The first settlements date to the iron age as the numerous archaeological finds dating to the Paleoveneto civilization testify. The Romans came to the Cadore in the second century BC and Pieve was probably a military base .On the Montericco hill there was a temple dedicated to Mars over which, with the arrival of Christianity in the 5th century, the first Christian church of the area, dedicated to St Peter the Apostle, was built, for many years the centre of an ecclesiastical district which covered the whole Cadore region. It was in this period that Pieve became the regional capital and administrative centre of the region, a status which it has maintained to this day.

After the end of the successive Longobard and Frankish periods of domination, in 787 the Cadore became part of the Patriarchate of Aquileia. Almost certainly in the 11th century the new church was built in the town centre, which became the mother church of the area and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Pieve's castle was also built in this period. At the same time a local administrative structure began to take shape: in a document of 1199, in fact, the "marigo" and the "Regole" are mentioned for the first time, the bases of the future administrative structure of the Magnifica Comunita`. The ecclesiastical institution of the Archdeaconry also dates to this period, whilst the Archdeaconry Church remained the only baptismal church in the region.

Once the period of Carminesi domination was over in 1337, local political and social life was transformed and the people of the Cadore drew up a Statute which was approved by the Patriarch and by Charles of Luxemburg, under whose protection the Cadore region put itself. The right of the region to keep its first statutes was also recognized by the Venetians, to whose control the people of the Cadore decided to submit themselves in 1420 in exchange for various privileges. In 1444 work began on the Palazzo of the Magnifica Comunita`. A captain, military commander and holder of executive power, was elected by the Veneto Senate and lived in Pieve's castle. When Maximilian the First of the Hapsburgs took power in the Tyrol, the castle and various towns of the region were destroyed. In 1508 the people of the Cadore together with the Venetians defeated the Imperial troops in the Battle of Rusecco.

In 1511 the castle again fell under German control and the Cadore Statute was requisitioned - in spite of numerous attempts to reacquire this it has never been given back and is now kept in Innsbruck. The long period of peace which begun in 1516 and ended with the Napoleonic invasions of 1797 favoured the economic development of the town and the consequent formation of a trading class which subsequently became an administrative and ecclesiastical ruling class but which never acquired noble status as this was forbidden by the Statute.

In the second half of the 16th century the appearance of the town changed considerably thanks to the timber-trade wealth of a few families who built stone houses in the Veneto style. That of the Austrians followed French domination, a period characterised by famine, disease and poverty. With the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the Cadore became part of the Lombard-Veneto reign and economic recovery coincided with territorial reorganization. The Alemagna road, linking the Pusteria with the Veneto plains, was built.

In 1848 the people of the Cadore decided to rise up against the Austrians and nearly 4000 men put themselves under the command of Pietro Fortunato Calvi. The town was decorated with a gold medal for bravery for its heroic behaviour during this battle. After the annexation of the Cadore to Italy (1866), Pieve saw the publication of many magazines and newspapers and became an important tourist destination (Giosue` Carducci was among its guests). However subsequent economic crisis obliged many to emigrate.

During the First World War the Austrians destroyed the fort of Monte Ricco, built on the remains of the castle. At the end of the war many new public works were undertaken, including the building of the Dolomite Railway linking Calalzo to Dobbiaco, a railway line which remained active from 1920 to 1964. When the Fascists came to power one of the Cadore people's basic historical rights was removed - that entitling them to elect representatives to the Magnifica Comunita`- and a new economic crisis favoured a further wave of emigration that would last until the 1960s. During the Second World War, after the 8th of September, Pieve and its hinterland became part of Hitler's Alpenvorland and the first partisan groups were formed, called the "Brigata Calvi" after the courageous fighter for freedom.

In the last three decades of the 20th century industrial development in the reading glasses sector overtook the Cadore, a process which has re-emphasized the central importance of the town that hosts the hospital, the high schools, offices, businesses and voluntary organizations. The Palazzo della Magnifica Comunita`, with its Archaeological Museum, Titian's House and that of Tiziano l'Oratore, together with the Archdeaconry Church of S. Maria Nascente and the Reading Glasses Museum, form the town's cultural attractions, alongside the natural beauty of the landscape and the hospitality shown by its inhabitants.