumental high altar made in Treviso from Carrara marble and donated by the Poli family.
Next, head to the hamlet of San Nicolò to see the parish church. It is unique in Belluno province for the important cycle of frescoes by Gianfrancesco da Tolmezzo, decorating its entire presbytery and surfaces of the triumphal arch.
The layout of the building you see now is from expansion done in 1633 and later alterations, but the church was first constructed in 1475 by Maistro Zuane of Chomo. As you enter the church, you will be enveloped by light and colour. The Gothic rose windows and frescoes on the walls will amaze you with their hues and play of colour. Further embellishing the church is a gilded wooden altar by the Ghirlanduzzi brothers of Ceneda, famous carvers whose carvings are in several churches in Cadore and Belluno province.
In the hamlet of Candide, you will immediately notice the Church of Santa Maria Assunta standing imposingly. Consecrated in 1806, inside, there are, among other works, six paintings depicting the patron saints of the churches dependent on the parish of Candide. On the ceiling of the main nave are three large frescoes by Giovanni De Min depicting The Annunciation of the Angel to the Virgin Mary, The Assumption and The Deposition from the Cross. In the backdrop to the scenes, you will be able to recognize Longerin, Palombino, Aiarnola, Cima Undici, Sentinel Pass, Croda Rossa, and the Marmarole Mountains.
In Candide, look inside the church of Sant’Antonio Abate. Here, a precious 17th-century wooden altar located in the apse will immediately draw your attention. On the walls observe traces of the frescoes that embellished the building.
Conclude your journey in the hamlet of Dosoledo where, with the church of Santi Rocco e Osvaldo, Giuseppe Segusini managed to build Comelico’s first Neoclassical church, characterized by a pronaos with six Corinthian columns on the staircase and a triangular pediment decorated according to rules of Neoclassical composition. Inside, the vaults are decorated with frescoes by Giovanni De Min depicting the Trinity with the Four Evangelists, St Peter and three angels, and the four major prophets. Another work that enriches the religious building is the altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows made in 1722–1723 by Andrea Brustolon, “the Michelangelo of Wood”.
