Cividale del Friuli

Cividale del Friuli (called Cividât or Zividât in Friulian, Östrich in German, and Čedad in Slovene) is a town and municipality in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine, within the northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It sits 135 meters above sea level in the foothills of the eastern Alps, about 15 kilometers by rail from Udine and near the Slovenian border, on the river Natisone, which cuts a scenic ravine through the area. Once a major regional center, it is now a quiet, small town whose medieval core draws visitors.

The area shows signs of human activity from the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, and during the Iron Age, Veneti and Celts lived there. Because of its strategic position on the northeastern edge of Roman Italy, the Romans built a military camp there in 50 BC. Julius Caesar later turned it into a forum, renaming it Forum Iulii ("Julius' marketplace"; Fréjus shared this name). Soon after, it became a municipium, with its citizens enrolled in the Roman tribe Scaptia. After Aquileia and Iulium Carnicum (Zuglio) were destroyed in 452 AD, Forum Iulii became the chief town of the Friuli district, giving the region its name. In 568, it was the first major place taken by Alboin's Lombard invasion of Italy, then part of the Byzantine Empire. It was chosen as the first capital of the new Lombard Kingdom, then given by Alboin to his nephew Gisulf as the capital of the Lombard Duchy of Friuli. After the Franks defeated the Lombards in 774, following the last Lombard resistance under Hrodgaud of Friuli in 776, Forum Julii was renamed Civitas Austriae, Charlemagne's Italian "City of the East." Under the Carolingian arrangement with the Papacy, the patriarchs of Aquileia lived here from 773 to 1031, then returned to Aquileia, and finally moved to Udine in 1238. This shift sparked a rivalry between Cividale and Udine that ended only when both surrendered to Venice in 1419 and 1420, respectively. When the Patriarchal State of Friuli was founded in 1077, Cividale became its capital. According to James Burke, a 1331 siege of Cividale saw one of the first uses of what we now call cannons, in an early form known as a bombard. From July to September 1409, a church council was held here by Pope Gregory XII (Roman Obedience), but it was poorly attended and accomplished nothing. In 1420, Cividale was annexed by the Republic of Venice.