Cervignano del Friuli
Encyclopedia
Cervignano del Friuli is a comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

in the province of Udine
Province of Udine
The Province of Udine is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital is the city of Udine....

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. the most important town of Bassa Friulana
Bassa Friulana
The Bassa Friulana is a low-lying and level area of Friuli, specifically the very southern part of the province of Udine, in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia....

. It lies at about 12 km from the Laguna di Grado and at about 18 km from the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...

; from the point of view of viability, its position is peculiar since it lies at the junction of the SS14, linking Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

, and the SS352, linking Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...

 to Grado
Grado, Italy
Grado is a town and comune in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on a peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste....

. Nevertheless, it is in Cervignano that the railroad from Austria, passing through Tarvisio
Tarvisio
Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...

 and Udine, ends, and is linked to the one from Venice to Trieste.

History

Cervignano was born with the foundation of Aquileia
Aquileia
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...

 in 181 B.C. by the Romans Lucio Manlio Acidino, Publio Scipione Nasica and Caio Flaminio, sent from Rome to defeat the barbarians menacing the Eastern borders of Italy. As usual, the territory near Aquileia was populated, in order to establish a settlement in the area.

Some documents of 912 read about Cerveniana or Cirvignanum: the name comes from the name of an ancient Roman family, Cervenius or Cervonius, with the suffix -anus to mean the ownership of the land where Cervignano was born. The name, however, was wrongly linked to the Latin word cervus (or to the Italian cervo), meaning "deer", and making imagine a large wood populated by deers; for that reason, a deer can be seen in the left section of the borough shield. The right section of the shield is an anchor, a reference to the ancient harbour on the Ausa river, relevant for the economic life of the town.

During the 11th century an abbey for the Order of Saint Benedict
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

 was built. It was dedicated to Saint Michael Archangel and it was controlled by the monastery of Aquileia and by the earl of Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...

. In 1420 Cervignano was conquered by Venice and in 1521 returned to the County of Gorizia with the Worms Treaty. In 1615 was conquered by Venice during the War of Gradisca but it was for a very short period. The town became part of Italy after World War I.

In 1923 the municipality became part of the Province of Udine, along with other municipalities in the same area, and today still belongs to it.
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