Casa della Confraternita

Beside the old pieve on Udine's castle hill stands a discreet Gothic house with a painted beam ceiling. The Casa della Confraternita, first recorded in the fifteenth century, escaped the 1511 earthquake that levelled the rest of the hilltop, and today its ground-floor hall hosts the Civici Musei's smaller exhibitions.

Why it matters

The Casa della Confraternita is among the oldest surviving buildings on Udine's castle hill. It outlasted the earthquake of 1511, which destroyed much of the medieval complex. Built for the confraternity attached to Santa Maria di Castello, it preserves a pre-sixteenth-century view of the hill and a late-Gothic hall with exposed beams and decorated joists.

What to notice

Small Gothic arches decorate the elevations, while the Arco Grimani of 1522 connects the house to the castle's eastern flank. The ground floor is a single rectangular hall with timber beams and carved joists. One joist depicts the Madonna and Child beside the medieval castle of Udine, among floral motifs.

Context and history

Documents mention the house from the fifteenth century, and its appearance remains that of a quattrocento Gothic building, although excavation has shown a structure on the site from the fourteenth century. It served the confraternity linked to the ancient pieve of Santa Maria di Castello next door, which explains both its name and its position beside the church. When the earthquake of 26 March 1511 destroyed the buildings of the hill, this house alone held; in the aftermath it briefly accommodated meetings of the Parliament of the Patria del Friuli, displaced from the ruined fortress. The castle that grew back around it in the sixteenth century is therefore its younger neighbour, connected to its side by the Grimani arch. The Civici Musei of Udine later incorporated the ground-floor hall into their network of venues for temporary exhibitions.