The Villa Tauro complex stands out clearly over the Centenere countryside, in an environmental context that has completely retained its agricultural appearance.
It is one of the first examples of a 17th-century Belluno manor house. It was built by the Tauro family between the first and second half of the 1600s. In 1811, Francesco Tauro was the owner, and in the tax records of that year, the fishpond fed by the Buda stream is described. Surrounding it were gardens, meadows, orchards, fields, and woods. Among what remains, from the art collections of Count Tauro, arranged in a vaulted space of the rustic wing and its related porch, stands out the Mile Marker of the Claudia Augusta Altinate, discovered in the parish church of Cesio in 1786.
The complex is now characterized by an "L" shape. A detached building, which defined a closed courtyard, was on the other side but was demolished in the first half of the 20th century to allow for an opening towards the countryside. To the north, alongside the oratory, there is an addition, made after World War I, of the "ritonda," connected to the kitchen. Isolated to the east is the more recent barn, now out of use.
The park sloping down towards the Caorame valley, arranged in the second decade of the 1800s, featured elements typical of the picturesque 19th century: avenues, groves, a fishpond or heart-shaped lake, and an English-style wood with oaks of which only young specimens remain today. The oratory, commissioned by Francesco Tauro and dedicated to St. Francis, was probably completed in 1694, a date inscribed on the bell.
The facade is in a Baroque style, and the interior, with a rectangular hall, features a wooden altar and a canvas by Luigi Cima. Thanks especially to the current owners' passion for the villa and the countryside in which it is set, it relives the splendor of bygone days, with its interior furnishings, regularly mowed lawns, and trimmed hedges.
