Field Notes on Current Research in Brazil and Elsewhere
Italy between Venice and the Julian Alps
Northern Italy Between Venice and the Julian Alps: Udine, Tarvisio, Palmanova, Aquilaea, Vila Manin, Castelmonte, Gemona, Cividale, Venzone.
Within a few hours drive of Venice are vast regions of Roman cities and ruins, the base of the Italian army during World War I (close to the invading Austro-Hungarian border), regional villages, and the remnants of a major earthquake that changed the landscape and wiped out cities in 1976. A bit further to the north is the city of Trieste, which is treated in a separate blog.
Udine is the center of our trips here. Not as well known as Venice, it is a major regional city and former Roman outpost.
Tarvisio: From a cable car in the Julian Alps, just a few miles from the Slovenian and Austrian borders.Tarvisio, Julian Alps: top of the mountain range
Tarvisio
Venzone, the “Lavender Shop.” The region is known for its lavender blossoms that are used for scents and practically everything else.
Venzone — a medieval village in Friuli that was rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake destroyed many towns in the region. The old city wall reconstructed.
The old square in Udine. It was a Roman outpost, later part of the Venice administration, now center of the region of Friuli.
Udine along the canal.
Believe it or not, a bathroom in the Udine modern art museum. It was built in a huge house bequeathed by a fabric merchant. This display is his actual bathroom, with undersized fixtures for his small stature. The shoe forms seem to be added to make this bathroom an artistic installation.
The eccentric dining hall of the fabric merchant’s bequest — the art is oversized, the furniture sized smaller for his proportions.
Steps from the old Udine center to the church/museum of traditional art.
From the top of the stairs, in front of the church/museum — looking out over the valley around Udine.
Vila Manin, residence of the last Doge of Venice and legendarily a short-term residence of Napoleon before his march on Europe.
The Vila Manin now houses a museum, here showing an exhibition of Mirós late works from his Mallorca period. This symbolically reconstructs one of his work spaces.
Vila in early evening with some blue left in the sky.
Aquilea — a major Roman outpost and shipping port. Now the whole city is a museum (you get an audio guide that literally takes you through the entire town). This is a mosaic preserved in the floor of the church of the patriarchate. Some parts of the church are about a thousand years old.
A marble statue in the church of the patriarchate.
Mosaic with a ram motif.
From the vast collection of Roman statuary in Aquilaea.
The Adriatic coast of Grado, Italy. A popular resort in season, but more pensive in March.
House in Grado, Italy
Wall of Miracles in Castelmonte. The pictures and other artifacts memorialize events in which it was believed that the Virgin Mary miraculously intervened.
Detail of one of the miracles. Unlike the Middle Ages where miracles were often associated with plague and war, these events are often associated with modern mishaps — here, a farm accident.
An old well and statues on the rest of Castelmonte, sunset
Arch in the mountain church of Castelmonte.
A pastel evening, just at dusk, from the Devil’s Bridge in Cividale.
In the mountains near Interneppo — an old watercourse leading from the mountains down into the valley.
Church in Gemona, at the epicenter of the 1976 earthquake. Much of the church was badly damaged. The off-kilter pillars (especially at the left) are not an effect of the camera lens — they were shifted in the earthquake and left off-center when the church was rebuilt.
This remainder of a crucifix from the earthquake has been especially set as a memorial to the disaster and the recovery.
