At the mouth of the Val Cordevole is the little village of San Gottardo and the church of the same name that once welcomed wayfarers, pilgrims and the sick who travelled along the flow of the torrent and up on the right along the so-called “Via degli Ospizi”. The present-day village of San Gottardo was originally a temporary home for the monks during the work carried out on the nearby Charterhouse (21 HAA), and here we can see the mediaeval church of Vedana, dedicated to San Marco. The little church was one of the most popular sanctuaries in the Belluno area, given the devotion of the locals to San Gottardo, a Benedictine saint that cured and protected wayfarers: another church dedicated to the same saint, called upon to protect the ferrymen, can be found at Caorera di Quero, where the last of the ferries ran across the middle stretch of the Piave. The present-day church, in the municipality of Sospirolo, built towards the middle of the 15th century and modified thereafter, once contained altars and works of art, some of which are conserved elsewhere. San Gottardo is said to have performed a miracle that brought up spring water from the ground, and indeed there are documentary references to water with curative properties near the church. Not far from the little village is the small natural lake of Vedana (112 NS), set within the area of stony ground known as the Masiere. This is a rare example of a lakeside environment in the lower part of the province of Belluno, of morainic origin, formed on what was once the bed of the Cordevole torrent and fed from underground water veins. The landscape thus created around the lake is a splendid example of pre-alpine flora, the plant and landscape components of which blend attractively to form particularly beautiful scenery.

San Gottardo can be reached by following the road on the right that forks off after the Mas bridge over the Cordevole, near the end of the village. Once you come to the walls around the Charterhouse of Vedana (after 1750 m), turn right again for about 700 m along a good tarmac road. At the end of the village is the start of the “Via degli Ospizi” route, which heads towards the Agordino area.

ACCESSIBLE: from the outside
MUNICIPALITY: Sospirolo
PLACE: San Gottardo
GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES: X 1740496 – Y 5117477
PROVINCE: Belluno

FILE COMPILED BY: Nicoletti/Abordi/Lonzi

On the road that ran up the Cordevole, defined by illustrious travellers as the “shortest route into Germany”, is an anonymous single-span bridge (54 HAA), at Peron di Sedico. Only partially visible from a lay-by on the SR 203, the bridge, which is not safe to cross, cuts across a fairly shallow ravine, and may be of mediaeval origin, according to some recent studies that have yet to be published.

T. De Nardin, G. Poloniato, G. Tomasi, La via degli Ospizi. Sulle antiche tracce di viandanti in Val Cordevole, Feltre, 2002
Various Authors, Lago e Torbe di Vedana. ARPAV, 2001
L. Viel, Culti e santuari in D. Perco, La cultura popolare nel bellunese, Verona, 1995
G. Secco, La Piave, Belluno, 1990
C. Lasen, Il lago di Vedana. Dolomiti, 2, 1984
F. Tamis, La Chiesa di San Gottardo, Belluno, 1983