<p>According to experts, the name of Cortina derives from the Latin &quot;curtis&quot;, which in the early Middle Ages indicated small territorial units that were part of a fiefdom, and including hous...

According to experts, the name of Cortina derives from the Latin "curtis", which in the early Middle Ages indicated small territorial units that were part of a fiefdom, and including houses and lands. However, "Cortina" could also indicate a "small courtyard", that is, a space delimited by a low wall, used in the past for religious functions and as a cemetery.

According to the scholar Mario Toller, Ampezzo also draws its origins from Latin: either from the phrase ad piceum, that is "near the fir", or from the word amplitium (in turn deriving from amplus, "large"), that is "open place and spacious ".

The name Cortina d’Ampezzo comes after the First World War. The settlement built in the center of the Ampezzo Valley had the name of Cortina. Cortina means closed or in any case fenced area. Since ancient times, in the valley floor, where there is now the Parish Church, there was a cemetery surrounded by a wall. For this reason the town was called with the name of Cortina which, in the Ladin language, means cemetery.