Udine

Udine, a town and archiepiscopal see of Venetia, Italy, capital of the province of Udine, situated between the Gulf of Venice and the Alps, 84 m. by rail N.E. of Venice, 450 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1906), 25,217 (town); 40,627 (commune). The town walls were in the main demolished towards the end of the 19th century. The old castle, at one time the residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia, and now used as a prison, was erected by Giovanni Fontana in 1517 in place of the older one destroyed by an earthquake in 1511. The Romanesque cathedral contains some interesting examples of native art (by Giovanni Martini da Udine, a pupil of Raphael, and others). The church of S. Maria della Purita has frescoes by Giovanni Battista and Domenico Tiepolo. In the principal square stands the town hall, built in1448-1457in the VenetianGothic style, and skilfully restored after a fire in 1876; opposite is a clock tower resembling that of the Piazza di San Marco at Venice. In the square is a statue of Peace, erected in commemoration of the peace of Campo Formio (1796), which lies 5 m. to the W.S.W. The archiepiscopal palace and Museo Civico, as well as the municipal buildings, have some valuable paintings. The leading industry of Udine is silk-spinning, but it also possesses manufactures of linen, cotton, hats and paper, tanneries and sugar refineries, and has a considerable trade in flax, hemp, &c. Branch railways lead to Cividale del Friuli and S. Giorgio di Nogaro, and a steam tramway to S. Daniele del Friuli.

The origin of Udine is uncertain; though it lay on the line of the Via Iulia Augusta, there is no proof of its existence in Roman times. In the middle ages it became a flourishing and populous city; in 1222 or 1238 the patriarch Berthold made it the capital of Friuli, and in 1420 it became Venetian. In 1752 it became an archbishopric. (T. As.)