The name of Belluno is believed to derive from the Celtic "belo-dunum", or "the splendid city". The city was "Romanized" in 181 B.C. (the year Acquileia was founded) and the "municipium Bellunum" became part, at the time of Augustus, of the X Regio Venetia et histria. After the invasions of various German tribes, the decadence of the Roman and Byzantine city, Langobard (6th century A.C.) and Carolingian (7th century A.C.) rules, around the year one thousand the aristocratic rule of the Bishop Conte was established, and the Medieval city with its castle, city walls, gates and towers took shape

When the city voluntarily annexed itself to Venezia in 1404, the periodical external wars against the rulers of Treviso and the internal conflicts among different factions came to an end. It was consequently possible to renew the urban tissue, with the construction of houses and palaces on the part of the nobility and the new middle classes, due to the prosperity favoured by the intense trade with Venezia, which the city supplied with wood and swords. In those centuries the Piave was a very important trade route transporting rafts with precious wood from the forests of Cadore, which reached the ocean to supply the Serenissima Republic and its artisans, sawmills and harbours. After the brief Napoleonic period (1797-1815), during which the Piave Department was created, Belluno was annexed by Austria and then by the Kingdom of Italy.

Belluno is a placid city, with an air "one does not have to breathe, as it penetrates by itself"; and yet its citizens are anything by placid. Since ancient times the people of these mountains have been considered adventurous and very industrious. It would otherwise be impossible to explain how an internationally leading glasses industry, which produces and exports millions of frames every year, has prospered in a few years in this mountainous region.

The unique scenery of the Dolomites offers tourists - both in summer and during the winter season - famous resorts as Cortina d'Ampezzo ("the pearl of the Dolomites"), Agordo, San Martino di Castrozza.