The center of Udine is dominated by the Castle, built by the Venetians from 1517 over a ruined Lombard fortification. The castle houses one of the most ancient Parliament Halls of Europe.
Many Udinese come up here just to admire the view over the town and countryside, but you can also venture into the castle and visit the Museo Civico.

The Cathedral (open daily 7am–noon and 4–8pm) dominates the square with its 14th-century Gothic facade, but the interior is theatrically baroque. The first, second, and fourth altars in the right nave are adorned with Tiepolo paintings; in the fourth chapel, his airy version of Christ’s Ascension imparts lightness and a sense of exhilaration at leaving earth (Tiepolo also did the frescoes here).

Tiepolo also frescoed the Oratorio della Purità across the piazza (tel. 0432-506-830). In Fall of the Angels, the plummeting cherubs look like children who have just been scolded. An Assumption, appropriately adorning the ceiling, is so light that it seems to draw the viewer right off the floor. To enter, rustle up a sacristan in the Duomo (not on Sun) or try ringing the bell (mornings only).

The church of San Francesco is a deconsacrated Romanesque church that is now used for exhibitions.

The church dedicated to St. Maria delle Grazie is probably the oldest in Udine, judging from extant fragments dating back to the Lombard era. It lost its parish status in 1263, when it was annexed to the larger parish of Saint'Odorico (now the Cathedral). It has been renovated many times over the centuries: the façade, for example, was entirely rebuilt after the catastrophic earthquake of 1511. Its three naves preserve the suggestive atmosphere of silence and contemplation, which is often found in old churches. The Venetian Governor, Tommaso Lippomano, commissioned the Venetian Gothic portico with steps and ramps leading down the hill in 1487.

In Udine’s center, handsome streets open every few blocks or so onto another stunning piazza and sometimes even cross little streams. The effect is like walking from one stage set to another. The heart of the city is the elegant Piazza della Libertà, which bears the telltale marks of the Venetian presence in Udine:
On one side is the Loggia del Lionello, the town hall, built in the mid–15th century in Venetian style with a pink-and-white-striped facade. Across the piazza is the Renaissance Porticato di San Giovanni, with a long portico supported by slender columns and, rising above it, a Veniceinspired clock tower emblazoned with the Venetian lion and topped with two Moors who strike the hours. The great Renaissance architect Palladio designed the Arco Bollani, located to one side of the clock tower.

The beginning of construction on the Palazzo Antonini is traditionally said to date to 1556, contemporaneous with the construction of the Arco Bollani. The patron was Floriano Antonini, a young and ambitious member of one of the most high-profile families of Udine aristocracy. Antonini did not hesitate to resurrect erudite traditions by minting a foundation medal for the Palazzo, probably desiring to demonstrate that sophisticated taste was not the exclusive prerogative of aristocratic circles in the capital. In 1559 the palace was already partially inhabitable, but in 1563 building works were still in progress. In the following century, at least two campaigns of works heavily altered the building’s appearance, going so far as to replace all the windows, except those to the right of the loggia on the back façade, as well as the internal staircases. In 1709 Martino Fischer executed the decorative ornaments, thereby contributing to the definitive transformation of the original Palladian interiors. In essence, all that remains of Palladio’s project are the plan (less the stairs) and the building’s basic volumes, the front and back loggias (whose pediments were never executed), and the components of the “Hall of the four columns”. This project opens the section in the Quattro Libri dedicated to city palaces although, as was the opposite case in the Villa Pisani at Bagnolo and the Villa Cornaro at Piombino, the Palazzo Antonini was actually a rather ambivalent building: it is truly an urban palace which assumes the typology of a suburban villa. In this respect, one must bear in mind that the palace rose on the borders of the urban centre, in an open area with gardens, just like the Palazzo Chiericati or the Palazzo Civena. The design of its façades is fascinating, particularly that facing the street, with engaged Ionic half-columns, fashioned from blocks of stone, which forecast those at the Villa Sarego at Santa Sofia, a real anomaly in Palladio’s poetry. Moreover, a thick web of openings transforms the loggia onto the street into a sort of diaphragm transparent to the light. The entire edifice seems to be strapped by continuos bands of stone, from the plinth of engaged columns to the trabeation, right up to the band corresponding to the upper frieze, where the small unframed windows of the granary open.

Here you will be shaken out of the reverie induced by Tiepolo’s airy views of miracles and the afterlife—the galleries are filled, surprising in a small provincial city, with the works of 20th-century powerhouses such as Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico, as well as 1970s works by the likes of Lichtenstein and De Kooning
p.le Paolo Diacono, 22 - v. Ampezzo, 2 I
t’s open Tuesday to Saturday 9:30am to 12:30pm and 3 to 6pm, Sunday 9:30am to 12:30pm.
Admission is 2.60€ for adults, 1.80€ for those under 18 and over 65. Admission to the gallery is free on Sunday mornings.