| Municipality of Pordenone
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and his studio). Not far away, the bell tower
of the Church of San Giorgio enlivens
the Neoclassical front of the church, being an
impressive Doric column designed by G. B.
Bassi on top of which the statue of St. George
stands. Inside is an altarpiece by G. Narvesa
(17th century). If instead you turn right from
Piazzetta Cavour, once you cross the wide
Piazza XX Settembre the most
interesting piece of modern architecture in
the city is offered to view: the Church of
Beato Odorico (1990) in viale della Libertą,
designed by Mario Botta, whose conical
covering of the hall replicates towards the top
the brightness of the access four-sided portico.
Inside, the painting on wood of Virgin with
Child is attributed to the inner circle of
Gentile da Fabriano's collaborators. Finally,
to complete the review of religious buildings,
mention must be made of the early 20thcentury
Neo-Gothic Church of Madonna
delle Grazie, decorated inside with
wall paintings by T. Donadon, and of the
Church of San
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Francesco (1972-1974) in
the cemetery, by Varnier and Gresleri.
Interesting examples of 20th-century
architecture are also the complex of Centro
Attivitą Pastorali in via Revedole, designed
by Othmar Barth (1988), the battered former
Casa del Balilla by C. Scoccimarro
(1935-1936, almost unrecognisable from the
dynamic rationalism of its original forms), and
the controversial office district built in 1970
on a design by G. Valle at the expense of the
historic Galvani factory and most of Parco
Querini-Valdevit, the latter including a
markedly Neo-Gothic manor house set against
a
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landscape of ponds and winding paths.
Among the parks of the city, at least two must
be mentioned: Parco Galvani, and the
Parco San Valentino, from which the
network of irrigation ditches characterising
the historical centre until the early 20th
century departs southwards. Also the churches
in the neighbourhoods just outside the city
centre boast a rich artistic tradition, such as
the Church of San Lorenzo at Roraigrande,
a sober Neo-Gothic building designed by
D. Rupolo, which has a stone font by Donato
and Alvise Casella (1558-1559), paintings by
M. Grigoletti (19th cent.) and most of all
frescoes by Pordenone (1516-1517) on the
ceiling of the side chapel, which used to be
the choir of the Renaissance church. Calderari
instead frescoed the oratory of S. Bernardino
(mid-16th century), an annexe to the 16thcentury
villa Policreti-Brugnera, as well as
the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Parish
Church of SS. Ruperto and Leonardo at
Vallenoncello (1530 ca.), where a Virgin with
Child among SS. Sebastiano, Ruperto,
Leonardo and Rocco by Pordenone
(1513-1514 ca.) is also preserved, the latter
showing the influence of early 16th-century
Venetian painting in which volumes are more
and more entrusted to light and colour and
landscape projection opens in the background.
Padua's early 15th-century influence is clearly
detectable instead in
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the apsidiole of the
oratory of Corpo di Cristo (in the town
square), where Doctors of the Church
(mid-16th century) combine the Renaissance
plasticity of figures with the late-Gothic
decorative frenzy of the background.
On the walls are frescoes by Pietro Gorizio.
The rural church of San Leonardo
in Sylvis (that is reached by taking a country
path along the Pordenone-Oderzo state road)
preserves fragments of 14th-17th centuries
frescoes. The last stop is Villanova, where
the Church of Sant'Ulderico is definitely
worth a visit: inside, apart from the stone altar
by G.A. Pilacorte (1520), frescoes by
Pordenone (1514) in the choir ceiling show
the Doctors of the Church with the
Evangelists and Prophets at the apex of the
webs, the Incoronation of the Virgin with
Angel Musicians and Christ in front of Pilate
on the walls, and fragments of the
Annunciation on the arcosanto (sacred arch).
Figures as that of Prophet Jeremiah, or the
characters of the Flagellation witness the
temerity of painting canons destined to stand
out well beyond regional borders.
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| PORDENONE AND LIVENZA AREA
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The landscape surrounding
Pordenone is lively and varied,
changing from the ups and downs of
the Pedemontana hills and the green
area of Polcenigo to the expanse
of cultivated and clay-coloured fields
of the southern area.
The geographic, historical
and cultural
development of
the whole territory
has
been
marked by go
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