Over the centuries, the unique location of Tarvisio and the whole Val Canale, has led to many historical events tied to the different ethnicities of the area (Italian, Slovenian and German).
The Coccau pass, the lowest of all the passes in the Alps, has always been easy to cross at any time of year, even during the most severe winters.
As such, this pass for centuries has been seen as an useful connection with the rest of Europe.
At the beginning of the 9th century B.C. arrived the Celtic tribes in the Val Canale, including the Noricum, Carni and Taurisci.
The earliest important historical traces mainly date from the Roman period, and the today Via Romana (it is no coincidence it is called the “Roman Road”) once connected Aquileia (founded in 181 B.C.) with “Noricum”.
The Romans referred to the Celts in the Val Canale as “Norici” and spoke of the “Regnum Noricum”, a kingdom whose center was the town of Magdalenensberg, near Klagenfurt.
There were many supply stations along the road and the village of Camporosso was an important mail station.
The Roman dominion came to an end in 476 A.C. and the area was then passed through and invaded by many barbarian tribes, including the Vandals, the Goths and the Longobards.
The following centuries also saw the presence of the Wends, a Slavic population.
Some of the important historical dates for Tarvisio include the year 811, when Charles the Great established the boundary between the archdiocese of Salzburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia along the river Drau in Villach (Austria), dividing the empire into dukedoms, counties and marquisates.
This was the period when the Lordship of Federaun was established, which extended to the Val Canale and the city of Tarvisio.
In 1007, the Emperor Henry II granted the sovereignty of the Val Canale to the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, under whose jurisdiction the valley remained until 1759.
In 1456, Tarvisio was granted permission to hold an annual market.
From then on, the city enjoyed unprecedented economic growth which made it a focal point for the entire valley.
The growth of the town also helped to develop the surrounding area, such as Fusine in Valromana and Cave del Predil.
Fusine established the foundations of a future iron industry, which became a reality at the end of the 1400s thanks to the aggregation of craftsmen and the abundant natural resources of the local area: iron, wood, coal and water.
Mining developed in Cave del Predil in Roman times, and continued right up till 1991.
In 1759 the Bishop of Bamberg assigned the Val Canale to the Habsburg Maria Theresa, and the area was subsequently ruled by Austria until the end of the First World War.
Between 1797 and 1814 the area was at the center of the Napoleonic campaigns against the House of Habsburg, and for several years the valley was under French dominion.
In the middle of the 1800s the construction of the new national road replaced the Via Romana. In 1872 the Ljubljana-Tarvisio railway line was completed with a station in Boscoverde.
In 1909 the Emperor Franz Joseph I granted Tarvisio city status.
At the end of the First World War, with the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919, Tarvisio and Val Canale definitively became part of Italy.
After the Hitler-Mussolini agreement of 1939, about 80% of the German-speaking families from the valley opted for German citizenship, leaving their homes and possessions behind and moving to new homes assigned them across the border in Carinthia.
In 1943 the entire Val Canale area fell under German occupation, which continued until the end of the Second World War in 1945. The economic recovery of the area began slowly, first under the Allies and later under the Italian government, which eventually led to the commercial and tourist development of the whole area.