They tell a story about...: The history of raftmen and timber-floating along the well known Piave river could appear to be a limited topic, but in reality, wood activity, wood work, trade and transporting, for centuries was one of the main Bellunese economic and historic points. The museum intends to illustrate all aspects concerning moving great quantities of timber, by floating, first freely followed by being tied at rafts, from the Belluno province valleys towards the Veneto plain and mostly towards Venezia along what was then called the via maestra for transport, the Piave river. The human events regard a period that goes from the Roman times to the beginning of the industrial society, which in a short time cut off ways of life which had lasted for centuries without substantial changes. The responsible people for these gigantic movements were the menadas and the raftmen. Codissago a small village on the left hand side of the Piave river in front of Castellavazzo, an antique raft port, whose inhabitants profession for many centuries was raftmen, with the making of this museum, built thanks to their hard work and the collaboration of Prof. Giuseppe Sebesta, that the historic memory of these great works would not be lost. Besides all the workers, woodmen, cartwrights, menadas, sawyers etc… of the other Bellunese Dolomite valleys. The museum is set out on three floors with 10 rooms. Room I: The raft in prehistoric times Room II: The raft in antique literature Room III: The raft in medieval times Room IV: Cultivation and cutting woods Room V: Removal of timber to transfer it up to the river (sledges, carts, slides, telpher) Room VI-VII: Timber floating works used to control the transfer of trunks up to the sawmills (Stue, cidoli, roste) Room VIII: The great venetian sawmill systems on the Piave from Perarolo di Cadore to Longarone and on the Cordevole . Room IX-X: the Piave rafts and sailing to Venice, transported materials and their place of origin, use of timber and of the materials transported with the rafts. Rafting along European rivers. Other sections present: the raftmen costumes and religion tied to the Piave raftmen. …dear reader, as an adventure, should you visit the Wiel sawmill, and the kind and smart director of the establishment invites you for a short stop at the owners house which is situated at a couple of steps from there, don't let him ask you twice: accept the invite, and once you have entered into the ground floor sitting room of the simple but elegant home, look out of the window in front of you. At your feet, the Piave runs and looses itself down the vast valley, next to you is the sawmill establishment with its various departments, with its constant varied working movement, and all around are mountains or green coverings or barren and naked, or due to their distance being vapoured and blured, or the mountain tops covered in snow. That small village at your right hand side, on the river bank is Codissago, fully inhabited by raft conductors and constructors. They are real amphibians, every so often you see them dive into the water up to their waist, to either block a piece of wood which has dived itself from the others, or to start the raft which has got stuck on the bank: they then take their place again, entrusting the sun to dry their clothes. Some of them belong to the establishments further up in the Cadore, and after a couple of hours sleep, in the middle of the night they have to leave their home in Codissago and start off along the deserted road towards Perarolo, where only the sound of the river answers the uniform noise of their walk. Amidst this existence, which does not know any kind of relaxation, small fortunes are made, and between the Codissago inhabitants, there are some well off families whom have no intention to abandon their fathers job and the traditional raft. Nino Castelnuovo 1864 From the "Piano della Laguna" the rafts used to come down in front of Longarone: here they past in delivery to a second group of raftmen which would drive them up to "Porto di San Nicolo della Piave" where, by order of the Gran Consiglio, all the floating rafts had to stop for one night, tied to the "soga", between the Anta and Lambioi. Early in the morning, the praised Onnipotente, the Beatissima Vergine and the Beato San Nicolo, the rafts started their journey towards the Laguna. From Belluno towards Feltre, from this point below the mountains, between the "gole" of Quero and Fener, between the Grappa and the plain, between the hills of Asolo and the Endimione, until coming out into the Valdobbiadene territory, to arrive before evening, in Falze in front of Montello, where the Nervesa raftmen received loads and obliged to deliver them to Ponte di Piave; it is so that the Basilica of Venezia leans its foundations on the Cadore tree trunks. The marvellous story of the raft as it has been passed down to us, is strongly linked to Venezia. It starts in Roma, carrying on through the rough contrasting centuries between the roman east and the longobard, franc West. The men who dominated have been described by the expert Enovi: "here, on the shore, on the surfacing rocks, between the bristly bushes on the precipice, some men with bare legs, with trousers rolled up to their thighs, holding onto the edge with their feet and one hand while their body and arm outstretched into the water. The arm was armed with a long, straight rod, ending with a point or a steel hook. There they are catching the trunks with that diabolic instrument, pulling and pushing and catching with knocks and jerks, until they were placed back into the current which pulls and rolls them along. THE RAFTMEN For more than ten centuries, the Piave has been passed through by the raft transporting timber coming from the Visdende, Cadore, Cansiglio and Zoldano woods. The timber, in loose trunks (the so called "menade") arrive up to Perarolo through the Boite, Ansiei and Alto Piave. In Perarolo, in the confluence of the Boite with the Piave, the river becomes bigger and could then transport the rafts. Therefore these were built in Perarolo, in Rivalgo, in Ospitale and Roggia (at Castellavazzo) and Fae. The rafts were prepared and taken up to Longarone by the same binders. In Longarone the Ponte nelle Alpi and Polpet raftmen would take the ones made on the premises and the ones arriving from villages up the river and they would transport them to Belluno. In Belluno they were taken by the Borgopiave raftmen who would deliver them to Borgopiave and then changed again to Falze di Piave. The Nervesa raftmen would go up to Falze and take the rafts to San Dona di Piave. The San Dona di Piave raftmen would finally transport them to Venezia. The raft started its journey together with a policy which listed all the timber in different measurement which made the raft up. On arrival at the ports of Longarone, Belluno, Falze di Piave, Ponte di Piave and Venezia, port agents would check eventual missing timber and note it on the policy. The missing timber were settled at the quarterly payments. Up to Ponte di Piave, the rafts flowed regularly along the river current. After this point, the river used to undergo an inflow from the sea, so the rafts would be put together in lines of 8-10 or even 15 rafts each and they would go along the Piave in such a way, taking advantage of the inflow, which happened at a distance of six hours; for six hours they would go down the river and for another six hours (in the flow period) they remained still. The raftmen were known as: - "menadas" (those who took the loose trunks up to Perarolo); - "legatori" (those who made the rafts); - "zattieri" the real ones, those who sailed along the long tortuous river. The raftmen were divided into: - "caporal di manamestro" (the head of crew) - "caporal di manafant" (the second) - "codagn" (those who stayed at stern, for each raft there were minimum two maximum four, according to the rafts weight and width. The rafts dimensions usually were 4.20 m wide by 20,30 in length. But there were many of them especially when they had to transport antennas to form the tree of ships, which reached up to 25-28 meters in length. Once the rafts reached Venezia, they were untied and the timber would then be put into store and in warehouses scheduled for their use and therefore sold. The major part of these warehouses were found along the Fondamenta "foundation" so called of the rafts. Up to 1886 transporting timber was carried out in this unique way. With the coming of the railway up to Belluno, which happened in 1886, a part of timber was transported on the plain with the new modern mean of transport. The railway track carried on to Calalzo, and the raft transportation underwent another cut, the roads improved and the use of heavy transport increased and the floating transportation decreased year by year, until it ceased completely. Once the activity had ceased completely, the building of hydroelectric plants along the river also contributed.