The community's name, much like that of Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII, commemorates its most famous son, Giuseppe Melchiore Sarto, who later became Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X).

The territory, entirely flat, is morphologically divided into two parts: the one to the east is made up of reddish, basically arid soil, the one to the west is instead characterized by the overlapping of alluvial deposits of the Muson stream.

In 1917, after the defeat of Caporetto, Riese found itself close to the front, located on Mount Grappa and along the Piave, and trenches were dug along the Musone and north of the municipal capital.

In the Second World War, the partisan resistance was very active in the area, represented by the "Martiri del Grappa" brigade commanded by Primo Visentin of Poggiana, known by the battle name of "Masaccio" and awarded the gold medal for military valor.

In 1944, on the occasion of the exhumation of the incorrupt body of Pope Pius, the municipality of Riese welcomed the empty sarcophagus of the Supreme Pontiff to be permanently kept in the parish church of San Matteo.