Udine, capital of the province of the same name, lies at the east end of the north Italian plain in the flood-plain of the River Tagliamento. The town is about 40km/25mi from the Adriatic coast and about 20km/12mi from the frontier of the former Yugoslavia. It is the see of an archbishop and a university town. Udine is the economic center of the Friulan plain and popular with shoppers.
History
Udine, the Roman Utina, was from 1238 to 1752 the residence of the Patriarchs of Aquileia (south of Udine on the Adriatic coast), to whom the Emperor Otto II had granted the castle in 983. The town came under Venetian control in 1420. Two of the old town gates, Porta Aquileia and Porta Villalta, have been preserved.
North of the cathedral in Udine is the Archbishop's Palace, with notable frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1726-30) and Giovanni da Udine (1487-1584).
A short distance southeast of the Piazza della Libertà, in the Piazza del Duomo, stands the cathedral, a Gothic structure of 1236, remodeled in the 18th century It has a hexagonal campanile. Above the main doorway is a lunette, the reliefs of which depict the crucifixion of Christ. The interior is decorated with stucco and frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
Udine contains many old noble palaces, some of them with rather faded painting on their facades. The principal square, at the foot of the castle hill, is the Piazza della Libertà, in which stands the Palazzo del Comune (Loggia del Lionello), in the style of the Doge's Palace in Venice (1457, restored 1876).
In the west of Udine, the newer part, is the Piazzale XXVI Luglio. In its center is a sculpture of 1969, a memorial to the resistance fighters who fought faschism in the Second World War. In the same square stands the Tempio Ossario dei Caduti d'Italia, a domed structure of 1931 and a mausoleum for 22,000 Italians who died in the First World War.
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Piazza della Libertà / Palazzo del Comune, Udine
