Conegliano historical timeline

Origins

The hill was fortified early -- the name is generally read as Collis, "hill" -- and the castle above the town is documented from the tenth century, controlling the route from the plain into the Alpine valleys.

Turning points

Conegliano submitted to Venice in 1389 and remained Venetian until 1797. Under the Republic it was a modest administrative and agricultural centre, and that long stability is what preserved the arcaded medieval street plan largely intact.

Influential people

Giovanni Battista Cima, born here around 1459, became one of the leading painters of the Venetian Renaissance. His landscapes are unusually specific for the period, and the hills behind his figures are recognisably these ones.

Cultural evolution

The Scuola Enologica opened in 1876, the first institution of its kind in Italy, and shifted winemaking here from craft to method. Its graduates spread the approach nationally, which is the real reason this small town's name is on so many bottles.

Present-day significance

The Piave front ran just east of here in 1917-18, and the war left its mark on the town and its memorials. In 2019 the hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene were inscribed by UNESCO as a cultural landscape -- recognition of the terraces and the labour that maintains them, not of the wine.