Asolo

History

The town was originally a settlement of the Veneti, and was mentioned as Acelum in the works of Pliny. Its citizens were inscribed into the Roman tribe Claudia. It was called Acelum in the acts of a synod held in Marano in 588 or 591, since one of the participants was Agnellus episcopus sanctae Acelinae ecclesiae; the name Asolo was already in use by the time of a synod held in Mantua in 827 (or perhaps 835), at which the participation of Arthemius episcopus Asolensis is noted. In 969, Emperor Otto I assigned the territory of the diocese of Acelum/Asolo to the diocese of Treviso. This action may be related to the destruction caused by the Hungarian raiders who in 899 defeated Berengar I of Italy near the town. However, one of the bishops at a synod at Rome under Pope Leo IX in 1049 was called Ugo of Asolo. No longer a residential bishopric, Acelum is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

In the early Middle Ages Asolo was a possession of the Ezzelini family. Later, it was the capital, and seat of the court, of the fiefdom of Asolo, which was granted by the Republic of Venice (to which it belonged) to Caterina Cornaro, the former Queen of Cyprus; in 1489 it was granted to her for life, but in 1509 when the League of Cambrai conquered and ransacked Asolo, Caterina fled to exile and died in Venice a year later. Under her reign, the painter Gentile Bellini, the poet Andrea Navagero, and the humanist Cardinal Pietro Bembo were part of the court.

In 1798, the Italian impresario Antonio Locatelli built the Asolo Theatre in the former audience hall of the castle of Caterina Cornaro.

The theatre was later purchased by Florida, for the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. The theatre was disassembled, shipped to Sarasota, Florida, and reassembled in one of the museum's galleries in 1952.

It was then decided that the theatre should be reassembled into a usable theatre, on the museum's grounds in the late 1950s. The Historic Asolo Theater opened in 1958, and is now the home of the museum's Art of Performance program. Additionally, this theater was the birthplace for the Asolo Repertory Theatre and the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

The town was also home to the English poet Robert Browning, the actress Eleonora Duse, the explorer Freya Stark, the violinist Wilma Neruda and the composer Gian Francesco Malipiero. …

Main sights

Remains of an amphitheatre (in the Villa Freya) and of an aqueduct.

Rocca (castle, late 12th-early 13th centuries).

The Castle of Caterina Cornaro, now home to the Eleonora Duse theatre.

Palazzo della Ragione, housing the city's museum.

The cathedral, built in 1747. In the interior is the Assunta altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto.

For many years, the Convento di Santo Pietro (situated just below la Rocca) housed an American university: Consortium International for Management and Business Analysis (CIMBA). Students from all over the world lived, studied, and worked in the converted convent in Asolo while earning their MBA. The CIMBA program has since relocated to a larger campus in nearby Paderno del Grappa.

Chiesa dell'Assunta (Assumption of Our Lady, who is portrayed in the mosaic of the main façade), the cathedral of the former residential see of Acelum or Asolo.

Chiesa di San Gottardo (deconsecrated): it now hosts music concerts.

Chiesa di Santa Caterina, with frescos from the 14th century

Chiesa di Sant'Anna, next to the cemetery where Freya Stark and Eleonora Duse are buried.