The Municipal Museum of Selva di Cadore contains an important example of cultural life expressed by a tiny mountain community, who understood long ago the value of rediscovering and developing its roots. The museum structure started work in 1982 with the indispensable and positive support of the Town Council, with contributions from various public bodies and with materials offered by private individuals and catalogued by the "Friends of the Museum".

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION: In 1985, Prof. Antonio Guerreschi was consulted, who is professor of palaeontology at the University of Ferrara. From 1986 to 2000, he led fifteen archaeological digs. With the help of experts and students, very important evidence of human inhabitation were found, dating back more than 80 centuries. The museum has thus acquired fundamental prestige and reputation, apart from the various finds, for the valuable treasure it is housing: the accurate reconstruction of a burial site, with the original skeleton, of a Mesolithic hunter. This was discovered in a little high valley called Mondeval de Sora in 1987. Here, near an erratic boulder of Dolomia rock detached from the Lastoni di Formin, Vittorino Cazzetta, from Pescul in Selva di Cadore found some remains. He is a self-taught enthusiast of his homeland, both from the geological and from a historical viewpoint. These remains (in particular stone artefacts and remnants of a meal) were in the earth accumulated by a marmot which had dug out its burrow in the earth. The very important find at the Mondeval site constitutes a very significant discovery, both scientifically and culturally. It is the only Mesolithic burial site at a high altitude (about 2150 metres) found until now. It is also important because it was possible to find exceptionally well preserved organic evidence, notably remains of a meal and of resin with bee-glue, which has led to new studies and discoveries by the experts. Today, the skeleton of the Mesolithic hunter, with his rich funeral accoutrements, is lying in a great shrine that represents his grave, as he appeared in 1987 to Prof. Guerreschi and his colleagues. The room of the so-called Mondeval Man, suitably air-conditioned to preserve the skeleton, constitutes without doubt the exhibition that most attracts the interest of visitors.
The museum also houses various remains, both originals and copies, from the late Neolithic period, the Aeneolithic period, the Iron age, and the Roman and early Mediaeval periods.

HISTORY SECTION: The History section of the museum presents a collection of antique parchments, that give visitors an overview of centuries of history and of the problems the community of Selva di Cadore met. There are also exhibits of new illustrations with corresponding notes to the mining industry, on the smelting furnaces in Val Fiorentina, on the iron ways and Andraz Castle.

PALAEONTOLOGICAL SECTION: In the new geo-palaeontological section, you can admire an exhibition of fossils coming from the stratification of the Triassic period in Val Fiorentina. There is an impressive plaster-cast made from the surfaces of a boulder which became detached from Pelmetto (the lower part of Monte Pelmo), which shows the footprints made by three species of primitive dinosaurs, which are represented by plastic models below the plaster-cast. The surfaces, probably of calcareous silt, in which the footprints were made dates back about 220 million years.