The town of Giorgione
Castelfranco Veneto owes its name to the absence (“franco”) of the castle tax which was not levied on either its first defenders or on its inhabitants. At the end of the XII century, the medieval municipality of Treviso erected the impressive red-brick square frame work on top of the pre-existing banks east of the Muson stream just slightly north of the Pieve Nova village, as a stronghold to guard the turbulent borders between the territories of Padua and Vicenza.
It was a walled city by definition, and still preserves the old city walls, almost completely intact, with six towers at the four corners and in the mean points to the east and to the south. Castelfranco Veneto’s 800 years of history is irrevocably linked to its strategic position in central Veneto region and was Venice’s gateway towards Germany and Flanders, to western Europe and the Eastern plains. Originally a city of commerce and seat of an ancient cattle and grain market still active until the first half of the last century, it also became a centre for artisanal trades and an excellent railway junction from the end of the 19th century until recent times.
It was Venice’s seat of power from 1339 to 1797, home to scientists (Jacopo, Giordano and Vincenzo Riccati), architects (Francesco Maria Preti) and famed musicians (Agostino Steffani). Castelfranco Veneto is universally renowned for being the birthplace of Giorgione (1478-1510), one of the most extraordinary and enigmatic figures in the history of painting: a mysterious genius of light and colour. The city still preserves his famous Pala, in the S.Liberale Cathedral.

 
Click here to visit the Town Hall site