Cansiglio (''Canséi '' or'' Canséjo'' in

Venetian language Venetian, wider Venetian or Venetan ( or ) is a Romance language spoken natively in the northeast of Italy,Ethnologue mostly in the Veneto region, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and ofte ...

) is a

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

in the northern-Italian

Prealps The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (german: Voralpen; french: Préalpes; it, Prealpi; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bava ...

, included in the provinces of Belluno,

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

and

Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'. H ...

. Cansiglio is home to a very small

Language island A language island (a calque of German ''Sprachinsel''; also language enclave, language pocket) is an enclave of a language that is surrounded by one or more different languages. The term was introduced in 1847. Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens, Paul Ker ...

Cimbrian Cimbrian ( cim, zimbar, links=no, ; german: Zimbrisch; it, cimbro) refers to any of several local Upper German varieties spoken in northeastern Italy. The speakers of the language are known as ''Zimbern'' in German. Cimbrian is a German ...

Geography

The plateau rises immediately above the

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. ...

below, at more than above the sea level. It is in fact formed by a basin surrounded by rocky peaks, such as Monte Costa, the Cima Valsotta, Monte Millifret,

Pizzoc Pizzoc is a mountain of the Veneto, Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory large ...

and the Monte Cavallo; these mountains separate the Cansiglio from the short Val Lapisina valley and from

Piancavallo Piancavallo is a ski resort in the Dolomites of northern Italy. It is a '' frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Aviano, in the province of Pordenone in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Piancavallo is situated at above sea level, at the foot of Monte Cavallo ...

. The plateau features several examples of

Karst topography Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ...

, including several

sinkholes A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

and

ponor A ponor is a natural opening where surface water enters into underground passages; they may be found in karst landscapes where the geology and the geomorphology is typically dominated by porous limestone rock. Ponors can drain stream or lake wate ...

s. The main ones are the ''Bus de la Lum'', '' Bus della Genziana'' and ''Abisso del Col della Rizza'', with a deepness of, respectively, -180, -585 and -794 meters. Most of the territory of Cansiglio is covered by woods, mostly composed of local

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

es, although there are also non-autochthonous coniferous trees such as the

European spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very clo ...

. Due to the climatic characteristics of the plateau, the vegetation follows a more inverted distribution than usual: species typical of colder environments occupy the lower altitudes, and those typical of milder ones are at higher altitudes.

Anemone ''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand ...

s grow in large number under the beeches in summer. Large open spaces are used as pastures for

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sh ...

and

bovine Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship be ...

History

Pre-historic remains showed that the area was inhabited since as early as the 8th millennium BC. However, the area is mentioned officially for the first time in a 923 document, a diploma by which emperor

Berengar I of Italy Berengar I ( la, Berengarius, Perngarius; it, Berengario; – 7 April 924) was the king of Italy from 887. He was Holy Roman Emperor between 915 and his death in 924. He is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friu ...

donated it to the bishop of Belluno. An 1185 papal bull issued by

Lucius III Pope Lucius III (c. 1097 – 25 November 1185), born Ubaldo Allucingoli, reigned from 1 September 1181 to his death in 1185. Born of an aristocratic family of Lucca, prior to being elected pope, he had a long career as a papal diplomat. His pa ...

called it ''Campum silium''. In 1404, together with

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites regi ...

, it became part of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia ...

. After the latter's collapse and the period of Austrian dominance, it became a statal property under the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and ...

(late 19th century). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Cansiglio was the seat of partisan resistance against the German occupation. After a mop-up operation in late August-early September 1944, which ended with a German- RSI victory, the ''Bus de la Lum'' was used as an improvised cemetery for casualties from both sides, as well as of local civilians killed by the Germans after the partisans had escaped.

External links

Cansiglio website

Page at the Veneto region website

{{Coord missing, Italy Landforms of Veneto Landforms of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Karst Plateaus of Italy