| Municipality of Valvasone
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Pop.: 1,936
Area: 17,86 sq. km, 59 m a.s.l.
Neighbourhoods: Casamatta, Pozzo Dipinto, Ponte
Tagliamento, Torricella
Town Hall: Piazza Mercato, 1 - 33098 Valvasone
Phone.: 0434.89022 Fax: 0434.899220
www.comune.valvasone.pn.it
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The town's historical centre
revolves around the castle and
the duomo. The former, whose
long and complex restoration is
being completed, is medieval in
origin, though what is seen of it, once you
access the ring of walls through the entrance
tower, is mostly 16th-century work. This
outside facies, rather rough and highlighting
the defensive structures of the castle, hides
the rich decorations inside, made of
frescoes, painted cantinelle (long wooden
strips) and stuccoes, not forgetting the
picturesque attraction of an 18th-century
small theatre. A few steps along the
cobbled alleys will lead you into the
cosy Piazza del Duomo. Dedicated
to the Santissimo Corpo di
Cristo, the present outlook of the
church does not betray its
origins: built in the 15th century,
it was remodelled in Neo-Gothic
style between 1800s and 1900s.
Inside, however, the exquisite
pipe organ case built in Venice by
V. Colombo (1532-1538) is
embellished by Pordenone's and
P. Amalteo's paintings, the latter
having succeeded to his master who
had began the painting of the case doors
years before. The subjects of the paintings
are the Fall of Manna from Heaven outside
on the doors, and Isaac's Sacrifice and
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Melchizedek's Sacrifice inside, to which the
Episodes from the Life of Christ were added
on the cantoria (singers' gallery) panels in
1551. Amalteo's dymanic -mannerism-
finds its continuity in the Duomo thanks to
the trait of G. Quaglio, the author of
Sta. Caterina's Mystic Marriage (1701), and
becomes baroque movement in the same
altar marble relief, attributed to Cabianca.
200 metres away, the church of San Pietro
Apostolo offers high examples of devotional
mural painting thanks to Pietro da Vicenza's
frescoes (early 16th
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cent.) organized in
polyptychs on the walls: small round
arches and lintels with classicising
ornamental patterns (as the large vase with
-bucrani- ox heads-, for example) create
niches which host, in an orderly way, the
Holy Trinity among SS. Bartolomeo and
Biagio, John the Baptist and Lucia,
Apollonia and Caterina, Antonio Abate and
Gottardo; SS. Christopher and Girolamo;
Enthroned Virgin with SS. Sebastian, Rocco,
Leonardo and Giobbe. The sacred
decoration of the church is completed by a
controfacciata fresco portraying Christ on
the Cross among the Virgin, St. John and
SS. Peter and Paul (end of 14th cent.),
as well as two 17th-century wooden altars.
Above the portal is a 17th-century pipe
organ. Facing the church, Casa Fortuni is
surprising with its stucco trompe l'oeil,
while, a few steps away, on the front of
another building, an Enthroned Virgin with
Child between SS. Sebastian and Rocco
attributable to Pietro da San Vito
(early 16th cent.) is just an example of the
several frescoes to be found on
the walls of Valvasone, ranging from
geometrical drawings to more
complex figurative fragments (among
which the portraits and popular episodes
recently restored inside
Palazzo Duilio Paribelli in
Piazza Mercato are remarkable).
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The whole central-eastern area of the
province is deeply marked by the
presence of waterways (which are
torrential streams at their sources
and acquire a more regular
flow further south),
first of all River
Tagliamento,
marking the eastern
border of the province,
whose fords have
determined the
distribution of towns
for centuries, hence the
impressive images of...go
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