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CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI |
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Lying only 17km east of Udine and connected to it by train and bus,
CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI is a gem of a town, much prized by the Friulani but
pretty well unknown to outsiders. It was founded in 50 BC by Julius
Caesar where the Natisone Valley opens into the plain, and in the sixth
century became the capital of the first Lombard duchy. In the eighth
century the Patriarch of Aquileia moved here, inaugurating Cividale's
most prosperous period.
The town
The old town lies on the same side as the rail and coach stations, and
the visitor need never cross the river; though a walk over the Devil's
Bridge is de rigueur . Just walking around the town, within the oval
ring bisected by Via Carlo Alberto and Corso Mazzini, is a pleasure; the
pace of life is provincially serene, and many of the buildings have
interesting histories and respectable architecture. Cividale has been
the main market town in the Natisone Valley for 200 years, and today you
hear Italian, friulano , and Slovene dialects spoken in the street.
There are some remarkable tourist sights, too.
The tiny Tempietto Longobardo (daily: April-Oct 9am-1pm & 3-6.30pm; Nov-March
10am-1pm & 3.30-5.30pm; L4000/¬2.07), poised above the Natisone off
Piazza San Biagio, is a uniquely fine example of Lombard art.
Constructed in the eighth century, largely from older fragments, much of
the elaborate stucco work inside the chapel was reduced to rubble in the
terrible earthquake of 1222. The delicate interior preserves faded
frescoes and carved stalls from its use as a convent chapel in the late
fourteenth century, but the eye is drawn to the east wall where an
exquisite stucco arch is flanked by six female figures. Whether they
represent saints, queens or nuns is uncertain, but the luminous, smiling
statues are among the most splendid surviving works of art from the
eighth century.
Two other beautiful Lombard pieces are to be found in the Museo
Cristiano (Mon-Sat 9.30am-noon & 3-6.30pm, Sun 10am-1pm & 3-6.30pm;
free), housed in the precincts of the fifteenth-century Duomo. The Altar
of Ratchis was carved for Ratchis, Duke of Cividale and King of the
Lombards at Pavia, who died as a Benedictine monk at Montecassino in
759; the reliefs of Christ in Triumph and the Adoration of the Magi are
delicate and haunting. The other highlight is the Baptistry of Callisto,
named after Callisto de Treviso, the first Patriarch of Aquileia to move
to Cividale. He lived here from 730 to 756 and initiated the building of
the patriarchal palace, the cathedral and this octagonal baptistry,
which used to stand beside the cathedral. It's constructed from older
Lombard fragments, the columns and capitals dating from the fifth
century.
The Duomo itself (same hours as Museo Cristiano) houses a twelfth-century
masterpiece of silversmithery: the pala (altarpiece) named after
Pellegrino II, the patriarch who commissioned it and donated it to the
town; it depicts the Virgin seated between the archangels Michael and
Gabriel, who are flanked by 25 saints and framed by saints, prophets and
the patron himself.
Also in Piazza del Duomo is the Museo Archeologico (daily 8.30am-2pm;
L4000/¬2.07), which houses an excellent exhibition on the Lombards on
the first floor, incorporating local finds including some beautiful gold
fibulae . On the ground floor is a hotchpotch of late Roman and early
Christian pieces, the highlight being a second-century mosaic of a wild-eyed
head identified as Neptune, which reveals a subtle sense of perspective.
Just a stone's throw from the fifteenth-century Ponte del Diavolo, in
Via Monastero Maggiore, is a cellar-like cavern called the Ipogeo
Celtico (daily 8am-6pm; key from the bar All' Ipogeo on Via P.
d'Aquileia if closed). The hypogeum was probably used as a tomb for
Celtic leaders between the fifth and second centuries BC, but there is
still some dispute whether it's artificial or was merely adapted by its
users. Either way, the spectral faces carved on the walls make it a most
unsettling place.
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