Pieve di Cadore, "citta d'arte", for the richness of its historical, artistic and environmental heritage and "Walled Town of the Veneto" for the presence of a system of defensive walls dating to the modern period (the end of the nineteenth century), consisting of the fortifications of Monte Ricco, Batteria Castello and Col Vaccher. In Roman times, thanks to its strategic geographical position, Pieve obtained and has since maintained an importance as a political, administrative, religious and cultural reference point for the Cadore region, as the fifteenth century Palazzo della Magnifica Comunità di Cadore (historical institution of government in the Cadore), the Archdeaconry Church of S. Maria Nascente (the Assumption of the Virgin) and the treasures it contains aswell as the numerous historic houses of the old town centre many of which are to be found in the beautiful Piazza Tiziano with its statue of the great Pieve-born artist, bear witness. The house of Titian's birth, a national monument, also forms part of the historic town centre, the buildings of which testify to the changes which the economic prosperity following Venetian domination brought to architectural traditions. Pieve di Cadore also hosts three exceptional and highly relevant cultural institutions which reinforce its status as 'citta d'arte': the Archeological Museum, situated in the Palazzo della Magnifica Comunita` and among the most important of the Veneto, with its Paleoveneto, Roman and Celtic finds discovered in the Lagole and Central Cadore areas; the Museo dell'Occhiale, which has one of the largest and most interesting collections of reading glasses in the world and the Foundation for Titian and Cadore Studies, set up by the Magnifica Comunità and by Pieve town council and supported by the most important public and private organisations of the Belluno region, an institution whose purpose is to promote research on Titian and on the Cadore area and also to take responsibility for cultural events. Among other initiatives aimed at enhancing the local archeological heritage, excavations are currently in progress in the area in front of the Council buildings which have brought to light the remains of a Roman house (discovered in 1951), datable to the second century before Christ and of particular interest as a result of its hipocaustum heating system and its geometrically- decorated mosaic floor. The Archdeaconry Church, probably founded in the eleventh century and dedicated to S. Maria Nascente, for which, between 1560 and 1565 Titian painted the altar piece S. Tiziano, is the Mother Church of the Cadore. The current building replaced the medieval church in the eighteenth century, however the works of art that the church contains remain to bear witness to the passage of peoples and cultures and to highlight the importance that Pieve, through its church, has given to unity in the face of diversity.