Situation
Cividale del Friuli, formerly capital of Friuli, lies a little way east of Udine, on the River Natisone below the Julian Alps, which have belonged to Yugoslavia since 1947. With its early medieval buildings, it has much of interest to
offer the visitor. The town suffered some damage in an earthquake in May 1976.
History
Cividale, the Roman Forum Iulii - which gave its name to the region of Friuli - was from 569 to 774 the seat of Lombard dukes, and from 730 the residence of the Patriarch of Aquileia. After his conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774 Charlemagne made it the seat, under the name of Civitas Austriae, of a line of Frankish margraves, the most important of whom, Berengarius I, ruled Italy as king from 888 to 924, with Cividale as his capital. Even after the seat of the Patriarchate was transferred to Udine in 1238 Cividale remained for centuries the most important place in Friuli by virtue of its command of major Alpine passes. In 1419 the town was occupied by the Venetians, who in 1439 compelled the Patriarch to renounce his secular authority. Thereafter the town fell into a steady decline. In 1752 the Patriarchate was replaced by the archbishopric of Gorizia and Udine.
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