Timeline
Caterina Cornaro, Asolo Municipality photo
The Castle, Moro photo
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THE HISTORY
Its great location and wonderful climate made Asolo a population centre right from prehistoric times and later a principal settlement for the Veneto people.
Acelum, the Asolo of Roman times, went through a period of great expansion: the town that also became municipium, developed mainly between the first century BC and the first century AD. Archaeological remains and findings - housed in a special section of the City Museum- document the present of a spa, an aqueduct, a forum and a theatre testifying to the importance of Asolo in Roman times.
A very ancient centre of Christianity as far back as the sixth century, the city had a bishop and was the centre of the diocese until 969 when it became enfeoffed to the bishopric of Treviso. At different times between the XIth and XIVth centuries it knew the hegemony of various powerful families (Tempesta, Ezzelini, da Camino, Scaligeri, Carraresi) and finally fell under the sway of Venice.
From the end of the fourteenth century with the Venetian denomination, the centre entered a period of great splendour. In 1489 Venice bestowed upon Caterina Cornaro, former Queen of Cyprus, the Seigniory of Asolo. She created a magnificent Renaissance court of artists, men of letters and poets and left an indelible imprint in the art and in the very ideal of the city. Through Venice, Asolo received far-reaching urban reorganisation and its big brother bound it to itself and its aristocracy inextricably until the fall of the Venetian Republic. "Asolo is Venice and Venice is Asolo" goes the saying to underline the similarity of the atmosphere that is demonstrated in the architecture and in the spirit of the towns.
The year 1797 saw the entrance of Napoleon. In the nineteenth century under the dominion of Austria, Asolo was involved in the reforms of the civil institutions and by a programme of public works, such as the revamping of the Duse Theatre. It finally became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
A curious testimony to the events in Asolo's history during the XIXth century is the old clock with an enormous pendulum hidden behind the counter in a wine shop in via Browning, not far from the Teatro dei Rinnovati. The events of the city's history are noted down here starting from the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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