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An unpublished collection of 47th vintage postcards of Cortina and surroundings, from the 20's to the 50's .
Chapter 9 - Life in the shadow of the Lion
Many words could be spent on how Venice treated its subjects, yet almost every aspect has already been dealt with by Italian and international scholars and usually in appreciation. The peculiarities of the ties between Cadore and the doge emerge from the "treaty" of annexation, in compliance with the principles of pragmatism , which enlightened the government of the republic. The jurists of the "counsel of Venetian senators" revised the charter of the Statutes, introducing only seven corrections, all of them substantial ones.
The "arsenale" (dockyard), a vital institution, was granted the faculty to interfere in the ownership of the forests, which the Cadorini claimed as exclusive rights (Chapter XXXV); the ships of the fleet, in fact, were built also with the timber from the Cadore forests and any external influence would have been fatal.
The total amount of fines and other pecuniary penalties (as it was formerly for customs duties) were to flow into Venetian banks; no share was to be given to local bodies (supplement, 1350); quite reasonable since the Cadorini wanted not to pay direct taxes.
Religious services were not to be subject to price-listing (Chapter VI of the provisions) as for any notary's service, but the amount of the alms for the priests was up to each individual's conscience. Secular Venice did not wish to be accused of simony.
And finally the harsh penalties - "cutting off of the tongue, branding on the face, chipping off of the hand, etc. " provided for by the Statutes for some offences (ch. XLVI, counterfeiters; ch. LI false witnesses; ch. LIV double sale of real estate; ch. LXXXII, blasphemers) - which were not allowed by the Venetian legal system because of their cruelty, had to be replaced with the penalties provided for by Venetian laws.
For the remaining parts, the republic would entirely accept what the legislators of Cadore had agreed upon, so as to safeguard social peace without jeopardizing the values from which Venice had drawn inspiration.
The Cadorini had always been travelling to Venice since times immemorial, mainly because the language was the same; in the towns of the North, instead, Brunico, Bressanone, etc., one had to speak German, a language unknown to the majority of the Cadore people. The new political status made it even easier. As already stated, all the timber from Cadore and Ampezzo reached Venice; downstream transportation was quick and economic. From the lagoon, the Cadorini used to import salt, one of the essential goods for daily life, and from the "low lands" most of the consumer goods, like cereals, wine, oil, textiles, kitchen tools, medicines, jewellery for the brides, stationary, and almost all the church ornaments and vestments. Craftsmen, even those from Ampezzo, trained in the Venetian workshops. The same craftsmen who would give origin to renowned traditions, such as glass-workers, coppersmiths, leather sellers, and, above all, carpenters and joiners, who had all trained in the workshops around the "arsenale". The children of the wealthy used to go down to the Veneto towns, mainly Padua, to study, while the young who wanted to become priests and were already attending the famous seminary of Udine, continued to go there because the tie with the diocese of the patriarchs remained unaltered.
During the winter season, many people, both men and women, used to go down to Venice for temporary jobs, like woodcutters, milk-persons, vendors of crunches or baked pears or servants in the mansions of the nobles. This social practice was maintained also after Ampezzo was annexed to the Austrian empire – as we incidentally learn from the volume of the Statutes "perché la maggior parte à figliuoli a altri parenti in Venetia" (because the majority has children or other relatives in Venice), No 12 of the chapters approved by the Council, 1608.
