History, traditions and Museums

The triangular-shaped tower, an original, unique, piece of architecture, is located on a cliff overlooking the Piave and has always aroused interest and amazement. The Gardona is often referred to as a tower, fortilitium or pass, but its role as a customs checkpoint for transit towards Cadore is undoubted. It is currently the heraldic symbol of the coat of arms of the Municipality of Longarone.

At the top of the village once stood the castle of Lavazzo, on the ruins of which the ancient parish church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta was later enlarged. Inside, there are some works of art, amongst which, noteworthy are a seventeenth-century painting by an anonymous artist representing the Madonna del Rosario, crowned by two angels, and the altarpiece by Egidio Dall’Oglio, an eighteenth-century artist, portray the martyrdom of Giulitta and her little son Quirico, which took place around the year 304.
The recently restored organ is played during the most important festivities.
Not far away is the oratory of Sant’Elena.

This is the only museum in Italy that documents the stages of woodworking to make the characteristic rafts. From the menedàs that marked the wood, to the cutting of the wood, to the flowing, to the following construction of the rafts and to the conductors, raftsmen, of these great rafts that allowed the transport of the wood to the valley. This ancient activity has documented origins as far back as Roman times, in 200 A. D.
The Museum has been created by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ancient raftsmen, so as not to forget the great work carried out for centuries by their ancestors on the river and to keep alive the ancient technique used to make these large rafts.
10 exhibition halls can be visited, where explanatory panels and interesting captions comment on the activity of cutting and transporting wood, with the help of photographs, ancient artefacts and some models studied in detail.

A completely renovated museum, dedicated to the ancient trade of quarryman, stonemason and stone processing, which have always accompanied the life of this small mountain village.
Of great importance is the Neronian Stone, made in the very first decades after Christ, as it testifies the use of the Castellavazzo Stone already in the Roman age.

The cemetery of Muda Maè belongs to those works of collective character that were built immediately after the Vajont disaster. It was designed in 1966 by the architects Avon, Tentori and Zanuso and is known for its specific position, dominated in the background by the valley of the dam.

Museo LONGARONE VAJONT attimi di storia. In the centre of Longarone, since 2009, there has been a museum dedicated to the history of Longarone and Vajont, which, through a large collection of historical images, artefacts, testimonies and films, allows visitors to find out about and deepen their knowledge of the local history. It traces the history of the town and the nearby villages before the Vajont Tragedy, the construction of the dam, the disaster of 9 October 1963, the intervention of the rescuers and the reconstruction of Longarone today.