Pordenone: Italian Capital of Culture 2027, a city of arcades and painted façades

Pordenone, chosen as Italian Capital of Culture for 2027, is a lively, elegant town on the Noncello river. Its heart is one long street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, lined with arcades and palaces whose façades still show traces of frescoes, like an open-air picture book.

The story

This is the hometown of Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis, known as Il Pordenone (c. 1484 to 1539), one of the boldest painters of the Italian Renaissance and a rival of Titian. In the cathedral of San Marco, beside its slender bell tower, we stand before his altarpiece of the Madonna della Misericordia.

At the end of the Corso rises the Gothic town hall, while Palazzo Ricchieri houses the city's art museum, with works by Il Pordenone and the painters of his time.

Pordenone is also a city of books and film: every September the Pordenonelegge festival fills it with writers and readers, and in October the Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world's leading silent film festival, takes over its theatres.

In pictures

Arcaded palaces along sunny Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Pordenone

Porticoes of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II leading to Pordenone's town hall

Frescoed façade and arcades of Palazzo Ricchieri in central Pordenone

The slender bell tower of San Marco Cathedral above Pordenone's old town

Clear green waters of the Noncello river framed by trees in Pordenone

What we'll see

Corso Vittorio Emanuele IIArcades and palaces with frescoed façades along the city's main street.
The cathedral of San MarcoIl Pordenone's Madonna della Misericordia and the tall bell tower.
The town hallA Gothic palace at the end of the Corso.
Palazzo RicchieriThe civic art museum, in a noble palace on the Corso.

Optional extensions

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Interior of Sant'Ulderico church in Villanova with Il Pordenone's frescoed apse

+1 hour

Villanova and the frescoes of Il Pordenone

A short drive from the centre, the little church of Sant'Ulderico in Villanova keeps the frescoes painted by the young Il Pordenone around 1514: Fathers of the Church, prophets and evangelists in the vault of the choir. A perfect way to follow the artist from his early works to his masterpieces.

A taste of Pordenone

Stop for a coffee under the arcades, then try pitina, the smoked meat speciality of the nearby mountains, with a glass from the Friuli Grave wine area.