Late autumn and winter are the best times to meditate along these ancient traces. You will discover a magical landscape, the cold fog of the valley floor will accelerate your walk almost halfway, where you will be blinded by the heat of the sun with the peaks of Valbelluna that emerge as small islands in a sea of clouds.
This small sanctuary built above the ruins of an ancient watchtower at 929 meters on Mount Avena is the subject of many popular legends. For the feast of the Sanctuary, which is celebrated on August 11, pilgrims walk up the steep path, with devotees asking for protection from the "toss pagana", whooping cough, and also support to new mothers and their newborns. In the 1800s, along the path that leads to the Sanctuary, sacred shrines were erected as signs at crossroads and stopping points. The place was used militarily since Roman times and throughout the Middle Ages and was abandoned by the Venetian Republic. The same water tank, strange and shaped like a basin, may have been a brazier for optical signals.
This itinerary, which has as its destination the little church of the Saints Tiburzio and Susanna, is actually dotted with numerous signs of popular devotion. From the sports field of Facen, where it's possible to park, you go towards the little square and take the steep Via Anconetta. At a crossroads, almost hidden by a small wall of concrete, is located Sass del Diaol: a porphyry boulder on whose surface, in an unspecified period, a series of overlapping crosses was engraved. These could be interpreted as processional signs, to indicate to pilgrims the way up to the sanctuary.
Continuing west with more moderate slopes, you can reach a capital in which the Madonna and Child is depicted together with Saints Vito and Modesto. Here you wander around the back of a house with a wall fresco of St. Antonio da Padova, entering a grove with white hornbeams with ribbed and twisted stems. Once you reach another aedicule dedicated to the “Madonna and Child”, this time accompanied by St. Tiburzio and St. Susanna, the route begins to climb through the woods.
After a sharp bend to the left, take a steep path which then continues with a lesser slope up to a wooden crucifix. Continuing, you enter a flat mule track, which you follow for a very short stretch, returning further up the steeper track. If the day is particularly humid, there is a good chance you will spot a conspicuous salamander. You are now at the end of the path. The small church of St. Tiburzio and St. Susanna appears above us, resting on a rocky outcrop, in a dominant position over the Feltre basin. It is included in the Park's "Chiesette pedemontane" thematic itinerary, which connects 13 houses of worship located on the slopes of the Belluno Dolomites. Going up the ridge above, a dirt road is reached; this leads to a meadowy slope where a number of casère rise, preserving traditional elements such as stone slab roofing. From here you begin to descend, passing more rustic cottages in panoramic locations and continuing to follow the more obvious trail, which maintains a stony ground and a hairpin curve. The southern exposure favors the presence of plants that love light and tolerate arid soil conditions, such as larch and juniper. For a short trail the itinerary overlaps with Via Tilman, a hiking trail that winds between Falcade and Asiago, dedicated to the British major who between 1944 and 1945 was engaged in the Belluno area in an operation to support the Resistance.
When you reach a small grassy hump (0.50 hours from St. Susanna), leave the road that descends toward Fiere to take the steep path “delle musse”, used in the past for transporting on wooden sleds loads of hay and wood to the valley. After passing two votive shrines, the walk is accompanied by pleasant glimpses of the rural landscape. Then having reached Via Anconetta, near the capital, follow it to return to the starting point.
FURTHER INFORMATION ON... The popular devotion in Facen
The Facen Parish Church is the result of enlargement works carried out between 1866 and 1927. However, the interior walls have preserved interesting traces of frescoes painted between the 15th and 17th centuries. It is sufficient to mention: in the hall the 15th-century Crucifixion, then the 16th-century Saints Vittore and Corona, and the 17th-century Annunciation on the triumphal arch. A splendid 15th-century stone tabernacle is walled in the Presbytery. Above all, however, there is the Sanctuary of Saints Tiburzio and Susanna, erected by a hermit between the 15th and 16th centuries on the remains of an ancient fortification. According to tradition, the intervention of the Devil during the work formed the Sass del Diaol, a well in which collected rainwater acquired miraculous properties. The current building is the result of various renovations: in 1863, in particular, the four-columned pronaos was added. Above the entrance the Patron Saints are depicted. The Sanctuary has always been a destination for pilgrimages by the people of Feltre, especially on May 1st for the Rogation Day and the feast of August 11th, when the community of Facen goes up in procession along the ancient path.
