Calmaggiore Historical Timeline

Origins

The street follows the Roman decumanus maximus of Tarvisium, the main east-west axis, which is why it runs straight through a centre that is otherwise irregular.

Turning points

It became the commercial spine of the medieval city, linking civic power at one end to religious power at the other -- an arrangement that shaped which families built along it.

Influential people

The merchant houses that lined it frescoed their upper facades from the fourteenth century onward, part of the tradition that earned Treviso the name urbs picta.

Cultural evolution

The continuous arcade made the street usable year-round and gave shops covered frontage, a function it still performs.

Present-day significance

The 1944 bombing damaged much of it and the rebuilding was done in period, so the street reads as older than a good deal of it is.