Oaths and blasphemies: sometimes you just need a confessional!
A couple of years ago, I gave a lesson on toponymy to the students of the Classical High School of San Vito. Among the Ampezzo place names somehow linked to religion — from Pies de ra Mognes to Sas del Morto and many others — I also included Confescionario.
It is a narrow passage between two rocks, located not far from the Cason de Col de Vido, at the foot of the Rocchette. One of these two large boulders is officially recorded as “el Confescionario,” meaning the confessional.
Until about twenty years ago, the forest road climbing up from Socol was much narrower at that point. It must always have been difficult to pass through with carts and sleds, so much so that lumber haulers had to pay great attention to their loads, to avoid getting stuck between the rocks.
It seems that besides the shape of the large boulder — which, before being reshaped for the passage of today’s forestry vehicles, vaguely resembled an actual confessional — the name also stems from the curses that must have echoed for centuries between those stones.
It is therefore a place name born out of irony, one that unfortunately has now lost part of its meaning. The students, to whom I tried to present toponymy in a way that was both scientific and cheerful, even light-hearted, were fascinated by this explanation — and that pleased me greatly.
I passed through the Confescionario for the last time five summers ago, descending from the Rocchetta di Campolongo: once solitary, that place is now painfully silent.
Taken from: “Il Notiziario di Cortina”
