Rosazzo Castle

Tina, my wife, a lover of flowers and of roses in particular, discovered that every year roses are displayed at this castle

Fortified monastery of Rosazzo and church of San Pietro [11th - 18th centuries]

The complex is one of the main castle-monasteries of Friuli, which once controlled the important road leading from Cividale to Gorizia. The abbot held episcopal and princely powers and was appointed by the patriarch or directly by the pope. The convent was founded around 1080 under the Augustinian rule, soon changed to the Benedictine; the first monks came from Millstatt (Carinthia) and also ran the adjoining hospital of Sant'Egidio, which welcomed the poor and lepers. In recent times the abbey was fortified like a castle with walls, watchtowers and its own militia. During the war of 1361 against the dukes of Austria Rudolf and Frederick, abbot Raimondo defended the abbey complex, which withstood the siege. In 1373 the leadership passed to the Community of Cividale, interested in this strategic position.

From 1381 to 1387 the monastery was involved in the disputes over the appointment of patriarch Philip of Alençon, supported by the people of Cividale, by the abbot and by the Paduan troops of Francesco da Carrara. In 1422 the patriarch Ludovico of Teck besieged the castles of Manzano, Buttrio and Rosazzo, but was stopped by the intervention of the Republic of Venice, which thus imposed its rule. The war of the League of Cambrai (1508) severely damaged the abbey buildings, later restored under abbot Gian Matteo Giberti, bishop of Verona. The last Dominican monks left the monastery in 1751 and the perpetual commendam of the Archbishop of Udine took over. The original medieval complex has almost disappeared with the 16th- and 19th-century restorations; the fortified north-west walls with the 14th-century tower and stretches of the curtain wall remain.

In the church of San Pietro, by the Cividale architect Venceslao Boiani, the choir holds frescoes by the Veronese painter Francesco Torbido: the Evangelists in the vaults, the Transfiguration, the Calling of Saint Peter and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes on the walls, a Madonna and Child with Saints on the triumphal arch. In the former refectory a recently restored Crucifixion is attributed to the Veronese Battista dell'Angelo, Torbido's brother-in-law. The high altar (1756) is the work of the Udine sculptors Mattiussi.