BELLUNO (anc. Bellunum)  , a city and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, the capital of the province of Belluno, N. of Treviso, 54 M. by rail and 28 m. direct . Pop . (1901) town, 6898; commune, 19,050 . It is situated in the valley of the Piave, at its confluence with the Ardo, 1285 ft. above sea-level, among the lower Venetian Alps . It was a Roman municipium . In the middle ages it went through various vicissitudes; it fell under the dominion of Venice in 1511, and remained Venetian until 1797 . Its buildings present Venetian characteristics; it has some good palaces, notably the fine early Lombard Renaissance Palazzo dei Rettori, now the seat of the prefecture . The cathedral, erected after 1517 by Tullio Lombardo, was much damaged by the earthquake of 1873, which destroyed a considerable portion of the town, though the campanile, 217 ft. high, erected in 1732–1743, stood firm . The facade was never finished . Important remains of prehistoric settlements have been found in the vicinity; cf . G . Ghirardini in Notizie degli Scavi, 1883, 27, on the necropolis of Caverzano .

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