What is San Vito di Cadore known for?

The 3,264-meter king of the Dolomites, the second-highest peak after the Marmolada, rising directly above the village. Sixteenth-century altarpiece by Francesco Vecellio, Tiziano's younger brother, in the Chiesa della Madonna della Difesa. The Lunga Via delle Dolomiti cycle path, built on the Calalzo-Cortina railway bed, crosses the commune on its way north.

Where is San Vito di Cadore?

San Vito di Cadore is a comune in the province of Belluno, Veneto region of Italy, about 151 kilometers from Venezia.

Veneto · Belluno

San Vito di Cadore

A Cadore valley village at 1,011 meters between the Antelao and the Pelmo, ten kilometers south of Cortina and built around a fifteenth-century frescoed chapel.

1011m

Elevation

151 km / 94 mi

Nearest hub (Venezia)

1,938

Population

Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Greenways

Why come

San Vito di Cadore sits at 1,011 meters in the upper Boite valley between Antelao, the 3,264-meter king of the Dolomites, and the Pelmo across the valley to the west, ten kilometers south of Cortina d'Ampezzo. The road from Belluno to Cortina runs through the centro. The commune appears in records from 1208, when the parish church of Saints Vito, Modesto and Crescenzia was first documented. The Chiesa della Madonna della Difesa, at the village's south end, was built in the late fifteenth century and remodeled into the sixteenth, frescoed throughout and holding an altarpiece by Francesco Vecellio, Tiziano's younger brother, whose family came from the next valley. Tourism arrived in the mid-nineteenth century and grew steadily after the 1950s. Lago di Mosigo, an artificial lake created in 1929 to drain a marsh, is the summer center of the village. The Lunga Via delle Dolomiti cycle path crosses the commune on the old Calalzo-Cortina railway bed, the basis of the Greenways recognition.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa della Madonna della Difesa
Late fifteenth-century Gothic chapel frescoed throughout, holding an altarpiece by Francesco Vecellio, Tiziano's younger brother.
Chiesa dei Santi Vito, Modesto e Crescenzia
Parish church first documented in 1208, rebuilt in the eighteenth century with frescoed ceilings and wooden altars by local craftsmen.
Lago di Mosigo
Artificial lake created in 1929 from a drained marsh, the village's summer center with a circular walking path and the Pelmo above it.
Monte Antelao
3,264-meter peak, second highest of the Dolomites after the Marmolada and known as the king of the Dolomites.
Lunga Via delle Dolomiti
Cycle path on the bed of the old Calalzo-Cortina railway, crossing San Vito on its way north toward Cortina and the Cadore tunnels.

When to visit

Best months · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

December through March is the winter season: skiing at San Vito and the connected Cortina domain, ice skating on the frozen Mosigo when it holds, and quiet evenings between hotels and the centro. The summer season runs June through September, walking in the Antelao and Pelmo basins, refuge dinners at Galassi and Venezia, and cycling the Lunga Via toward Cortina. April, May, October and November are the quiet months. Many hotels close, the lifts close, the Antelao north face holds snow into early summer. The view from Lago di Mosigo toward the Pelmo is at its sharpest in late October, when the larches turn gold against the gray rock above the village.