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UDINE - ITALY
Udine is a town in the north-east of Italy,
situated inland between Trieste and Venice, the second most important city (after
Trieste), situated between the Gulf and the South-Eastern Alps, in the
region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Population was 94,600 in 2003. Geographical
location 46.07° North, 13.24 ° East.
Udine was the historical starting-point for a route over the Saifnitz or
Pontebba Pass to Villach by way of Pontebba and Tarvisio. It lay on the
Roman route of the Via Julia Augusta, but there is no sign of Roman
occupation. In the 1230s the seat of the patriarchate of Aquileia was
transferred to Udine. That gave its Romanesque cathedral new prominence. The
old residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia was erected by Giovanni Fontana
in 1517 in place of the older one destroyed by an earthquake in 1511. Under
the Austrians it was used as a prison. In the cathedral archives was
formerly preserved a recast of the Visigothic code of laws in a manuscript
known as the Codex Utinensis, which was fortunately printed before it was
lost. (See Breviary of Alaric).
Udine has a University. The archbishop's
palace and the Museo Civico have paintings.
In 1420 Udine became part of Venetian territory. In the 1550s Andrea
Palladio erected some buildings in Udine. The church of S.Maria della Purita
has 18th-century frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Domenico.
In the principal square (Piazza della Libertŕ) stands the town hall (Loggia
di Lionello) built in 1448-1457 in the Venetian-Gothic style opposite a
clock tower (Torre dell’Orologio) resembling that of the Piazza San Marco at
Venice.
The Treaty of Campo Formio (1796) was signed in a village that lies about 5
miles west of Udine. The textile industry has been important for Udine.
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