ItalianoSappada Dolomiti
Summer and winter tourist resort in the heart of the Dolomites
The history of the country
Around the year 1000, around fifteen families from neighboring Austria settled in the then uninhabited valley.
For this reason Sappada is a linguistic island where even today we speak a dialect of German very similar to the dialects of the neighboring countries of the Austrians and Bavaria.
The village is made up of characteristic wooden houses that recall the austrian architecture, set in the sunny north slope of the valley. Around the country green pastures for the breeding of cattle, rye fields, oats, barley and vegetables.
In 1852 Sappada, then part of the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom, passed from the Province of Friuli to that of Belluno. The 263 family heads called to vote if they wanted to go to the province of Belluno or not, unanimously chose Belluno. In 1866 it was annexed to Italy.
During the First World War no decisive battles were fought on the surrounding mountains, but positions on the front were maintained, of which the remains can still be found today. Many sappadine also were Carnic carriers, women who voluntarily made hundreds of meters in altitude several times a day to replenish Italian soldiers at the front with food and ammunition. After the route of Caporetto the village was evacuated also because of the suspicion that the inhabitants could nourish pro-Austrian sympathies because of their dialect: the population was collected in Tuscany and in the municipality of Arezzo the temporary seat of the municipality of Sappada was established from 1917 to
1919; some arrived in Campania and Sicily.
In the second world war the country was part of the Free Republic of Carnia and was the scene of clashes between partisans and Germans. Some sappadins were taken to concentration camps, including Dachau. In the post-war period, due to the shortage of work, many sappadins emigrated abroad, particularly in Switzerland and Germany. Later the development of tourism also changed the economy of the country and many emigrants returned home to devote themselves to tertiary activity. In the seventies Sappada was included in the Magnificent Community of Cadore, although not part of the historical territory of Cadore.
November 5, 2017 officially twinned with Arezzo. In December of the same year it became part of the province of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia while remaining an integral part of Cadore