| Municipality of Palmanova
|
|
Pop.: 5,344
Area: 13,32 sq. km, 27 m a.s.l.
Neighbourhoods: Ialmicco, Sottoselva
Town Hall: P. Grande, 1 - 33057 Palmanova
Phone.: 0432.922111 Fax: 0432.923346
www.comune.palmanova.ud.it
|
|
|
The reasons that led to the
foundation of Palmanova in 1593
are found in the strained relationships
between the Republic of Venice and
the Hapsburg Empire, which had long
before deprived the Serenissima of the
Gradisca fortress and did not hide its designs
of expansion westwards; moreover, the Friuli
plain did not have any military defence in case
of emergency, as the Turkish invasions had
painfully shown. Therefore, the idea of
planning a settlement for
twenty thousand
people (though it
never
contained
more than
five or six
thousand)
must be
attributed
jointly to
Vincenzo Scamozzi and Giulio
Savorgnan, who, drawing from
the best in military town planning
and architecture, devised one of the
most perfect examples of late Renaissance
fortified cities. The city is shaped as a star
with nine points, with a highly regular
|
 |
network of concentric and
radial streets all leading to the large central
hexagon of Piazza Grande, which has been
recently restored and embellished with the
statues of the Provveditori Generali of
Palmanova set on high pedestals level with
the six streets converging here. The powerful
defensive walls consisted in a first ring of
walls (3 km in perimeter), made of barrages
and bulwarks sheltered by a moat
(37 m wide), to which a second ring of walls
was added to update the city to withstand the
modern siege techniques. Three gates were part of the original urban
|
|
plan devised by
Scamozzi: Porta Aquileia (former
Marittima), Porta Cividale (now housing the
Military Historical Museum) and Porta
Udine - preceded by the lithe structure of
the aqueduct. The gates combine
functionality aimed at control with
typically Venetian formal
elegance: watch towers,
communication trenches and
balustrades are all framed
on the outside within
scroll elements,
inscriptions,
rusticated
ashlars, semicolumns,
etc. The
French occupation at
the end of the 1700s left
indelible traces also in
the urban plan since
Napoleon, who had
chosen Palmanova as his
headquarters, in order to
withstand the increased
cannon ranges, ordered
another ring of walls to be built
fitted with the so-called "lunette"
(moon-shaped ramparts). New functional
structures were built on Napoleon's orders:
powder magazines, blockhouses, storerooms
for weapons, clothes, goods and lodgings for
troops, all works that are well-preserved. In
order to improve the strategic control of the
plain, three villages near the city were pulled
down (Ronchis, Palmada, San Lorenzo). The
Treaty of Campoformido in 1797 marked a
short-lived period of Austrian rule: in 1805
the star-shaped city became part of the Reign
of Italy and it was on this occasion that the
old name of Palma was changed to
Palmanova. After the radiant Napoleonic era
had come to an end, the city remained under
Austrian rule for half a century before being
definitively annexed to Italy in 1866 after the
3rd Independence War. The sumptuous
Duomo of Santissimo Redentore
(1603-1639) belongs to the original project
and was probably devised by the fortifications
office of the Serenissima. Its white façade,
divided into three parts by two orders of
columns, culminates in a majestic gable with
St. Mark's Lion in the central round panel, the
symbol of
|
|
Venice's military and political
power more than religion. The wide interior is
remarkable for its rich liturgical fittings,
mainly dating to the late Baroque Age.
Among the works of art it contains, a few
must be mentioned: the "Pala delle Milizie"
(the soldiers' altarpiece) by Padovanino
(1641) and a precious wooden statue of Virgin
with Child attributed to Domenico da
Tolmezzo (late 1400s). Some beautiful
palaces fronting onto Piazza Grande are
evidence of the most prosperous time of the
city: the Palazzo dei Provveditori, now the
Town Hall (1598-1610), the Palazzo della
Tesoreria (palace of the Treasury, 1598), the
Palazzo del Governatore delle armi (palace
of the governor of arms, 1614), the Palazzo
del Monte di Pietà (pawnbroker's,
17th-19th centuries), Palazzo Trevisan, now
housing the Civic Historical Museum, the
Palazzo della Camera of Palma.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
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...go
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
