The frescoed houses of Spilimbergo

The tiny medieval town of Spilimbergo (Pordenone) with its frescoed houses is one of the most beautiful cities in the north-eastern part of Italy. Narrow cobbled streets that go up and down on the gently rolling hills, make it a delightful place to visit.

The characteristic feature of the medieval houses of Spilimbergo, are the five-six hundred years old frescoes or the paintings on their outer walls.

History

There was an old castle in this area from the pre-Roman times. The city really grew and became important in the 11th century when the Count of Spengenberg from Austria came and settled here.

Till the arrival of Napoleon in north Italy in the 1790s, it was a part of the Republic of Venice. After a few years under the French rule of Napoleon, it came under the Autrian empire. It joined Italy in 1866.

The city was destroyed in 1976 in a terrible earthquake but since then it has been rebuilt. It is incredible that most of the old houses with their frescoes have been restored to their original glory.

Visiting The Town

It is a tiny city that you can easily cover in a couple of hours of walking. Close to the cathedral, towards the eastern edge of the town, there is a big parking area. You can leave your car there and start your visit from the Cathedral.

The Duomo (Cathedral), is dedicated to St. Mary. Its construction was started in 1284. It was also damaged in the earthquake of 1976 and has been restored. Its inner walls have some wonderful frescoes from 1300s, supposedly the works of an artist called Vitale of Bologna. If you like admiring art and medieval frescoes, you may wish to spend some time in exploring this cathedral.

Like the rest of the city, the outer walls of the Cathedral, still have a few frescoes, though most of them are lost. Still you can imagine how beautiful and imposing it must have looked when it was in its full glory.

The Castle of Spilimbergo is very close to the Cathedral.

The oldest parts of the Castle of the Counts of Spengenberg near the eastern gate of the medieval wall, are from 11th century. Over the centuries more buildings were added to them. It is built in a semicircle and it does not look like a castle. Rather, it is more like a series of noble houses with frescoes in different styles that vary from Romanic to Gothic to Renaissance. The Spengenberg family also gave the name to the city Spilimbergo. It is an amazing building in gentle colours, that somehow make me think of autumn.

Palazzo di sopra (The upper palace) is a noble house from 1300s, situated at the top of a small hill, that was partly rebuilt in 1500s. It was again damaged during the earthquake in 1976. It has been completely restored and has some beautiful frescoes on the outside and nice paintings and stucco work with plaster-of-paris inside. It also has a wonderful garden. It hosts some municipal offices but can be visited by tourists.

The upper floor of Palazzo di Sopra provides views of the surrounding Alps mountains and the neighbouring towns including the famous San Daniele Del Fruili. Beyond the mountains lie Austria and Slovenia.

Corso Roma is the most important street of the old city centre of Spilimbergo and walking along this street you can reach the western boundary of the city with its medieval entry gate and the clock tower. The old city walls have almost disappeared from this part of the town. The clock tower has memorials of Italian resistance fighters from the second world war who were killed by Nazi-Fascist forces.

One of the houses on Corso Roma, close to the eastern tower, is especially famous for its frescoes from 1500s, depicting the mythical stories of Hercules. It is called Casa Dipinta (Painted house). These frescoes are supposed to be the work of a well known artist called Pordenone.

Winding cobbled streets of Spilimbergo with their beautiful medieval churches, many of which host some important art works of local painters, give it an old world charm. This street also has many bars and ice-cream parlours, where you can sit down and enjoy the wonderful ambiance of this town.

If you have time, explore the tiny streets going up and down the hills, branching out from Corso Roma. Discovering some enchanting corners of the medieval town, usually ignored by tourists in a hurry, can be very rewarding.

You can also take this opportunity to visit San Daniele del Fruili, a few kilometres away, famous for its ham.

Conclusions

If you are on holidays at one of the towns on the Adriatic coast like Lignano, Bibione, Jesolo & Caorle and are looking for a day tour immersed in art and history, consider visiting Spilimbergo to admire its medieval houses with their wonderful frescoes. It is like an open-air museum.

Make sure to wear comfortable shoes for this trip, since walking on pebbled streets can be tough with high heels or thin-soled shoes.

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Discovering Redipuglia & Palmanova

This post is about exploring two little-known small towns, full of history and culture, located in the north-east of Italy - Palmanova and Redipuglia (pronounced Redipulia).

Adriatic coast of Italy, is a well-known summer-holiday destination. Every year, between June to August, towns like Caorle, Jesolo, Portogruaro, Bibione or Lignano, get full of tourists from different parts of Europe.

If you are holidaying in any of these places, you can also explore some of these neighbouring towns that are so rich in history, to add a touch of culture to your seaside holidays. During our holidays the Adriatic coast, one day we went to visit Palmanova and Redipuglia.

We started this trip in Bibione where we were staying for holidays and our first stop was Villa Manin, a fifteenth century villa near Codroipo. The journey through beautiful countryside and gentle hills took about an hour.

Stop at Villa Manin

The tiny town of Codroipo was first built in the Roman times. Villa Manin is in Passariano, a suburb of Codroipo. Though parts of this building are a thousand years old, it was mostly built in 17th and 18th centuries. It was the residence of the last Doge (head of state) of Republic of Venice, Ludovico Manin.

The king of France, Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine, had stayed in this house for about 2 months in 1797 when Napoleon's troops had come to "liberate" this part of Italy from the Austrians and the Papal rule.

The day we visited it, it was getting ready for a music concert by the famous American music group called "Kiss". Crowds of young persons were sitting outside its gate blocking the whole area. Thus it was not possible for us to visit it. So we continued our journey to Palmanova.

The Octagonal Square of Palmanova

Palmanova, a tiny town in the north-east of Italy was a part of the Republic of Venice. In 16th century it was the site of war between the Venetians and the kingdom of Haspburgs from Austria. Thus big fortification walls were built around the city.

The most important place to see in the city is its huge octagonal (eight-sided) city-square, adorned with the statues of its valorous generals and other authorities. Near some statues there is a small description about the person. A walk around this square will introduce you to the history of this town. As Palmanova had lost the war to the Austrians, the Austrian army had cancelled most of the names from these statues, so you can not identify all of them. Still I think that the Austrians were very civilised, because they left the statues intact and only removed the names!

On one side of the square is the cathedral of Palmanova built with white stone, that is worth a visit. The street surrounding the octagonal central square has many bars and coffee shops.

It was good to sit there, drink something (we had a lovely mojito with fresh mint) and watch the slow easy life of a small town pass you by.

Military monument at Redipuglia

Our last stop for the day was at the monument for the Italian soldiers who had died here during the first world war.

The hills near Redipuglia had been the theatre of a bloody battle that had taken the lives of thousands of soldiers. This monument was built during the years of Fascism in 1938 and was inaugurated by the fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

The imposing monument has one hundred thousand (one lakh) graves and is built in the fascist style, as a pyramid with rectangles, squares and clean lines. About 40,000 graves carry the names of the persons buried there, the remaining 60,000 bodies were not identified.

The geometric shapes and the symmetry of this monument attract photographers in search of new angles to click its images.

Across the road, there is a military museum. On the side of the museum, on a small hill there are other memorabilia from the first world war, including the statue of an eagle that usually represented the fatherland in fascist mythology and canons used during the war.

Conclusions

Both the places visited during this trip, Palmanova and Redipuglia, were linked to wars. Palmanova was the site where it had all started with the expansion of Haspburg Austrian empire, and Redipuglia, where the Austrian empire came to an end in the First World war.

 I hope that my brief descriptions will help you to decide if these trips are worth your while! If you decide to go there, do tell me about it.

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