| Municipality of Gradisca d Isonzo
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Pop.: 6,445
Area: 10,80 sq. km, 32 m a.s.l.
Neighbourhoods:
Town Hall: Via Ciotti, 47 - 34072 Gradisca d Isonzo
Phone.: 0481.967911 Fax: 0481.960622
www.comune.gradisca-d-isonzo.go.it
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For those arriving at Gradisca, the
impact with the urban reality is
remarkably softened by the
continuous green belt whose best
known part is Piazza Unità d'Italia,
elliptic in shape, created in 1863 after the
western walls were pulled down. Such walls
had been erected by the Serenissima at the
end of the 15th century to oppose the
Turkish invasions and formed a stronghold
to whose strengthening also Leonardo da
Vinci worked. Large parts of the imposing
defensive structure are preserved (the gate,
ramparts and moat), sometimes built straight
on rock, which culminate in the castle, the
result of Hapsburg renovations. In fact, the
Hapsburg conquered the town in 1511 and
did not lose its possession for four
centuries, notwithstanding
the Venetian attempts
to recover it in the
so-called -Gradisca
wars- in the early
1600s. The road plan is
reminiscent of the
original military
structure of the town,
although the palaces and
churches along the main streets of the
historical centre are noted for their
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typically
Venetian elegance. The 17th-century
sumptuous Palazzo Torriani, today the seat
of the Town Hall, also houses the
Civic Museum, Library and the Regional
Gallery of Contemporary Art
-L. Spazzapan-, mainly dedicated to the
paintings by L. Spazzapan, a native to the
town (1889-1958). Other buildings are
worth a visit, such as: the Monte di Pietà
(1671), with the marble statue of Francesco
Ulderico della Torre situated
halfway up the grand
staircase; the Loggia
Pubblica or dei Mercanti
(1688), where stone
exhibits are
located; Palazzo Strassoldo-Pacede
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Carnelli-Mistruzzi (16th-17th centuries); Palazzo De Fin-Patuna (18th century) and
the Casa dei Provveditori Veneti housing
the renown Enoteca Regionale -La
Serenissima-, a wine bar where the best
wines of Friuli-Venezia
Giulia may be tasted.
Apart from the Church
of the Addolorata
(Our Lady of
Sorrows), whose
interior has been
widely modified
though it
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preserves some
traces of the
original 15th-century structure in the
harmonious stone façade, the most
important religious building is the Duomo,
with its imposing late-Baroque Venetian
front. Inside, the complex high altar by
Leonardo Pacassi (1690) is quite relevant;
in the Chapel of the Torriani family (in the
western nave), decorated with elegant
stuccoes at the end of the 17th century, the
sarcophagus in northern style (1566)
portraying Nicolò II della Torre as a
warrior is visible.
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Among the smallest in Italy, Gorizia
province is a unique casket of natural,
historical and cultural beauty, benefiting
from mild climate most
of the year, a place
where, to the
north, the hilly
landscape
of the
Collio area - frequently
terraced and world
renown for its winesopens
to Europe through
the valleys of the Isonzo
and Vipacco Rivers. The
central-eastern part of the
province is of karst...go
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