Tolmezzo:

this is the place where I live

Proof of the fact that the plain of Tolmezzo has been inhabited at least since the high Middle Ages was given by two Lombard tombs discovered right under the village. And prior to the year 1000, there must already have been the two churches of S.Maria Oltre But and of S.Floriano, as well as the castle of Illegio, destroyed in 1313. Great impulse was given to the development of Tolmezzo by the privileges granted it in 1258 by the Patriarch  Gregorio da Montelongo, who had already instituted the market a few years early. In 1348 the severe earthquake that hit most of the region of Friuli ruined the castle of Tolmezzo. During the battles that tortured Friuli during the first half of the XIV° century, Tolmezzo was always faithful to the Patriarch and, in 1356, the Patriarch Nicolò di Lussemburgo rewarded it by nominating it capital of all of the Carnia. In July 1420, Tolmezzo and Carnia surrendered, as the last in Friuli, to the Republic of Venice, that confirmed the ample autonomy that Tolmezzo had so far had the benefit of. Following the fall of Venice and Friuli's annexation to Austria, Tolmezzo and Carnia entered a long period of crisis. Rebirth and building expansion only began in the railway, inaugurated in 1911, and to the development of many industrial activities that culminated with the building of the paper-mil that began to function in 1933. After the Second World War, Tolmezzo went through another period of vigorous building and industrial development, consolidating  its traditional role as administrative and commercial centre for all of Carnia.