A labyrinth of signs

This account comes from the best-informed chronicler of the time: Giovan Battista Pomo.
It is the spring of 1737. Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760), daughter of Augustus III, King of Poland, travels through Friuli on her way to Naples to join her future husband, Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies. The princess is fourteen, and from the reception she receives in Friuli it is clear that she is a true star among the royals of her time.

She first stops in Palmanova, then in Passariano, where she is the guest of a dinner so lavish that, days earlier, the Serenissima had boats arrive at the customs post of Vallenoncello:
“(barche) cariche di provisioni di attreci con bella gente spedita dal governo (…) cristali d’ogni sorte, baterie di cucina, ogni sorte di comestibili, eccetuatone carnami; cioè erbazi, pesce fresco del più squisito e raro, gran quantità di chiocolata e caffè e gran agrumi, canditti e biscoterie e venti cuochi dei più eccellenti e bravi”.
“(boats) loaded with provisions and equipment, with skilled attendants sent by the government (…) glassware of every kind, kitchen implements, all kinds of foodstuffs, except meat; that is, greens, the freshest and finest fish, large quantities of chocolate and coffee, abundant citrus fruits, candied goods and biscuits, and twenty of the most excellent and capable cooks”.

After Passariano, it is Pordenone’s turn to host Amalia, and the town is determined not to be outdone.
The dividing wall between two twin palaces is demolished to make space for the sovereign and her court. In the evening, the aristocracy is admitted into the inner courtyard of the palace to witness a royal dinner. At the end of the evening, to muffle the sound of hooves and carriages and not disturb the young princess’s sleep, Pomo recounts that the main street was covered with straw.

Dove si trova: Corso Garibaldi, 15, 33170 Pordenone PN

The plaque commemorates Emperor Franz Joseph’s (1830–1916) stay at the Spelladi Palace in 1852, officially to observe cavalry manoeuvres, though some claimed it was to ‘set foot, as sovereign, in the newly reclaimed Lombardy-Veneto’.

These “mock battles” took place at the Comina, the vast plain north of Pordenone at the foot of the Prealps.
It was here, in 1910, that Italy’s first civil aerodrome was established, later becoming a military airfield widely used during the First World War. One of the last to land there was Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863–1938), on 2 November 1918. The poet described the great Pordenone heath as “un’immensa area erbosa, limitata dalla muraglia alpestre, paese di monti scolpiti e prati uguali” (“an immense grassy expanse, bounded by the alpine wall, a land of sculpted mountains and even meadows”).

Dove si trova: Corso Garibaldi, 15, 33170 Pordenone PN

In Piazza Cavour, a girl sits on a window ledge, gazing into the distance. It is “Equilibri”, the sculpture in bronze and corten steel created by Bruno Lucchi in 2004. The figure, caught in a serene expression, looks afar and seems to listen to the sounds of the city and the voices of those who love to gather there.

Bruno Lucchi, a contemporary sculptor from Levico Terme, with 150 solo exhibitions and over 400 group shows to his name, describes his work as follows:
“Works are born to be experienced among people… in this way the sculpture remains alive”.
For the artist, sculptures should not become ornaments, but interact with the space in which they are placed, “because they are born of the four elements: water and earth that shape them, fire that hardens them, air and light that permeate them”.

Dove si trova: Piazza Cavour, 33170 Pordenone PN

Unveiled in 1929 in the presence of Umberto di Savoia, the War Memorial in Pordenone, designed by the Friulian sculptor Aurelio Mistruzzi (1880–1960), is rich in symbols to be deciphered

In the centre, the artist has placed Italy, protecting the fallen soldiers: the combatant and the casualty; on either side are allegories of the sacred rivers: the Isonzo is depicted as ‘disarmed by treachery’, and the Piave is crowned with an oak wreath – the civic crown – symbolising victory.

The square is named after Enea Ellero; his name appears, alongside those of his fellow citizens Giovanni Battista Bertossi and Antonio Fantuzzi, in the official list of the Thousand who followed Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), published in the Official Gazette of the Kingdom.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mistruzzi and his wife Melania distinguished themselves by hiding Lea Polgar, a ten-year-old Jewish girl from Fiume, in a compartment built behind the fireplace of their home. Thanks to his graphic skills, the artist saved many other Jews from capture by producing forged documents. He was never discovered, carrying out his local clandestine activity alongside his artistic work across different parts of Italy.

Dove si trova: Piazzale Ellero, 33170 Pordenone PN

In the inner courtyard of the former Dominican convent, partially hidden, you can find the remains of a stone base, with the municipal coat of arms carved on one of its faces. It is what remains of the flagpole from which the banner of the Serenissima was raised.

A symbol of the presence of the Republic of Venice in Pordenone from 1537 to 1797, the mast once stood in the open space in front of the Loggia comunale. It disappeared after road works between the Municipio and the church of the Santissima Trinità, and was later rediscovered and placed here.

Dove si trova: Piazzale XX Settembre, 11, 33170 Pordenone PN

A barely visible trace, a small, seemingly insignificant stone pillar. This is where one of the many bridges once stood that allowed people to cross the Roggia dei Mulini, one of the two waterways that ran all the way round the walled city.

It was the Dominicans, builders of the convent — now a library — who in 1722 requested and obtained the opening of a breach in the walls and the construction of a bridge to access the city. But it was the Augustinian nuns, the last religious community to inhabit the convent, who left their mark in the name of the bridge.

Dove si trova: Piazzale XX Settembre, 33170 Pordenone PN

You are now standing in front of the palace named after one of its illustrious residents: Vendramino Candiani (1820-1890), the first mayor of Pordenone after the unification of Italy. The exterior façade features a series of frescoes, including two noble coats of arms that tell a story of the city's administration, rooted in the Middle Ages.

The black owl with claws clinging to a step of four antlers, by Konrad von Auffenstein, and the coat of arms "gules, a pole argent," by Hartneid von Weißenegg, are the coats of arms of two Austrian captains, representatives of the Duke of Austria in the city, to whom Pordenone and the surrounding villages belonged from 1278 to 1508.

The official residence of the Austrian captain and his family was the castle, a building separate from the city, protected by its own walls and a drawbridge. An emblematic example of its time as a military building with a dual function: to defend the city from external attack and to defend itself from the city in the event of internal revolt.

The presence of these coats of arms, discovered during the palace's restoration in 2022, shed new light on Pordenone's ancient history.

Dove si trova: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 23, 33170 Pordenone PN

On the façade of the same palace, a plaque commemorates Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), who was a guest of Pordenone’s first mayor, Vendramino Candiani.

The ensemble reproduces in carved stone the “Star of the Thousand”, the jewel presented to Garibaldi in Caprera by general Stefano Türr (1825–1908), together with other Garibaldian officers, to commemorate the Sicilian campaign. Created by the jeweller Luigi Manini of Milan, it takes the form of a seven-pointed star set with diamonds. At its centre, on a blue enamel field and intertwined with the word “ARTURO”, appears the emblem of the Trinacria. This is the Triscele, the symbol that Garibaldi always considered his guide and to which he also looked on the night of 24 May 1860 when he resolved to march on Palermo. The whole is enclosed within a circle bearing the inscription, in diamond characters: “I MILLE AL LORO DUCE” (“The Thousand to their leader”).

Dove si trova: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 23, 33170 Pordenone PN

The façade of a palace rich in painted coats of arms offers a glimpse into the fourteenth century. The most interesting is that of the Angevin kings of Hungary, a heraldic device with a short lifespan. The extinction of the male line of the Árpád dynasty in 1301 paved the way for Charles of Anjou, who reigned from 1307 to 1342.

This coat of arms remained in use for a few more decades, until 1395, and testifies to the connections between several noble families of Pordenone and Hungary.

Dove si trova: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 40, 33170 Pordenone PN

At two points in its history, Pordenone was part of Habsburg rule: first (1278–1508) as an imperial fief of key strategic importance, and later during the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (nineteenth century).
On the façade of Palazzo Varmo-Pomo, known as the Casa dei Capitani, a striking example of the first period stands out: the coat of arms of Wilhelm von Baumkirchen, Austrian captain in Pordenone between 1443 and 1444.

Within the shield appears a church — Kirche in German — an explicit visual reference to the Tyrolean nobleman’s surname. Beside it, a coat of arms of Austria is surmounted by a single-headed eagle, an imperial symbol predating the adoption of the double-headed one, introduced in the West by Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437).

Painted coats of arms are a valuable tool for modern scholars to investigate, date and interpret the history of ancient monuments.

Dove si trova: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 45, 33170 Pordenone PN

In the past, the dead in Pordenone were buried in the ground surrounding the Concattedrale di San Marco (Duomo). Periodically, the bones of the older deceased were exhumed and transferred to the ossuary in the small church of Sant'Antonio, known for this function as "ab incarnario", that is "from the incarnarium" (in the Middle Ages, the incarnarium was the ossuary).

The church, one of the oldest in the city, stood on the left side of the Concattedrale di San Marco. Today, only an internal wall survives, with two niches where the sinopie of religious figures can still be seen. The frescoes that once covered this wall were detached and are now preserved in the Museo Ricchieri.

Dove si trova: Vicolo del Campanile, 33170 Pordenone PN