Man has left a number of ancient marks in the Cinque Torri-Averau area since the early traces of seasonal settlements of shepherds and woodcutters and the alterations of the environment that followed.
An unpublished collection of 47th vintage postcards of Cortina and surroundings, from the 20's to the 50's .
The Aquileia Patriarchate
Chapter 6 - The Nobles da Camino
Crusades and Business
In the years when the emperor granted the border region to the patriarchs, so that they would keep safe the passes to descend into Italy, Aquileia was as vast as a state: from Carinthia to Verona, from the Drava where it bordered on the bishopric of Freising as far as the sea. For this reason, the patriarch grants portions of it in subfief to his subjects who are bound to him in allegiance and service as he is to the emperor. Belluno, Treviso, and Cadore are given in subfief to the counts da Camino a large village not far from Treviso, where the house originated from. The Cadorini ( and the Ampezzani) remain for nearly two centuries with the da Camino. A happy subjection for the quality of the feudal lords, less oppressive than others of the same period, for the distance, and for the poor quality of the land almost without mines and too high to encourage agriculture. The Cadorini are able to exploit their border location, as watch guards over the most important highway between Germany and the plains, thus obtaining, decade after decade, further concessions and greater freedom. Among them stands out a little code of rules, called Statute (1235), which represents the first certainty of law and rights for the Cadorini.
The counts da Camino, often engaged in the crusades against the Turks, govern the region through reliable men, called "podestà". They collect the revenues of the count, administer justice, act as witnesses in the many transactions and even in the many disputes among the village communities. Archives report a great amount of documents, in which, beyond the legal aspect, appears the growing importance of the Regole, the very famous institutions of Cadore.
Their head was called "marigo" from Latin "maricus"; the guard of the pasturelands, "saltaro", from "saltarius"; the "faula" (a Lombard word) referred both to the meadows and pastureland of collective ownership and to the assembly of the family heads. All decisions were democratically taken and then registered by the "marigo" (sometimes by a notary) in a record book called "laudo" because the approval had been "laudato" (ratified) . In the years that followed, this body of regulations, mainly concerning the management of pasturelands, became the internal regulations of each Regola. At the beginning of the 19th century as many as 27 are counted in the whole Cadore area. The word "common", often used in the documents, gradually varies its meaning: from the union of the families forming the "vicinia-regola" (neighbourhood) to the grouping of two or more Regole within the same territory, to the whole twenty-seven Regole forming the "Community or Commune of Cadore".
From the administrative point of view, the territory of Cortina is already divided by the Boite river into two parts: the "Regola of Larèto" on its left side and the "Regola of Ambrizòla" on the right one, both constituting the "Commune of Ampezzo".
The end of the da Camino's rule and of the Cadorini's subjection to them occurs because Rizzardo VI, the last member of the house has no male heir and leaves their mother Verde to look after his three daughters. This is almost a signal for Venice which rushes to occupy Treviso. Soon after, an alliance in which even king Charles of Bohemia participates, occupies Belluno and Feltre. Cadore declares its loyalty to countess Verde, but at the same time sends ambassadors to pay homage to the king of Bohemia on behalf of the "Commune and university of the Cadore land". An elegant way to disappoint nobody. The prince collects a tribute of 2,500 Venetian denari, ensures his protection, but sends no official to Cadore, that consequently starts its self-government. In 1347, at the end of the splitting up of sisters da Camino's inheritance, the patriarch gets back his fief. Meanwhile, however, the region has become a sort of small republic. The patriarch recognizes it.
