Castello di Fontanabona (Pagnacco)

The name refers to a water spring which, still to this day, rises to surface in the village square. The castle probably dates back to the 10th century, and in 1196 a document gives mention of its lord Corrado di Guttenbrunnen (Fontanabona). The feudal family became extinct in 1587 and the estate was acquired by Cardinal Francesco Mantica, member of an old Como family and son of Fontana di Fontanabona, an illustrious jurisconsult who was a candidate to the papal seat in 1605. The castle remained a possession of the Mantica family until 1819; after then, it was inherited by a number of different families. In 1969 Raimondo Capsoni de Rinoldi eventually donated the estate to the Regional Authority of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Standing on a dominant spot overlooking the Cormor Valley, the castle includes a simply-designed manor house, dating from the late-eighteenth-century, a northern Medieval wing and a chapel, and is surrounded by a large garden with rare plants and centuries-old trees.