| Municipality of Maniago
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Pop.: 11,702
Area: 69,11 sq. km, 283 m a.s.l.
Neighbourhoods: Campagna, Dandolo, Fratta, Maniago Libero
Town Hall: Piazza Italia, 18 - 33085 Maniago
Phone.: 0427.707111 Fax: 0427.707200
www.comune.maniago.pn.it
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Maniago is the hometown of
famous knife makers (as
witnessed by the Museo dell'Arte
fabbrile e delle Coltellerie- Museum
of smithery and knife makinghoused
in the former spinning mills), although
it holds interesting artistic surprises. The
starting point for visitors must be the Duomo
of San Mauro: built in 1488 (but walled
fragments of sculptures indicate an earlier
history), it has a gabled façade with wide
portal, spiral columns betraying, as in the rose
window with trefoil arcs, a late-Gothic taste;
in the pointed lunette is a blessing Holy
Father. The campanile, built slightly later than
the church and often modified, appears now
in its 18th-century aspect. The trussed-roof
single nave of the duomo offers various
paintings, from the 14th-century fresco
fragments of Saints' heads in the right apse
chapel (showing an interest for Emilian
early 14th-century painting common to
many local artists, probably influenced by
the presence in Veneto
and Friuli of Tomaso da
Modena and Vitale da
Bologna),
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to the triptych by G. de Cramariis, formed by the side panels
with SS. Lucia and Apollonia and the central
panel with Death and Resurrection of the
Virgin complemented with a small wooden
sculpture of Virgin with Child (14th-century,
at present replaced by a copy) set against a
painted background with two Angels holding
the hedges of a red damask cloth. As De
Cramariis is also the author of the precious
decoration of the Duomo of Spilimbergo choir
books, he managed to retain in this triptych
the same graphic refinement and colour
vividness he had acquired in
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producing his
illuminated printings. The extant fragment
of a wide triptych frescoed at the end of the
nave left wall- probably attributable to one of
Bellunello's followers- portrays St. Rocco
(end of 15th cent.) who must have been
accompanied by St. Sebastian and Virgin
with Child. The right apse chapel houses
the altarpiece by Pomponio Amalteo
showing Christ in Triumph among
SS. John the Baptist, John the
Evangelist, Joseph, Peter and
James (1558), while the altar
step shows three
scenes from the Baptist's life. Unfortunately,
much of Amalteo's frescoes on the apse vault
(1572 ca.) was lost. The Duomo also has
conspicuous examples of 17th- and 18thcentury
painting as Isaak Fischer's Trinity of
1668 or, in the left apse chapel Tommaso
Vecellio's Virgin of the Rosary with Child and
SS. Domenico and Caterina da Siena
(1625), as well as St. Pietro di
Alcantara (1720) by G. Brusaferro on
the controfacciata or the Altarpiece
of San Vincenzo (1765
ca.) by G. De Gobbis on
the second altar to the
right.
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Nor are sculptures
here less outstanding:
suffice it to mention the
wooden altars of the
Rosary (1628 ca.) and
St. Rocco, attributed to
Giovanni Auregne's studio, or the high altar
in polychrome marble coming from the
Bettanellis' studio in Venice (1693), or still
the baptismal font (1549) after Meduno's style
with putti supporting the basin. Not far from
the Duomo the large Piazza Italia spreads
around the mid-19th-century monumental
fountain. Among the buildings fronting onto
the square it is certainly the Renaissance
Palazzo d'Attimis-Maniago that catches the
eye, with its strong rampant St. Mark's lion
probably painted by Amalteo (mid-16th cent.).
Another symbol of the Serenissima's
power is the Virgin
with Child
in Triumph with Saints and the Venice
Republic (1673) by O. Gortanutti in the public
Loggia. The nearby church of Immacolata
Concezione conceals its Renaissance origins
under the 1778 front designed by A. Aprilis
and has inside the monument to Nicolò
Giacomo of Maniago (1868) with bas-relief
by L. Minisini, whereas a wooden altar
attributable to G. Auregne and
containing a painting by L. Candido
(1637) is to be found, instead, in
the church of San Carlo
Borromeo (1637).
Outside the town centre
are the older churches
of San Lorenzo in
Monte and San
Giacomo di Castello
(before 1291), the latter,
crowded up to the castle
ruins, still preserving fragments of 15th-century
frescoes coming from the old church of
Nogaredo al Torre and a few stone reliefs.
Frescoes by T. Donadon (1925), a
16th-century stone font with painted wood
cover, the high altar with tabernacle in
polychrome marble and organ with singers'
gallery by -Zuane Topan- (both dating to the
1700s) enrich the church of SS. Vito,
Modesto and Crescenzia at
Maniago Libero.
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While the Maniago area has been
marked by the century-old tradition of
knife makers, that has provided the
necessary support to its industrial
growth, Spilimbergo has
had a similar
experience
in the field of
mosaic
creation, as
the local
Mosaic School has
worked for decades at
the highest levels, also
obtaining important
international orders. But
Spilimbergo is...go
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