Piazza dei Martiri

Piazza dei Martiri is an open civic space in Belluno whose gardens and porticoes frame a central place of remembrance. Its present name commemorates four partisans killed here on 17 March 1945.

Why it matters

Salvatore Cacciatore, Giuseppe De Zordo, Valentino Andreani and Gianni Piazza were hanged by Nazi forces in a reprisal. Their deaths transformed the meaning of a square previously associated with markets and public gatherings. The place now carries both the everyday history of the city and the memory of the Resistance.

What to notice

The porticoed buildings and broad pedestrian terrace known as the liston define the square's urban character. The gardens reflect an arrangement developed in the 1920s by Alberto Alpago Novello. Augusto Murer's Resistance monument, inaugurated in 1965, gives sculptural form to the commemorative identity of the space.

Context and history

Formerly known as Campedel or Campitello, the area developed outside the medieval walls as open ground for markets and civic activity. Its later landscaping and memorials added new layers without erasing that older role as a gathering place.