BELLUNO and FELTRE, DIOCESE of. — B., a city of Venetia (approx. 27,000 inhabitants), is the capital of the province of the same name (3,676 sq. km and approx. 235,000 inhabitants), which includes the town of F., with a population of 19,000 in the entire municipality and approx. 6,500 in the inhabited centre. Both being episcopal sees, their territory extends north of the dioceses of Treviso and Vittorio Veneto, comprising the upper valley of the Piave and of its tributaries above the Fenèr narrows (Valdobbiadene). From their origins they formed two distinct dioceses, of which the first records date from the second half of the 6th century, in connection with the schism of the Three Chapters; but nothing can be said concerning their origin. They persisted throughout the Middle Ages, enriched with privileges by the Carolingian sovereigns and the kings of Italy. On 29 October 1184 Lucius III confirmed to the bishop of F. the possessions he enjoyed, and on 18 October 1185 did the same for the bishop of B. Reduced to critical circumstances because of their conflicts with the commune of Treviso, the two dioceses were united under a single bishop, while retaining their separate territories, by Pope Celestine III in 1197, in the person of Drudo da Camino, bishop of F. The union lasted until 7 June 1460, when Pius II decreed that the two dioceses should be separated at the first vacancy. When, in fact, Bishop Francesco di Legname died on 11 January 1462, Teodoro Lelli received F. on 15 February, and Lodovico Donato B. on 2 April; the dioceses thus remained separate until 1 May 1818, when, pursuant to the agreements reached with Emperor Francis I of Austria, Pius VII reunited them under a single prelate, keeping their territories distinct and requiring residence alternately in both; in recent years this obligation was removed, the see being established at B. On this occasion they were united with the other Venetian dioceses under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Venice, whereas previously they had been dependent on the Patriarchate of Aquileia and, after 1751, on the Archbishop of Udine. At that time their diocesan boundaries were also modified. Pope Gregory XVI, who was born in B., on 30 April 1846 detached the territory of Cadore from the diocese of Udine and incorporated it into that of B., to which it was much closer.
The diocese of B. and F. has 120 parishes, with 193,863 souls, 211 diocesan priests, and 56 religious priests (1948).
Among the most distinguished bishops of B. are Cardinal Gaspare Contarini (1536–42) and Alvise Lollino, a celebrated scholar; among the bishops of F., Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio (1512–1520) and his brother Tommaso (1520–46).
The cathedral, the work of Tullio Lombardo, completed only on the interior (1517–60), was built in place of another, fifteenth-century cathedral of smaller dimensions: the interior, with three naves, harmonious in the proportions of its very lofty pillars and in the succession of its seven lateral round arches, is made richer by seventeenth-century altars of multicoloured marble, flanked by statues of saints and surmounted by canvases by Schiavone, Jacopo da Ponte, Palma il Giovane, and Cesare Vecellio (the S. Sebastiano of 1584 is by the latter). The apse rises upon a bastion of the ancient walls. In the underground sacristy is preserved a polyptych by Simone da Cusighe (1397), La vita di s. Martino, resting upon a splendid fourteenth-century ark of gilded marble and porphyry.
The bell tower (1732–43) rises on the south side of the cathedral, surmounted by a bronze angel by Juvarra. In front of it is the baptistery, in the church of the Madonna delle Grazie (1520): the baptismal font of brecciated marble is adorned with wooden sculptures and surmounted by the statuette of the Baptist by Brustolon.
Also worthy of note are the church of S. Stefano, in Italian Gothic forms and with three naves (second half of the fifteenth century), with a gilded wooden altar reproducing in carved work an altarpiece by Alvise Vivarini, executed by Andrea di Foro (fifteenth century), and the eighteenth-century church of S. Pietro, with interesting Baroque altars,
two large carved wooden altarpieces, Crocifissione e Morte di s. Francesco Saverio, masterpieces by Brustolon, and frescoes by Sebastiano Ricci.
There are numerous civil buildings of artistic interest, the most important being the palazzo dei Rettori. Begun in 1491 in place of another dating from 1409, it was the work either of a nephew of Ghiberti or of the Venetian Candi. The bell tower is the sole remnant of the ancient palace of the count-bishop, alongside which stands the civic museum, formerly the seat of the college of doctors, where canvases by Giorgione and Palma il Giovane, and works by Cellini, are collected.
Characteristic for their projecting first floors are the numerous patrician houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, decorated with Roman antiquities in their entrance halls.
The town hall, in neo-Gothic forms (1838), by Segusin, who also designed the Neoclassical theatre, has preserved some elements of the ancient palace of the council of nobles, unfortunately demolished in the last century in order to build the present courthouse.
Porta Rugo (1522) preserves the Venetian tower of the fifteenth century; Porta Dojona, with its central arch surmounted by the Venetian lion, was built in 1553 in place of a thirteenth-century gate, from which it retains the original wooden leaves (1200).