Castello di Partistagno (Attimis)

The site was first mentioned at the end of the 11th century, yet the presence of Roman remains such as a protective rampart, a stone tower (later used as the apse of the castle chapel) and a water cistern indicates that an earlier fortification had stood on the same spot. Owned from the 13th century by a branch of the noble Cucagna family, chamberlains to the Patriarchate, the castle’s function, from ancient to medieval times, was to control the road which ran below it linking the important military and commercial centres of Cividale and Gemona. The castle, which is reached along the seventeenth-century track, is in rather good order following recent restoration work, and includes the ancient keep, the more recent palace with a beautiful series of double lancet windows, and the chapel of Sant’Osvaldo with its magnificent fresco of the Bologna school, representing Christ with the twelve apostles, one of the most important works of art in Friuli.