Strassoldo

Two castles share this small medieval hamlet of Cervignano del Friuli, cradle of the Strassoldo counts, who gave the Habsburgs governors and generals. You enter through the turreted Porta Cisis, follow a lane of 16th-century cottages and reach the Castello di Sotto, remodelled in the 18th century to resemble a Venetian villa. Until 1918 the village lay in Austria-Hungary, with the Italian border at the old customs mill.

Highlights

• Porta Cisis, the tall turreted gate in the outer ring of walls
• The Castello di Sotto, with its 18th-century villa-like façade
• The 18-metre tower of the Castello di Sopra, the last of the original two
• The village where Field Marshal Radetzky married Francesca Romana Strassoldo

Text adapted from Wikipedia (Strassoldo). Available under CC BY-SA 4.0.