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Stone and wood.  These are the symbol and the end result of the traditional minor architecture of theprovince of Belluno, which is still very much alive - and lived in - today. The characteristics of the local buildings were undoubtedly influenced by the materials available nearby, but also by the domination of the Roman Empire; it was the Romans who introduced the use of stone, which distinguished the local buildings from the alpine regions across the border, where wood was mostly used. The Dolomite regions are a mixture of these two philosophies, with buildings normally made up of a single unit with the ground floor in stone masonry and the upper floor in wood. In the large Ampezzano basin [1] the houses were built lengthways with the side entrance, cattle shed and hayshed standing out against the terse blue sky above the silhouette of the Dolomite peaks.

The old-style dwellings of the Cadore are very similar in shape, but both the ground floor and upper floors were mostly built in stone. In the Val di Zoldo [2], the oldest dwellings date back to the second half of the 17^th century, and are wooden buildings on a stone foundation. As in the rest of the province, here the house and the shed were a single building, at least until the 16^th century, when, in order to avoid the spread of fires, the houses started to be built separately from the sheds. The limited spaces of the Val di Zoldo also favoured the system of building upwards rather than lengthways, with houses solidly anchored to the sunny, green slopes of the mountains and hillsides. The same occurred in the area of Livinallongo del Col di Lana [3], where you can find as many as three floors built in stone and the other half built in wood, for the cattle shed and the hayshed. A particular characteristic of rural architecture in all of these areas is the present-day custom of decorating the houses with flowers throughout the summer, which create marvellous displays of colour on the sun-kissed balconies.

It is in fact common throughout the province to build the balconies facing south so they can also be used for drying out pulses and cereals. In the East Tyrol, wood is the material most commonly found in rural architecture. Over a thousand tree trunks are necessary to build a house, and in many cases the houses appear today very much as they did in the past, because wooden dwellings are easy to maintain and to conserve and wood components can be replaced easily in any season or weather conditions. In this area of Austria the stone houses are often in pastel colours: turquoise, pale yellow, pink and sage green brighten many city streets. [R.D.N.]