In 1900 the five De Vido brothers bought the mills at the Chiapuzza bridge, in San Vito di Cadore, which in 1850 belonged to the Fiori Cucco family and after that to the Menegus Friz family. The De Vido mill-sawmill-workshop sits on the Boite torrent, near the popular little lake of San Vito (or Mosigo), and over the years was subjected to various types of maintenance work; in particular, following the fire in 1957 and the flood in 1966, the damage was so severe that the decision was taken to build a new sawmill downstream from the previous one and to replace the Venetian-style saw dated 1856 with a blade that ran on electricity. The cereal mill, located in the central building – which today has been turned into a home – remained in operation until 1949: it had a barley crusher made from Castellavazzo stone and two millstones, which have been recovered and are displayed outside the building. The sawmill business remains in operation today, with the use of modern machinery, but the structure of the premises conserves all of the original features: in addition to the fine machinery and the original motion distribution system, the working environments have remained unchanged, as have the lodgings of the mill workers, with their original furnishings and tools. Especially since the flood in 1882, the De Vido mill and sawmill has been an important centre for cereals and wood for the whole of the San Vito and Ampezzo community, who took their produce there for processing before exporting the finished products – first on horseback, via Cavallera/Fadalto, and then by rail - to Conegliano and from there on to Venice.

From the SS51 for Cortina, at the end of the village of San Vito, take the road that runs to the craft area of Mosigo, downstream from the little bridge across the river, a few kilometres further down the flow of the Pordon wool mill (see the previous file).

ACCESSIBLE: private property, but easily accessible, compatible with the business activity still carried out there
MUNICIPALITY: San Vito di Cadore
PLACE: Via Mosigo, 79
GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES: X 1746051 – Y 5149806
PROVINCE: Belluno

FILE COMPILED BY: Antoniol

Well worth visiting in San Vito is the Museum of Popular Traditions (ES 152), located in the former dairy at Resinego di Sotto. Among the interesting ethnographical exhibits that can be admired there are a number of types of channels and water pipes made from wood and used in the Cadore until the latter decades of the 19th century.

C. Dal Mas, C. De Angelis, Cadore:  Musei e Territorio, degree thesis from IUAV, Venice, academic year 1996-97
Ursus, Segherie in Cadore, taken from the magazine “Cadore”, III, 2, March/April 1943