The archaeological picture of Roman Ceneda is fragmentary. Although only the name and judicial and administrative set up remain unknown, it may be suggested that the settlement, perhaps a vicus, was part of the ager of Opitergium during the first centuries of the empire. This centre was reached along the road which has partially survived in the so-called “Levada” of Pianzano. The hypothesis that it was a vicus is supported by finds of several fragments of votive inscriptions in the zone south of Monte S. Paolo. Structural remains are known on the flat areas to the east and south-east of the hill, attributed in literature to a generic Roman period; in the area which was crossed in antiquity by the road to Opitergium (to the south-east) and towards the Fadalto Pass (north-east) a number of burials were found at different times, most of them cremations.
In the late antique-medieval period Ceneda became a centre of importance in the eastern quadrant of the Veneto area. Mentioned by the anonymous writer from Ravenna and by Agaziz Mirino, respectively as civitas and polin, and by Paul the Deacon as a castrum, during the 7th century it became the seat of the Duchy of Lombardy and at the beginning of the 8th century the bishop’s see. Finds that are part of old acquisitions or come from surface surveys can be dated to the 6th-7th century and are in part artefacts attributable to local production, in part to foreign trade ( amphorae ), and in part to elements of military clothing.
Elements that can be dated to the 7th-8th century regard clothing and personal arms relating to the Lombard culture. Also of this date are stone fragments of furnishings from cult buildings which stood within the settlement. There is very little evidence relating to the settlement’s urban fabric. The settlement probably continued to exist in the foothills at the same time as a move was made to the slopes of Monte S. Paolo on whose southern side the early medieval castrum was probably situated. There is no archaeological evidence to support the hypothesis suggesting that a fortified settlement had already developed in this period in the zone of Serravalle, near the dam of the same name, and known from last quarter of the 12th century.
In the following centuries Ceneda found itself at the centre of a system of fortifications whose development is partly known from written, iconographical and archaeological sources. After 774 the town became an earl’s seat and remained so during the Ottonian period, during which the Bishop of Ceneda, named count in 962, transferred his residence to the Castle of S. Martino. After the year 1000 this centre remained at the fore front of politics in the Pedemontana area of Treviso and the area left of the Piave; from the 12th century, alongside the bishop’s see, the area of the Serravalle dam became a powerful centre (castrum de Serravallo), known from 1175. (MiBAC)