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The land that from Moggio leads to
Tarvisio following the valley of River
Fella and its tributaries and the
valley of Torrent Gailitz whose
waters, after flowing through
Tarvisio, flow into the
River Gail and
finally into the
Black Sea,
is a land boasting
centuries of history,
culture and art, a
land already well
known to the Romans,
who had created here a
trading route towards
the north, leaving
important traces of their
presence in Pontebba,
Camporosso, Tarvisio. For
centuries, Pontebba marked the boundary
between the Republic of Venice and the
Austrian Empire: this side the populations of
Italian language and culture, that side the German
and Slav populations. Such linguistic plurality, not
forgetting the ancient Slav language spoken in Val
di Resia, is still a feature today, so that in Tarvisio
people normally speak Italian, Friulian, German
and Slovene. It is not surprising, therefore, that
Pontebba preserves two artistic masterpieces as
the spectacular Flügelaltar dated 1517 carved,
painted and richly gilded by a sculptor's studio in
Villach, and an altarpiece dated 1616 by Palma
the Younger, the prolific painter from Veneto
operating between the 1500s and
the 1600s. It is not surprising
either that the small church
of Coccau contains 14thcentury
frescoes by an
Austrian master who deeply felt
Giotto's influence. The most
ancient Abbey of San Gallo at
Moggio, a cultural centre in the
Middle Ages, and the
Sanctuary of Monte Lussari
(Maria Luschari, Svete Visarje)
venerated by populations from
Slovenia, Kärnten and
Friuli, are the evidence,
as well as many other
sacred places, of the
spirituality of the local
populations. And the
same spirituality is also felt in the contact with
the surrounding natural environment, offering
its most touching aspects in the sublime
mountainous landscapes, in the thick vegetation of
forests and in the clear waters of torrents.
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