Gosaldo
Gosaldo is a small municipality in the Dolomiti Agordine, in the Belluno area, tucked among woods and peaks approaching two thousa...
Updated 12 July 2026
The story
The story of Gosaldo
In the heart of the Dolomiti Agordine
Gosaldo lies in the Agordino, the western part of the province of Belluno dominated by the Dolomites, in a side valley opening towards the Passo Cereda and the border with Trentino, not far from San Martino di Castrozza. The municipal territory includes several hamlets scattered among conifer woods and high-altitude pastures, with a landscape less frequented than the more famous valleys of the Belluno Dolomites such as the Alleghe area or the Alto Cordevole. This is real mountain terrain, with long winters and an economy that has always had to contend with land difficult to farm, which is why craftsmanship and seasonal emigration became, over the centuries, the village's true resource.
The Ethnographic Museum of the Chair-Maker
The cultural heart of Gosaldo is the Ethnographic Museum of the Chair-Maker, which preserves objects, photographs and testimonies linked to the craft of chair-making and chair-caning, as well as woodworking, wrought iron and mountain dairy activity. The museum tells a precise productive identity: that of a community which managed to turn a craft skill passed down from father to son into a genuine subsistence economy, able to hold up even in the hardest periods. It is a small but meaningful stop for anyone wanting to understand how life was lived, and in part still is, in these remote corners of the Dolomites.
The chair-maker's craft and seasonal emigration
From the 18th century until the 1950s, men and boys from Gosaldo left every year, on foot or by whatever means they could find, to sell rush-seated chairs they had made by hand across Italy and beyond, often carrying their tools with them. This form of seasonal emigration, also common in other Agordino villages such as Rivamonte, intertwined with more permanent emigration to the United States between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when many people from the Belluno area left to work in the mines of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and other American states. It is a story of hard work and ingenuity that today survives mainly in memory and in the village museum.
Passo Cereda and the mountain trails
The Passo Cereda, on the edge of the municipal territory, connects the Agordino with the Primiero area in Trentino and is a classic starting point for hikes towards the Pale di San Martino and the other Dolomite peaks surrounding the valley. Trails of varying difficulty branch out from Gosaldo, suitable both for family walks through the woods and for more demanding hikes at higher altitudes. This is not an area equipped for mass tourism, with lifts or large facilities: those looking for the more crowded Dolomite mountains should look elsewhere, but those wanting quiet trails and genuine views will find a good starting point here.
A mountain village, depopulated but genuine
Like many municipalities in the Agordino, Gosaldo has lived with strong depopulation for decades: the more isolated hamlets have lost much of their population, and services have gradually concentrated in the main village. This is a reality worth telling honestly, without softening a condition common to the whole Belluno mountains. At the same time, this depopulation has partly preserved an untouched landscape and traditional rural architecture, in stone and wood, which visitors seeking authenticity know how to appreciate. Gosaldo is not designed for mass tourism, but for those who love genuine mountains, small community museums and a pace of life that still follows the seasons.
Experiences not to miss
- Visit the Ethnographic Museum of the Chair-Maker and discover the chair-caners' craft
- Follow the trails towards Passo Cereda and the Pale di San Martino
- Taste the cheeses and dairy products from the local mountain huts
- Explore the scattered hamlets and traditional rural architecture
- Spend a quiet mountain day away from the more crowded Dolomites
To see
