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The name "Bassa"
identifies the Friuli plains
extending towards the Adriatic,
beginning more or less from the so-called
Stradalta (just a bit south
of the present-day
Strada
Napoleonica),
namely below the line of
resurgences from which
rivers or streams or
simply natural springs
often originate,
contributing to shaping the
largely anthropic
landscape. There are
several protected areas, with
important patches of woods
of the plains. The plenty of water,
the fertility of pedologically different
soils, the presence of rivers (Tagliamento, Stella,
Turgnano, Corno, Ausa, Torre, Isonzo, etc.), the
closeness to the sea, in particular to the Marano
lagoon which, together with the Grado lagoon
creates one of the most enchanting natural landscapes
in Italy, all these features have since ancient times
invited human settlements and activities,
although in the past the development of the area was
often hindered by the excess of water and lack of
regimentation (see the fall of the Roman
Empire). Since ancient times, the "Bassa" has
been an area of passage, exchange, communication,
work opportunities but, in times of crisis, sadly it
has also been the target of incursions,
devastations, invasions and
poverty, and therefore also
the people living here are of
different origins: although the
Friulian roots prevail, there are
also Venetian and Slav people, as
well as from other Italian
regions, all of them, nonetheless,
the bringers of new ideas, even
though, in town planning and art
for example, some differences are
evident between the so-called
eastern and the western
"Bassa". Almost four
hundred years of
Hapsburg rule, ended
in 1915, have left deep
marks, but such rule
was differently received by the substantially Venetian
part of the area (until the Treaty of Campoformido
in 1797) and Italian area (since 1866), and on the
whole these factors have left here the highest
concentration of artistic elements, thus more and more
developing the tourist vocation of the area.
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