Castello di Pieve di Cadore, Castle in Pieve di Cadore, Italy

Castello di Pieve di Cadore was a medieval fortification on a height at the confluence of the Boite and Piave rivers. Old depictions show a two-storey building with a quadrangular perimeter: walls dropped on three sides, the entrance lay to the north-west, prisons and cellars occupied the ground-floor north wing, and stores and armouries the opposite side. A chapel was attached; its furnishings, including a statue attributed to Mino da Pisa and two altarpieces, are now in the parish church of Pieve. The ruined site now carries the late-19th-century Castello battery.

The first fortified site recorded in Cadore, it stood on a height above the confluence of the Boite and Piave. In 1135 the da Camino acquired Cadore for the Patriarch of Aquileia, and in 1155 the castle was granted to them as a fief. Seat of the Magnifica Comunità Cadorina, it was taken by an imperial column in winter 1508, retaken after the Battle of Rusecco on 2 March 1508, and fell again in December 1511 before returning to Venetian control.

The fortress appears in Cadore's coat of arms alongside Castello di Botestagno, marking how these two sites shaped perceptions of regional power. Locals connect this place to their territorial identity and the region's medieval roots.

Marked paths lead from Pieve di Cadore up to the ruins, making the site accessible for most visitors willing to walk uphill. The elevated location means clearer visibility of the surrounding valleys and river courses below.

Before the medieval fortress was built, this location served as a sacred pagan site, showing continuous human reverence for the place across centuries. This layering of different spiritual uses reveals how the hilltop attracted people long before stone walls were raised.