A story of earthquake and rebirth beneath the mountains
On 6 May 1976 an earthquake devastated Friuli, and Gemona, at the foot of the mountains, was among the towns hit hardest. Fifty years later it stands rebuilt, and its story of courage and solidarity, the Friuli model of reconstruction, is one of the most moving you can hear in Italy.
We stroll along Via Bini, the old porticoed street, from the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie past the town hall, and climb towards the castle.
At the top stands the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, with its rose window and a giant statue of St Christopher on the façade. Inside, some columns still lean, left as they were after the earthquake as a memory. Below the church we visit the underground rooms: chapel, lapidarium and ossuary.
We finish at the photographic exhibition on the Friuli model: destruction, reconstruction and rebirth, told through the faces of the people who rebuilt their town stone by stone.
The first sanctuary in the world dedicated to St Anthony of Padua. The saint stayed in Gemona in 1227 and founded a chapel here, and the first church was dedicated to him in 1248, years before the basilica in Padua. Rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake, it still keeps the cell where, according to tradition, he lived.
Gemona sits on the road to the Alps: try mountain cheeses and cjarsons, the sweet-and-savoury filled pasta of nearby Carnia.
Tell me your dates and group size, and I'll shape the visit around you. It can also be combined with a winery or another town on the same day.
A fortified island town and ancient port: early Christian basilicas and the walk from the old castrum to the garden city.
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A boat trip through the lagoon canals, past the fishermen's casoni, to the sanctuary island of Barbana.
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A castle, Habsburg palaces and gardens, and a square shared with Slovenia, with the option to cross into Nova Gorica.
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