Portogruaro

Portogruaro Province Venezia

A town with two souls: the land that one sees when walking on its streets, prized for its charming medieval establishments, precious architecture in the historical centre, and the arcades that run at parallels.

Water is the other soul, linked to Lemene, the river that runs through the centre of Portogruaro. It has been favoured for commerce with the cities of the Adriatico, above all Venice.
The river has been at the heart of the town since its foundation in 1140, when the Bishop of Concordia conferred a long stretch of land along the river banks to some merchants where they built houses, warehouses and a commercial port.

However it was only under the protection of the Most Serene Republic that Portogruaro experienced the true period of wealth and splendour. The most important and valued works of the town occurred in the 15th and 16th centuries: the commercial warehouse, the stone bridges, Renaissance palaces, arches and arcades, which appear everywhere and recall the typical Venetian elements of architecture. Among these there are numerous rampant lions, wall paintings, bas-relief in Istrian stone and noble coat-of-arms.

The historical centre of Portogruaro charms with its wonderfully preserved architecture: the 13th communal Loggia, the Piazza della Repubblica with its genuine well and two bronze cranes (the town's symbol), the leaning Roman bell tower, the Loggia della Pescheria, the two mills on the river Lemene, palaces and noble houses, and preserved frescoes inside churches. Entering the National Archeological Museum, one of the most important in northern Italy, the remains of the Roman city Iulia Concordia and its necropolis take us back in time to the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. (Foto By EvaUppsala)