CIVIDALE AND ITS ENVIRONS

Historical notes
Cividale recorded human settlements since the Neolithic age on account of its strategic position on the banks of the Natisone where the river opens into the Friulan plain, but it became an important town, at first militarily then also politically and administratively, at the foundation of the Roman town "Forum Julii" in 50 B.C. by Julius Caesar. When Alboin and the Lombards (568 A.D.) came down to Italy Cividale became the capital of their first duchy with authority over a large territory actually including the present Friuli. Monumental and goldsmith's art throve giving also proof of a period of splendour under the domination of the Franks and, after their fall, as Patriarchal state.

The dimension of the capital is reflected in the whole city, in the churches, in the noble Palaces, in the handicraft shops, a mark of that secular and religious power that ceased only in 1420 when Venice conquered Friuli and consequently Cividale declined in favour of Udine. After the Treaty of Campoformido (1797) Cividale came under the rule of the Home of Austria and in 1866 became part of the Reign of Italy. Cividale has preserved a noble and severe trace even in its unpretencious urban dimensions emphasized by the new discovery of the complex Lombard history and civilization, the splendour of which has been celebrated in the big exhibition of 1990, and dressed also by the new prospects of cultural exchanges inside the European Central area, of which 'Mittelfest' is expressive witness.

The Cathedral
The present building, risen on the site of a previous construction preceding the eighth century, was started in 1400 with Gothic and Venetian characteristics; it was completed in 1500 by architect Pietro Lombardo with following touches by Giorgio Massari and Maccaruzzi in 1700. In the imposing interior, besides the altar of the Virgin Mary on the right aisle projected by Massari, and besides the wooden crucifix of the 13th century hanging on the wall of the left aisle, noteworthy is the silver altarpiece of Pellegrino II, Patriarch from 1195 to 1204.

On the inside of the facade the visitor notices the equestrian monument, made of gilt wood, representing Marco Antonio da Manzano fallen during the Gradisca war (1617) and, on the left at the entrance, he observes the sarcophagus of Patriarch Nicolo Donato (end of 1400) dominated by a Virgin by Antonio da Carona. On the Epiphany every year the solemn "Sword Mass" is celebrated in the Cathedral.

The Christian Museum
The Christian Museum attached to the Cathedral houses two masterpieces of Lombard sculpture: the Baptistery of Callisto and the altar of Ratchis. Callisto's Baptistery consists of an octagonal tower with beautiful carved decorations and an inscription on the top in praise of Patriarch Callisto (730-756); in the parapet a stone bears the name of Patriarch Sigvald, Callisto's successor, between the four evangelists; the columns and the capitals go back to the fifth century.

The altar of Ratchis is dedicated to Ratchis, Duke of Cividale and King of the Lombards, who died as a Benedectine monk. The carved figures on the front part represent the triumph of Christ while on the sides there are scenes of the "Visitation" and "Adoration of the Three Kings". It is one of the most important works of art of the whole Early Middle Ages.

The National Archaeological Museum
It was founded by Count Michele della Torre Valvassina in 1817, and was located inside the Palace once belonging to noblemen dei Nordis. Since 1990, the 2nd of June the Museum has been transferred into the Praetorian Palace which closes like a background the eastern side of the Cathedral square. The project of this Palace is ascribed to Andrea Palladio and its construction should have been realized between 1581 and 1596, according to the inscription affixed on the facade of the Palace of Praetorian Sebastiano Querini. The Museum was open on the occasion of the important exhibition about the Lombards, which still today forms the principal nucleus of the Early Middle-Ages section and of which the enlargement is going ahead. At present the Museum extends over two floors.

The ground-floor contains the lapidary part subdivided into the Roman, the Palaeobyzantine, the Early Middle-Ages and the Romanic section. In the staircase-space which leads to the first floor is displayed the Cernazai collection which includes sepulchral inscriptions in Greek and Latin coming from Dalmazia, among which there is a valuable relief representing a door. The southern wing of the ground floor is divided into three rooms, two of which contain fragments of ciboria, small columns, plutei, capitals, small pilasters, frames dating from the sixth to the ninth century. The last room contains the reliefs of Roman age (12th-13th century) whose repertory is that of the medioeval bestiary with imaginary animals, and moreover some small pilasters of the same age.

In the inner court-yard are exhibited the Hebrew tombstones coming from the cemetery of the "stretta giudaica" (Judaic gorge) and coat-of-arms of different periods. The piano nobile houses the exhibition of the Lombards which occupies seven halls. The chronological arrangement of the material shows the hand-manufactured articles of the first Lombard settlement in "Forum Julii", mostly of importation, discovered in the oldest necropolis of San Giovanni and Cella (6th-7th century). Very suggestive is the small room with the Roman sarcophagus and the equipment of Duke Gisulfo founded in 1874 in Piazza Paolo Diacono (second half of the seventh century). In the last hall the visitor can admire the last expression of the Lombard art already pervaded by the Carolingian world: "Pax of the Duke Orso", two shrines in silver belonging to the Cathedral treasure, the cross of Invillino. For a better comprehension from the visitor a new method of presentation has been experimented, achieved by notice boards placed over the show-cases explaining, in a simple way, Lombards' usages and customs as well as the practical employment of the exhibited objects.