The city on the Sile river
Treviso is one of the art cities with medieval walls well preserved close to Venice with an important agriculture area and different industrial and commercial districts. Hence, the rivers Sile and Botteniga (or Cagnan) pass through Treviso, and since the XIVth century, its fortunes were linked to these waterways which have fostered considerable economic growth similar to that of Venice.
Waterways
Anyway, the defensive walls of Treviso date back to XVIth century implemented by a hydraulic system. Thanks to this solution, they were able to flood the countryside as a further defense. Most of all, this art city was the prime market of the mainland to the nearby Venice with whom Treviso was connected with a network of waterways. During the medieval period and under the Venetian domination, the town will take root in its aquatic nature with manufacturing products on the strength of the mills and shaping its own urban structure on intricate flows of the channels.
Since the most ancient times, there is a strong connection between the inhabitants and the surrounding landscape and fully exploited the potential offered by the nature of the place. As a result, this is what you can understand when you visit the historic center of Treviso.
Treviso and the river Sile
The earliest settlement dates back to XIVth and XIIIth century BC and the location was a fluvial island along the river Sile. Therefore, the town expands over the centuries to the surrounding areas where the reclamation works made inhabitable part of the landscape. Until the recent time, the river Sile that flows in the Veneto region was an important trading and communication route. Most of all, it connects with the Adriatic Sea giving the pleasant impression of a city whose history flows with the waterways that cross it.
In the Middle Ages, these waterways provided the motion necessary to tanneries, dyeing and paper mills. Today they give the urban tissue of an evocative and sincere place to represent the image of Treviso as city of water.
The courteous city
Poets and troubadours sang the medieval Treviso. Much as an example of “courteous city”, rich, elegant, cultured and joyously sensual.