Railway Station - via Aquileia - via Vittorio Veneto - piazza Libertà

We begin our tour at Porta Aquileia, with its characteristic Ghibelline battlements; this gate is part of the fifth circle of town-walls (XVth century). Proceeding on our route we encounter the Chiesa della Beata Vergine del Carmine (Church), built by the Carmelite monks during the early XVIth
century but transformed during the XVIIIth. Leaving the church we go along the beautiful via Aquileia and via Vittorio Veneto, where there are many interesting buildings such as the Casa d'Orlandi, formerly Manin di Varmo, the Casa Morelli de'Rossi, the Casa Lovaria-Asquini and Palazzo Strassoldo-Manin, and finally we arrive at piazza Libertà.

The entire area at the foot of the Hill was developed as of the Middle Ages: piazza Libertà is especially representative of that period, and is one of the most beautiful mainland Veneto squares. Here we find the Loggia del Lionello (1448), built on a plan by Bartolomeo delle Cisterne and Nicolò di Lionello. Opposite the Loggia rises the Torre dell'Orologio (Tower of the Clock) by Giovanni da Udine (1527) surmounted by the two Huomini delle Ore: at the base of the tower extends the renaissance Loggia di San Giovanni (1535 approximately) by  Bernardino da Morcote. At the centre of the archways is the Chiesa di San Giovanni, dedicated to those who perished for their homeland at the beginning of this century; to the right there is a fountain, dated 1542; the pillar with the Lion of San Marco is a XIXth-century remake of the original renaissance one, demolished by the French in 1797. To the left is the Statua della Pace (Statue), created by G.B. Comolli in commemoration of the treaty of Campoformido.

Near that stands the pillar with the Statua della Giustizia by Paleario (1614), in memory of the time when there was a pillory in the square, where capital executions were carried out. The two large statues standing out from the edge of the platform, Ercole e Caco - XVIIth century - were brought here after the destruction of the Della Torre edifice.

 

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