Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy

🇮🇹 Udine is a city and comune in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps.

History Udine is the historical capital of Friuli. The area has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, and is believed to have been settled by Illyrians.

Based on an old Hungarian legend, Attila (?–453), the leader of the Huns, built a hill there, when besieging Aquileia, because he needed a winter quarters billet: he instructed his soldiers to bring soil in their helmets and shields, because the landscape was too flat, without any hill. He established the town there, and built a square-shape tower.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the area increased in importance after the decline of Aquileia, then further after the decline of Cividale. In AD 983 Udine was mentioned for the first time, with the donation of the Utinum castle by emperor Otto II to the Patriarchs of Aquileia, then the main feudal lords of the region. In 1223, with the foundation of the market, the city became finally the most important in the area for economy and trade, and also became the Patriarch's seat.

In 1420, it was conquered by the Republic of Venice. In 1511, it was the seat of a short civil war, which was followed by an earthquake and a plague. Udine remained under Venetian control until 1797, being the second largest city in the state. After the short French domination which ensued, it was part of the Austrian-puppet Lombardy-Venetia Kingdom, and was included in the newly formed Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

During World War I, from May 1915 to October 1917, Udine became the seat of the Italian High Command and was nicknamed "Capitale della Guerra" ("War Capital"). After the battle of Caporetto, it was occupied by the Germans in late 1917 and by the Austro-Hungarians in 1918 until after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in 1918. After the war it was made capital of a short-lived province (Provincia del Friuli) which included the current provinces of Gorizia, Pordenone and Udine. After September 8, 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies in World War II, the city was under direct German administration, which ceased in April 1945.

Tourist Industry The old residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia, the palazzo Patriarcale, 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. A recension of the Visigothic code of laws, called the Breviary of Alaric, was formerly preserved In the cathedral archives, in a manuscript known as the Codex Utinensis, which was printed before it was lost.

In the 1550s, Andrea Palladio erected some buildings in Udine. The Oratorio della Purità has 18th-century frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo and his son Giandomenico.

The church dedicated to St. Mary of the Castle is probably the oldest in Udine, judging from extant fragments dating back to the Lombard era. It lost its parish status in 1263, when it was annexed to the larger parish of Saint'Odorico (now the cathedral). It has been renovated many times over the centuries: the façade, for example, was entirely rebuilt after the 1511 Idrija earthquake. Its three naves preserve the suggestive atmosphere of silence and contemplation, which is often found in old churches. The Venetian Governor, Tommaso Lippomano, commissioned the Venetian Gothic portico with steps and ramps leading down the hill in 1487.

In the principal square (Piazza della Libertà) stands the town hall (Loggia del 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. It was begun in 1448 on a project by Nicolò Lionello, a local goldsmith, and was rebuilt following a fire in 1876. The new design was projected by the architect Andrea Scala.

Opposite the Loggia del Lionello is the Loggia di San Giovanni, a Renaissance structure designed by Bernardino da Morcote. Other noteworthy monuments in the square are the Fountain by Giovanni Carrara, an architect from Bergamo (1542); the Columns bearing the Venetian Lion and the Statue of Justice (1614), the statues of Hercules and Cacus and the Statue of Peace (1819) which was donated to Udine by Emperor Francis I to commemorate the peace Treaty of Campoformido.

The Cathedral of Udine is an imposing edifice whose construction started in 1236, on a Latin cross-shaped plan with three naves and chapels along the sides. The church was consecrated in 1335 as Santa Maria Maggiore. At the beginning of the 18th century a radical transformation project involving both the exterior and the interior was undertaken at the request and expense of the Manin family. The Baroque interior has monumental dimensions and contains many works of art by Tiepolo, Amalteo, and Ludovico Dorigny. On the ground floor of the bell tower (built from 1441 over the ancient baptistry) is a chapel which is completely adorned with frescoes by Vitale da Bologna (1349).

The centre of Udine is dominated by the castle, built by the Venetians from 1517 over a Lombard fortification ruined by an earthquake in 1511. The current Renaissance appearance dates from the intervention of Giovanni da Udine, who finished the works starting from 1547. The castle houses one of the most ancient Parliament Halls of Europe.

Other points of interest • Orto Botanico Friulano, a botanical garden

• Parco Botanico Friulano "Cormor", a park and botanical garden

• Tempio Ossario dei Caduti d'Italia, 1931 church

Culture Udine has a university, the University of Udine. The archbishop's palace and the Museo Civico have quite important paintings. The city has a theater, the Teatro Giovanni da Udine.

Important festivals include the wine-and-food September festival, Friuli D.O.C., the national literary prize for non-fiction Premio Friuli Storia and the biggest European festival of popular East Asian cinema, the Far East Film Festival, in April.

Along with Italian, Friulian is often spoken in Udine, as well as a variant of Venetian (called Venetin) that is however in decline.

Museums • Civici musei e gallerie di storia e arte (since 1906) with Museo Archeologico, Galleria d'Arte Antica, Galleria dei Disegni e delle Stampa, Museo Friulano della Fotografia, Fototeca e Collezioni Risorgimentali

• Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

• Museo etnografico del Friuli (Palazzo Giacomelli)

• Gallerie del Progetto

• Museo del Duomo di Udine

• Museo diocesano e gallerie del Tiepolo

Economy Udine is important for commerce, with several commercial centres in the hinterland. There are also iron and mechanical industries (Danieli and ABS are the most important).

University of Udine The University of Udine (Italian Università degli Studi di Udine) is a university in the city of Udine, Italy. It was founded in 1978 as part of the reconstruction plan of Friuli after the earthquake in 1976. Its aim was to provide the Friulian community with an independent centre for advanced training in cultural and scientific studies and it is an important centre for the studies of Friulian language.

The University is actively involved in student and staff exchange projects with universities within the European Union, Australia and Canada, and is currently engaged in close collaboration with several universities from Eastern Europe and other non-EU countries. Moreover, the University participates in many research projects at national and international level. The present number of students enrolled at the University for the academic year 2020/2021 is 14,986.

Friuli innovazione Friuli Innovazione is a centre of research and technology transfer based in Udine (Italy). It was set up in 1999 by the University of Udine, the Industrial Association of Udine, the Province of Udine, the Fiat Research Centre, the Agemont, the Industrial Association of Pordenone and CRUP Foundation and is now attended by other representatives the world of associations and local business. The Center aims to facilitate and foster the collaboration between local enterprises and universities and research centers.

In 2005 was launched the Science and Technology Park of Udine Luigi Danieli, located in the industrial district of Udine, with the support of the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia. The Park covers an area of over 65,000 square meters, of which 2,700 of covered area and currently hosts research centres, laboratories, R & D companies, start-up and spin-offs operating in the ICT, biotechnology, energy and environment, metallurgy.

In 2006 was set up IGA - Institute of Applied Genomics, a scientific research centre active in the field of structural and functional genomics of living organisms. The Institute was established at the Park where they set up a centre for DNA sequencing and a centre for computational biology with machines for parallel computing.

The centre is equipped with two second-generation sequencers and a last generation machine (Illumina HiSeq2000) able to decipher a single race some 600 billion bases, corresponding to 6 complete human genomes, up to 60 genomes of plants, or 3,000 bacterial genomes. The fields of application are the study of plant species but also in biology and biomedical diagnostics. Important applications are found in clinical oncology, for purposes of prevention and prediction of the evolution of disease and response to therapy. The IGA provides sequencing and analysis services to universities, research institutes, hospitals and businesses.

The Park also hosts the Laboratory of metallurgy and surface technology and advanced materials, founded in 2006 by Friuli Innovazione and the University of Udine. The Laboratory develops applied research projects and pre-competitive development with companies from the region. Areas of investigation are the chemical composition and morphology and microstructure of materials and metal alloys and test complex mechanical and chemical resistance of materials

Sport The main football club in the city is Udinese Calcio, founded in 1896, who, as of 2021, have played in every Serie A season since the 1995–96 season. Their ground, the Stadio Friuli, was a venue at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

The local basketball team, APU GSA, played in the second national league, the LegaDue.

Transport With 7,600,000 travelling people every year, Udine railway station is the most important station in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Train services operate to Venice, Treviso, Trieste, Gemona del Friuli, Tarvisio, Cividale del Friuli, Padua, Bologna, Rome, Verona and Milan. International trains operate to Vienna and Munich.