Discover Friuli Venezia Giulia 2026-27

Aquileia, the ruins and the basilica.

Aquileia, with its immense archaeological area and its Patriarchal Basilica, is a precious treasure chest of art and history.

Located in Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the province of Udine, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998. Aquileia was one of the largest and wealthiest cities of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean, the seat of a Patriarchate that lasted until 1751, and the driving force behind Christianity throughout central Europe during the Middle Ages.

Archaeological excavations have yet to bring all its ruins fully to light, but those uncovered so far are among the best-preserved testimonies to ancient Roman grandeur. Among the treasures of Aquileia, the Patriarchal Basilica, dating from around the year 1000, with its magnificent 4th-century mosaics, is an unrivalled example of religious architecture.

Cividale del Friuli: the mysterious town steeped in legend.

A town suspended between legend, history and culture, the first Lombard duchy in Italy and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011, Cividale del Friuli is a municipality of some 11,000 inhabitants in the province of Udine. A true jewel of Friuli Venezia Giulia, it preserves thousand-year-old traditions just waiting to be discovered. Founded by Julius Caesar in the 2nd century BC under the name Forum Iulii, from which the whole Friuli region later took its name, Cividale has far more ancient origins. Finds dating back to the Palaeolithic, the Neolithic and the Iron Age have been made in the past. It was with the Romans, however, that the city began to flourish. In 568 AD the Lombards arrived in Cividale del Friuli and chose it as the capital of the first Lombard duchy in Italy. Later, the city became the residence of the Patriarchs of Aquileia and then passed under the rule of the Republic of Venice. In 1866, Cividale was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. With such an important history, visiting Cividale del Friuli is like a journey among priceless treasures of great beauty. Today the city is

the lead body for the itinerary “The Lombards in Italy. Places of Power (568-774 AD)”, a route that reveals, among others, the most beautiful sites of this Friulian town. The historic centre can be explored entirely on foot; arriving in the main square you find yourself before the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in 1457 and rebuilt after its collapse in 1502 in Renaissance style. Don’t miss a visit to the interior, where you can admire the silver altarpiece of Pellegrino II, a true masterpiece of medieval Italian goldsmithery. Among the other treasures in the Cathedral are two canvases by Palma il Giovane. The Cathedral also gives access to the Christian Museum, which houses several examples of Lombard art, including the Altar of Ratchis, a Karst stone altar decorated with bas-reliefs and dated between 737 and 744, and the Baptistery of Callixtus, from the same period. Staying in the square, we find the Palazzo dei Provveditori Veneti, built between 1565 and 1605 to a design by Palladio. Today it houses the National Archaeological Museum of Cividale del Friuli and preserves archaeological finds that tell the story of the city’s various rulers, from the Romans to the Lombards and the Byzantines. A few steps from the square is the Celtic Hypogeum, a series of underground chambers carved into the rock along the banks of the Natisone. Pre-Roman in origin, the cells were later used as prisons. Also not to be missed is the Lombard Temple, within the Oratory of Santa Maria in Valle, the most important architectural testimony of the Lombard era. Built around the middle of the 8th century, it has a great arch decorated with openwork tracery and contains statues of saints and martyrs. On the ceiling and walls you can see traces of frescoes painted between the 11th and 14th centuries. The town of Cividale is rich in noble residences and other places of worship, including the Church of San Francesco, now deconsecrated and used for events and temporary exhibitions. Cividale del Friuli is a town cloaked in magic, and some of its sites retain the allure of ancient legends. The symbol of the city is the Devil’s Bridge (which shares its name with another Italian bridge), suspended over the waters of the Natisone. Standing 22.5 metres high, it was built from 1442 onwards. It takes its name from the legend surrounding it: it seems the people of Cividale asked the Devil for help in building it. One look at it and you understand why: formed of two arches, its central pier rests on a natural rock in the bed of the River Natisone. The two arches are of unequal width and the whole bridge is 48 metres long. Legend has it that the Devil agreed to the request but asked in return for the soul of the first person to cross the bridge. The Friulians agreed but, once the bridge had been built in a single night, they tricked the Devil by sending an animal across it first. Though only a legend, the fascination of Cividale’s Devil’s Bridge owes much to this evocative tale.

Palmanova, the star-shaped fortress town.

Charming, elegant and scenic, Palmanova is a small town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia that is certainly worth a visit. But it is only from above that its magnificence is revealed: it is shaped like a nine-pointed star. Palmanova’s secret lies in its layout, which has an ancient and prestigious history, so much so that UNESCO has listed it as a World Heritage Site. Palmanova’s polygonal plan is the fruit of Venetian defensive military engineering. In 1521 the town became part of the domains of the Republic of Venice following the war against Austria, which ended with the Treaty of Worms. The borders drawn up by the two powers were rather unusual and, rather than delimiting territories, enclosed pockets of land here and there in a patchwork. Venice thus found itself with enclaves within Austrian territory, which in turn lay in a region where the Serenissima’s rule was strong and significant. In short, there was a degree of political instability and territories had to be defended from their immediate neighbours: and so the Venetians began to equip their possessions with impenetrable borders. Several fortress towns were born, including the splendid Palmanova, literally wedged into Habsburg territory. The year was 1593, and the work was designed chiefly by Giulio Savorgnan. Surrounded by walls and curtains, bastions, a moat and ravelins, Palmanova was indeed impenetrable for almost two centuries, thanks also to the second ring of fortifications built around it a century after the first. Towards the end of the 1700s the Austrians recaptured it, but had to fight the French, the new occupiers of Friulian territory. It was in the Napoleonic era that a further defensive ring enveloped the town, still visible today thanks to its typical features such as the Napoleonic lunettes – earthen bulwarks surrounded by dry moats. In short, Palmanova is a shining example of military architecture conceived over 3 centuries by different rulers, and the form it has come to take makes it unique of its kind even today. The military structures are still visible: the fortified loggias, the casemates, the barracks, the powder magazines. It is a veritable open-air museum, and a visit is enriched with further detail at Palmanova’s Military History Museum. Within this military structure lies a town of Renaissance design, whose heart is the hexagonal Piazza Grande, overlooked by the Cathedral, an excellent example of Venetian religious architecture in the region.

Redipuglia War Memorial

It stands on the western slope of Monte Sei Busi, which was bitterly fought over during the First World War because, although not high, its summit commanded a wide view over the western approach to the first steps of the Karst Plateau. With a total area of around 52 hectares, holding the remains of the war dead together with numerous commemorative and exhibition works and visitor facilities, Redipuglia is the largest Italian war memorial. The memorial itself, in pale marble, lies on the western slope of Monte Sei Busi (at an altitude of 117 m) and is the first significant obstacle of the great Karst Plateau. It was built in 1938 to a design by the architect Giovanni Greppi and the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni, to give a permanent resting place to the remains of the fallen from the former Cemetery of the Invitti on the facing hill of Colle Sant’Elia. In the wide, gently sloping forecourt, 38 bronze plaques bearing in relief the names of the places where fighting took place on the Karst mark out the so-called Via Eroica. At its centre rises the great tomb of the Duke of Aosta, Commander of the Third Army, whose remains lie in the crypt behind a metal gate. Behind it stand in line the five granite monoliths containing the urns of Generals Chinotto, Monti, Paolini, Prelli and Riccieri. Behind the forecourt it is possible to visit the ‘armoured trench’, a relic of the Great War. It was built and, as the plaque records, manned by the glorious infantrymen of the “Siena” Brigade (31st and 32nd Infantry Regiments) and later by the “Savona” Brigade (15th and 16th Infantry Regiments) and the “Cagliari” Brigade (63rd and 64th Infantry Regiments) during the actions of June-July 1915 (1st and 2nd Battles of the Isonzo). The most imposing part of the memorial consists essentially of a monumental stairway of 22 great steps containing the remains of the 40,000 known fallen, arranged in alphabetical order in niches faced with bronze plates. Each step is crowned by an architrave bearing the word Presente in relief. At the top, two great common tombs were built for the 60,000 remains of the unknown fallen. Here stands the Chapel, where two bells have been placed, together with three great Crosses that rise above the summit of the monumental complex. Behind the 22nd step, arranged symmetrically, are two museum rooms, one devoted to the Gold Medals of Military Valour (displaying the works of the painter Giuseppe Ciotti and mementoes of the Gold Medal recipients) and the other to the personal mementoes of the fallen (holding personal effects and small relics). On the open ground above the memorial, a stone Observatory has been built in the form of a circular tower.