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Friuli
History
It is difficult to imagine a more composite administrative territory than that
of the Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
The Italian Constitution assigns it the status of Region with a Special Statute,
together with four other Italian regions. However, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
obtained administrative autonomy and the special statute only in 1963. The
reasons for this "constitutional delay" are interwoven with the international
problems of the second postwar period and with those deriving from the region's
"diversity" - the different historical, ethnic, and linguistic components that
go to make up this area.
On the one hand lies Friuli, heir to the patriarchate of Aquileia and the
Venetian Fatherland of Friuli, that goes from the Livenza to the Isonzo,
including the provinces of Pordenone, Udine and part of the province of Gorizia.
On the other lie the territories of Trieste and Gorizia, what is left of Venezia
Giulia after the redrawing of borders after the Second World War, and which
combines the Austrian influence with a past history of strong administrative and
economic autonomy.
The traces of a
common "Roman origin" are quite visible over all the territory, and the unifying
element of the two parts is the X Regio Venetia et Histria, with its capital at
Aquileia in the Augustan period. Starting from the Longobard settlements (6th
century), the historical paths diverge and become particularized: Cividale del
Friuli – the Roman Forum Iulii (from which the name Friuli comes) - became the
capital of the first Longobard Dukedom in Italy; the Franks, arriving a couple
of centuries later, favoured the growth of the church of Aquileia; the
patriarchal feudal state, which was created in 1077, held both religious and
temporal power and this was extended temporarily even to the east, but already
in the 12th century Gorizia had actually become independent and Trieste, along
with other coastal towns, organized itself as a free city-state. It was the
Fatherland of Friuli that became Venetian territory in 1420, while Trieste and
Gorizia remained under the Austrian Empire. Pordenone was a "corpus separatum",
under Austrian influence until 1515, when it too fell under the domination of
Venice. With the peace treaty of Campoformido in 1797, Venetian domination came
to an end and Friuli was ceded to Austria. After the period of domination by
Napoleon, which affected also Trieste and Gorizia, it again became part of the
Austrian Empire and was included in the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom, while Gorizia
was merged with the Illyrian Kingdom and Trieste, together with Istria, became
part of the Austrian Coastal Region. The enlightened policy of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries encouraged an
extraordinary economic flourishing, making Trieste the empire's port. The
fortunate outcome of the war of independence brought Friuli alone into the
unified Kingdom of Italy.
After the First World War, in which this region was a main theatre of
operations, and suffered very serious damage and loss of life, the fates of
these border lands were again united, although Venezia Giulia, in particular,
underwent very painful experiences due to the explosion of contradictions
regarding the borders.
The Second World War, once again very dearly paid for, led to the Anglo-American
Administration in Trieste until the border was fixed with the Memorandum of
London in 1954. When Trieste was reunited with Italy, the Autonomous Region of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia could finally be established.
Courtesy of the
Friuli Venezia Giulia Official Tourist Board
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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