What is Spilimbergo known for?

The Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli has trained mosaicists since 1922; alumni made the Library of Congress and Ground Zero mosaics. Bellunello frescoed the entire façade around 1480; the palace later hosted Charles V, Bona Sforza, and Henry III of France. The river runs three kilometers wide here in braided channels, the last unaltered Alpine river bed of its kind in Europe.

Where is Spilimbergo?

Spilimbergo is a comune in the province of Pordenone, Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, about 33 kilometers from Udine.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia · Pordenone

Spilimbergo

A 132-meter Friulian town on the Tagliamento, home since 1922 to the Scuola Mosaicisti, whose alumni made the Library of Congress mosaics.

33 km / 21 mi

Nearest hub (Udine)

11,833

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Spilimbergo sitson the right bank of the Tagliamento, where the river broadens to three kilometers and splits into braided channels. The town takes its name from the castrum de Spengenberg, built in the eleventh century by Carinthian counts who came south as vassals of the Patriarch of Aquileia. The castle, the Palazzo Dipinto with its Andrea Bellunello frescoes from the 1480s, and the Romanesque-Gothic Duomo di Santa Maria Maggiore begun in 1284 still anchor the centro storico. The defining institution is younger: the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, founded in 1922, which has trained the artisans behind the Library of Congress mosaics in Washington, the dome of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Foro Italico in Rome, and the World Trade Center transit hub at Ground Zero. The Folkest folk-music festival runs every July. The town carries Borghi più belli and Borgo dei Borghi finalist recognition, and the river itself is one of the last morphologically intact Alpine braided rivers in Europe.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello di Spilimbergo
Eleventh-century fortress of the Spengenberg counts, burned in the 1511 popular revolt and partially rebuilt; the Palazzo Dipinto survived.
Palazzo Dipinto
Fifteenth-century façade frescoed by Andrea Bellunello around 1480 with prancing horses, ladies, pages, and Theological and Cardinal virtues.
Duomo di Santa Maria Maggiore
Romanesque-Gothic cathedral begun in 1284 by count Walterpertoldo II, with apse frescoes executed between 1350 and 1359.
Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli
Mosaic school founded in 1922, the most important in the world, with over 800 student and master works displayed across its halls.
Tagliamento riverbed
Braided Alpine river three kilometers wide near the town, one of the last morphologically intact rivers of its kind in Europe.
Corso Roma
Main axis of the centro storico, lined with frescoed Renaissance palazzi and the Macia, the medieval measuring stone used for market trade.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June is the season for the Tagliamento gravel beds and the Bellunello frescoes; the light catches the Palazzo Dipinto best in the late afternoon. Folkest fills the piazzas with folk musicians from across Europe through early July. August is hot and the centro storico empties between two and five. September and October bring grape harvest, the surrounding hill vineyards turn, and the river runs clearer. November to March is quiet outside the Macia market days. The mosaic school keeps its visitor hours year-round; winter is when the workshops are at full capacity and easiest to see at work.