The Castle of Udine (Italian: Castello di Udine) is a historical building in

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) 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 (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

, northern Italy, built upon a hill in the historical center of the city (138 meters above sea level).

History

The Castle hill was long supposed to be made of drift accumulating during centuries. However, a legend about its origin says that when Attila the Hun (also called the Scourge of God) plundered Aquileia (one of the biggest cities of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

at that time) in the year 452, he asked his soldiers to build a hill to see the Aquileia burning. This was made by filling the helmet of each soldier with ground. Recent studies (April 2022) showed that the hill is artificial, but much older than the legend presupposes. In fact, the origins of the hill are in the bronze age, and it might date to a period between 3000 and 3500 years ago, contemporary to the slightly higher

Silbury Hill Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. At high, it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound ...

in Wiltshire, England. However the castle Hill in Udine is bigger by volume, making it the biggest prehistoric

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

in Europe. The first official statement of the existence of a building on the hill dates back to 983: the Holy Roman Emperor

Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Ita ...

donated to Rodoaldo,

Patriarch of Aquileia The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certain ...

a "castrum", a military building. The present building has the form of a palace and it was built on the ruins of a fortress destroyed in the year

1511 Idrija earthquake The 1511 Idrija earthquake ( sl, Idrijski potres) occurred on March 26 with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). The epicenter was around the town of Idrija in present-day Slovenia, although some place it some 15-20 kilometers to th ...

. The construction had started in 1517 and the works had lasted for 50 years. The external decoration of the palace and the paintings in the Parliament Hall are due to

Giovanni da Udine 150px, Portrait in Vasari's Vite Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564), was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine. A painter also named ''Giovanni da Udine'' was exiled from his na ...

, one of the pupils of

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

. The council of the

Patria del Friuli The Patria del Friuli ( la, Patria Fori Iulii, fur, Patrie dal Friûl) was the territory under the temporal rule of the Patriarch of Aquileia and one of the ecclesiastical states of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1420, the Republic of Venice acquir ...

was one of the first parliaments in the world, and it was suppressed after the French occupation in 1797. Today the castle hosts the History and Art Museum of the City of Udine. Image:Salite_castello_udine.jpg, The slope to the Castle Image:UdineCastelloFrontingresso.jpg, Front entrance of the Castle File:Udine, castello 01.JPG, Rear view of the Castle Image:Udine Castle.jpg, Rear view with the square File:L’Angelo del campanile della Chiesa di Santa Maria di Castello di Udine.JPG, The Angel of the steeple of the Church of Santa Maria di Castello di Udine

References

{{Authority control Castle Castles in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Museums in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Local museums in Italy