Paleontological Museum
“Rinaldo Zardini”

The museum greets visitors to the geo-paleontological and prehistoric archaeology sections on the first floor. A large panel welcomes visitors, locating the origins of material collections on display at the museum. Also near the entrance is a large print of Vittorino Cazzetta, to whom the museum is dedicated: a self-taught scientist and explorer, and responsible for the discovery of numerous findings, with roots in Selva di Cadore. In the corridor of the entrance are raccontati compositions and geological processes that brought to the present-day Dolomites, from the tropical sea to the formation of the mountains, with specific attention to the Val Fiorentina. In two panels, descriptions also extraction of local minerals, the nearby mines of Fursil and the “Strada della Vena” and various other “iron roads”.
In the large exhibit room, a collection of fossils and rocks document processes of transformation of the Dolomites during the Triassic. The exhibit is enriched by a large plaster cast, placed along the wall of the museum which reproduces the boulder found at the base of Monte Pelmetto on which were discovered the footprints of dinosaurs: the effect of a holographic projection on the cast is translated in a suggestive fashion the dinosaur while it walks along making footprints.
The prehistoric archaeology section contextualises the mesolithic burial at Mondeval in the phase of seasonal semi-nomadic in the alpine area. We can underline the importance of the archaeological site of Mondeval de Sora (2150 m above sea level), and is also the highest prehistoric burial discovered in Europe. Also illustrated is character of subsistence economy practiced by groups of hunter-gatherers that frequented the high alpine grasslands of the Dolomites. This section hosts, apart from a collection of artifacts associated with the site, is a reconstruction of a dwelling that the group of Mondeval constructed, besides the burial, in correspondence of the erratic on the site. The museum itinerary concludes with a suggestive exhibit of the burial which can be dated to 7500 years before the present.
The section which comprises the protohistoric material, roman and historic is on the second floor of the museum. The itinerary follows an order of chronology presenting first the frequenting of the area between the late Neolithic and the copper age, with lithic complexes coming from the finding of Mandriz (1750 m above sea level), and proceeds with the exhibit of a cast of a stele with inscription in ancient Veneto language from Monte Pore, up to plaster casts of the rock inscription from Roman times which marks the ancient border on Monte Civetta. Following are various and sporadic discoveries from the medieval which attest to the frequentation especially of pastoralists of the surrounding alpine grasslands, also those most impervious at high elevation. Finally, presented are the nucleus consisting of ancient precious documents which document the history of Selva di Cadore and its connection with the surrounding area, especially in relation to the important mineral resources of the valley. The historical part finishes with a stone carving of the lion of marciano which is referenced to the concluding period of the Serenissima, together with an old gonfalone of the Municipality of Selva di Cadore.

Itinerario Cinque Torri