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The whole central-eastern area of the
province is deeply marked by the
presence of waterways (which are
torrential streams at their sources
and acquire a more regular
flow further south),
first of all River
Tagliamento,
marking the eastern
border of the province,
whose fords have
determined the
distribution of towns
for centuries, hence the
impressive images of
St. Christopher
frescoed inside
churches to protect the
river fords; and River
Reghena, sheltering the
abbey of Sesto in its meanders
and bends, and all the sources and
resurgences near Cordovado and Cordenons.
Between these two main rivers, the
countryside has fortunately not been completely
ruined by the presence of industrial
and crafts estates, thus still managing to evoke
the 18th-century suggestions of Ippolito Nievo's
Confessioni di un Italiano and of the Friulian
works by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a native of
Casarsa, whose final lines of the Turcs tal Friùl
seem to grow on the painted
walls of a rural church, or
on the stone statues in the
niches (at Barbeano or
Versutta), or still are
mirrored and multiplied in
the best-preserved historical
centres, on the walls,
towers, moats of San Vito al
Tagliamento, in the sanctuary
or old parish church of
Cordovado, around the
imposing castles of Zoppola
and Valvasone, or yet on
the wide frescoed
walls at Sesto or
Provesano, where
the circle comes
to an end and
the high art is addressed not to the
intellectuals but to the humble peasants.
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