Udine (Friulian Udin) is a town in the north-east of Italy, situated inland between Trieste and Venice, the second most important city (after Trieste), situated between the Gulf and the South-Eastern Alps, in the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Population was 94,600 in 2003. Geographical location 46.07° North, 13.24 ° East.

Udine was the historical starting-point for a route over the Saifnitz or Pontebba Pass to Villach by way of Pontebba and Tarvisio. It lay on the Roman route of the Via Julia Augusta, but there is no sign of Roman occupation. In the 1230s the seat of the patriarchate of Aquileia was transferred to Udine. That gave its Romanesque cathedral new prominence. The old residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia was erected by Giovanni Fontana in 1517 in place of the older one destroyed by an earthquake in 1511. Under the Austrians it was used as a prison. In the cathedral archives was formerly preserved a recast of the Visigothic code of laws in a manuscript known as the Codex Utinensis, which was fortunately printed before it was lost. (See Breviary of Alaric).

Udine has a University. The archbishop's palace and the Museo Civico have paintings.

In 1420 Udine became part of Venetian territory. In the 1550s Andrea Palladio erected some buildings in Udine. The church of S.Maria della Purita has 18th-century frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Domenico. In the principal square (Piazza della Libertà) stands the town hall (Loggia di Lionello) built in 1448-1457 in the Venetian-Gothic style opposite a clock tower (Torre dell’Orologio) resembling that of the Piazza San Marco at Venice. In the center of Udine, is the Castello di Udine, built during the invasion of Attila the Hun.

The Treaty of Campo Formio (1796) was signed in a village that lies about 5 miles west of Udine. The textile industry has been important for Udine..

See also Giovanni Martini da Udine , the High Renaissance architect who worked in Rome and was a pupil of Raphael.

External link

• Udine homepage