| From Udine to the Julian Pre-Alps
|
|
|
The pleasant hilly area of Friuli, the
strip of land running from Gemona to
San Daniele almost to reach the suburbs
of Udine, has always been, through the
centuries, subject to earthquakes: suffice
it to mention the appalling
earthquakes of 1348
(also mentioned by
the Florentine historian
Filippo Villani), of
1511 (that halfdestroyed
Udine
itself) and most
of all the 1976
catastrophe whose scars
are unforgettable. But
every time, the towns that
have suffered the
earthquakes have been
born to new life, more
beautiful than ever thanks to the
reconstruction of houses and palaces but most
of all of their symbolic monuments. This can be
assessed by visiting, for example, the medieval town
of Venzone, enclosed in once imposing walls, or
Gemona del Friuli, which in the 1300s ranked third
in the Friulian Parliament and, with its almost three
thousand citizens, was one of the most important
cities in the Patriarchate of Aquileia. Its splendid
Duomo confirms it indeed, a large building dating
to 1290, with a lacy rose window on the façade and
the gigantic statue of St. Christopher. Also the
surrounding hills are scattered with historic
monuments, as the picturesque castle of Colloredo di
Monte Albano, where Ippolito Nievo wrote most of
his "Confessioni di un Italiano", or the fortress of
Osoppo, which, given its often
being the set for heroic
actions, became the symbol
of the fight against the
oppressor to defend the ideals
of freedom and justice in the
crucial history of the country: in
1848, when the citizens of
Osoppo resisted for six months
against the Austrian army (the
siege ended with the honours of
war being granted) and in the
Second World War, when
Osoppo became one of
the strongholds of the
Resistenza. Another
symbolic
monument is the
"Biblioteca Guarneriana" of S. Daniele del Friuli,
which was, with its precious illuminated codes, the
first public library in Friuli (1466) and one of the first
in Italy, or the enchanting castles of Villalta and
Cassacco, or the caves of Villanova, a natural
monument of unrivalled beauty.
|
|
| Places to see:
|
Reana del Rojale
Colloredo di Monte Albano
Tricesimo
San Daniele del Friuli
Ragogna
Cassacco
Majano
Buja
|
Treppo Grande
Osoppo
Forgaria nel Friuli
Artegna
Montenars
Magnano in Riviera
Nimis
Tarcento
|
Lusevera
Taipana
Bordano
Trasaghis
Gemona del Friuli
Resia
Resiutta
Venzone
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
