Fruili-Venezia-Giulia (Trieste, Udine) – March 18-22, 2019
On a rainy cold day (seems like my first in months), I had a big drive day through Udine on my way to the Alps in the north of Slovenia. It was so cold, I actually wore shoes for the first time in over a month.
Portogruaro. Another nondescript NM “small town, this is quite a big place with a long access off the main highway.
Fortress Town of Palmanova. Expecting an ancient town full of cute stone buildings inside the massive 8-sided walls with all its bastions, this looks like any other modern Italian town inside. In the centre is an 8-sided gravel square with a large Italian flagpole in the middle. A market was setting up around the square in the pouring rain. I went into the church with some nice frescoes in the apse. There is not much else to see. It is a tentative WHS (01/06/2006).
UDINE
The town hall is in a lovely pink and white marble building with a double portico.
Casa Cavazzini Museum of Contemporary Art. Just off the main square,
Udine Castle. On top of the hill above the main square, it is more of a chateau than a castle. Built after an earthquake in 1511 that destroyed the previous building, it became a museum in 1906 and now holds 3 museums. The Gallery of Ancient Art (art from 1300-1800, mostly religious, ugh!), Archaeology Museum (400 terracotta pieces and 14,000 coins), and the Museum of Photography (showcasing Friuli photographers). €8
After Udine, I made a big loop to see most of western Slovenia. After Ljubjana and the World Heritage Site of Idrija, I returned to Italy to see the south part of Fruili Province and the Triest area. The road crossed a high pass before entering Italy at the Gorizia area.
Gorizia/Nova Gorica. In the NM “XL” series, this is in the extreme east of Italy on the Slovenia border.
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia.
About 35kms west of Trieste, this basilica was built immediately after the 313AD Edict of Milan that ended Christian religious persecution and the community was able to build its first place of public worship. In the following centuries, it was rebuilt and added onto four times using the previous structures in the 1st half of the 4th century, middle of the 4th century, middle of the 5th century, 9th, 11th and 14th-15th centuries (last was the hull-shaped timber roof). The entire floor is 760 square metres of wonderful coloured mosaics – the largest Paleo-Christian mosaic in the Western world, built in the 4th century and exposed from 1909-1912. A glass floor has been constructed about one metre above this floor at the level of the medieval floor.
According to tradition, St Peter sent St Mark to preach here in Aquileia, the capital of the Roman Tenth Augustan Region, the Venetia et Histria. One of his converts was St Hermagora who was imprisoned but still performed many miracles. He and his deacon Fortunatus were eventually beheaded.
The wonderful mosaics in the apse are of Passion of Christ, the saints, evangelists and enthroned Christ and Madonna and child along with St Hermagora baptizing Euphemia and others.
The mosaic floor is divided into ten panels bordered by acanthus shoots: the Cock and the Tortoise, Mystic Flock, portraits of benefactors, the seasons, birds, flowers and fruits, the Christian Victory, a magnificent Fishing scene, Jonas being swallowed by the sea monster and many others.
The crypt has 8 reliquaries containing a lot of bones and 12th-century frescoes narrating the history of Hermagora and the origins of Christianity in Aquileia.
The Crypt of Excavations (archaeological remains of three different periods) and the Baptistery have an extra charge. €3 for the basilica, €10 for everything
Next to the basilica is a great bell tower and a big courtyard with the famous statue of Romulus and Remis nursing from the wolf.
Castello Miramore. Built on a promontory on the edge of the water by Maximillan Hapsburg in 1850, this 3-story, white limestone grand residence has an over-the-top interior of period furniture, wood paneling, parquet floor, carved wood posts and coloured brocade wallpaper. €8
The house was the headquarters of the US army from 1947-54 who negotiated the return of Trieste to Italy. A monument to the “Blue Devils” is in the courtyard next to the 8-jet fountain.
A marine protected area fronts the sea in front of the grounds.
For free, visit the wonderful gardens: a Romantic garden of mature forest ascending the hillside and an Italian garden with geometric flower beds terracing down to the water.
I parked outside the toll gates and walked the 500m to the castle along the water.
TRIESTE
Trieste is at the extreme northeast corner of Italy on the Adriatic Sea. It is almost completely surrounded by Slovenia. Synagogue of Trieste
Vittoria Light (Victory Lighthouse), is an active lighthouse in north Trieste serving the Gulf of Trieste. It is located on the hill of Gretta (Poggio di Gretta), off the Strada del Friuli. At a height of 223 feet (68 m) it is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world.
History. The idea to raise a monument in the vicinity arose during World War I on the hill of Gretta, due to the ideal height (60m above sea level) and the solid foundations of the former Austrian fort Kressich, built between 1854 and 1857. One of the reasons for building such a high monument was the desire to build a victory monument higher than the Berlin Victory Column, which was 62.3 metres (204 ft) high at the time. Work started only in 1923 and ended on May 24, 1927, with the inauguration in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III.
The structure celebrates the Italian victory and commemorates the fallen of the first world war, as testified by the inscription “SPLENDI E RICORDA I CADUTI SUL MARE MCMXV-MCMXVIII” (shine and remind of the fallen on sea 1915-1918).
Above the column is a capital and a crow’s nest, in which the bronze crystal cage of the lantern is inserted. The cage is topped by a copper dome with a scale-like motif, on top of which is the 7.2 metres (24 ft) statue of winged victory by sculptor Giovanni Mayer, made of embossed copper and weighing about 7 tonnes (6.9 long tons; 7.7 short tons).
A 8.6 metres (28 ft) statue of a seaman adorns the front of the lighthouse, made from 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) of stone from Vrsar.
The lighthouse is open to the public Saturday and Sunday 3 pm to 7 pm, from the last Saturday of April to the second Sunday of October. Reaching the top requires climbing 285 steps..
Synagogue of Trieste. This immense white stone block of a building has 2 small and one large dome and a great rose window. 45-minute guided tours are offered on Sunday (10, 11am), Mondays and Wednesdays (16:00 and 17:30) and Tuesday (10 and 11:30am). No booking is required, simply show up and wait for the scheduled entrance. €3.50
On the way back from Skocjan Cave, I crossed back into Italy.
INAF Trieste Astronomical Observatory. High above Trieste at an elevation of 401m, drive one kilometer off the highway on a very narrow one-lane road to encounters a locked gate with a white geodesic dome 100m from the gate. There is no information if it can even be entered but gives contact information: www.oats.inaf.it, infloats@oats.inaf.it and +39 040399241.
Rice Mill of San Sabba (Risiera di San Sabba). In south Trieste, this mill was built in 1913 for rice husking. In 1943, the Nazis used it as a prison for dissenters and a place for sorting deportees bound for concentration camps in Germany and Poland. Initially, they used the rice desiccators to execute prisoners but in 1944 built an incinerator. In April 1945, just before the end of the war on May 6, the fleeing Germans tried to destroy the evidence and dynamited the mill. Besides the empty shell of the mill, all that remains that is authentic are some minute concrete cells each holding a bunk bed. The museum has articles pillaged from Jewish houses by the Nazis.