Portogruaro

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Portogruaro
coat of arms
Portogruaro (Italy)
Portogruaro
Country Italy
region Veneto
Metropolitan city Venice  (VE)
Local name Portogruaro
Coordinates 45 ° 47 '  N , 12 ° 50'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 46 '32 "  N , 12 ° 50' 15"  E
height 7  m slm
surface 102 km²
Residents 24,912 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 244 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 30026
prefix 0421
ISTAT number 027029
Popular name Portogruaresi
Patron saint Apostle Andrew
Website Portogruaro

Portogruaro is an Italian city ​​with 24,912 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) on the Lemene River in eastern Veneto on the border with Friuli-Venezia Giulia , around 60 km from Venice .

Surname

According to prevailing opinion, the name Portogruaro can be translated as "crane harbor" ( porto = harbor, gru = crane), which is also reflected in the city's coat of arms with the two cranes . In the heyday of the Venetian Republic, Portogruaro was an important river port for Venice's trade and the crane was the typical bird of the swampy landscape at that time. An alternative interpretation derives the name part gruaro from Latin Gruarius (guardian of the fields), which would correspond to the rural character of the area around Portogruaro.

history

The founding of the city goes back to a charter of Gervico, Bishop of Concordia , from January 10th 1140. With this document, the bishop left the harbor masters Giovanni Venerio, Arpone, Bertaldo, Berigoio, Enrico Mosca, Giovanni Salimbene and other properties on the banks of the Lemene for the construction of houses, warehouses and a river port. The area of ​​Portogruaro is mentioned for the first time in a privilege of Emperor Otto III. from the year 986, with which this transferred the rule of the area to the Bishop of Concordia.

A fortified complex must have existed on the right bank of the Lemene as early as the 10th century, which was built as a residence by the bishops of the diocese of Concordia, as it is no longer sufficiently safe in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Iulia Concordia (today Concordia Sagittaria ) felt.

Attractions

Ancient mills from the twelfth century
The "Leaning Tower" of Portogruaro

The old town of Portogruaro, enclosed by a ring road, is almost completely preserved in the Venetian Gothic style . The main architectural attractions are the town hall from the 13th century with a striking crenellated crown, the crooked bell tower of the Cathedral of Portogruaro and the old mills in the center of the city.

Leaning Tower of Portogruaro

The campanile dates back to the 12th to 13th centuries. In 1876, the already inclined tower was increased from 47 to currently 59 meters including the tower cross, which is why the tower has two different vertical axes. At a height of 31.87 meters, the tower hangs 1.24 meters to the northeast, at a height of 58.86 meters the deviation is already 1.72 meters. The tower has been measured and controlled by the Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering at the University of Trento since 2003 . At the 36.74 meter high monitoring point, the slope increases by 2.67 millimeters annually. A project to stabilize the tower was estimated at 4 million euros in 2018.

Pilacorte fountain

Immediately to the left of the town hall stands one of the landmarks of Portogruaro, the crane fountain ( pozzetto delle gru ) on an octagonal base . It was designed in 1494 by the sculptor Giovanni Antonio Pilacorte . On the outer walls of the octagonal fountain basin, in addition to the city arms, those of Paolo Contarini and Jacopo Gabriel , who were probably mayors at the end of the 15th century, are carved out. The two cranes are the work of Valentino Turchetto , which he created in 1928 to replace the bronze figures stolen at the end of the war in 1918.

Originally the crane fountain was a little removed from its current location. It is fed from an underground cistern . An inscription from 1598, to the right of the town's coat of arms, reports on this cistern that it was renewed by the mayor Giovanni Balbi in order to obtain clean water.

In the 18th century, the fountain inexplicably fell into private hands. It was only ceremoniously returned to the community in 1908 on the occasion of the inauguration of the public aqueduct .

The town hall of Portogruaro

Town twinning

City partnerships have existed since 1987 with:

Personalities

Sons and daughters

People with a special relationship to the city

  • Julius Raab (1891–1964), Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (1953–1961), as the company commander of the Austrian pioneers , saved the historic bridge “Ponte dei Molini” in the center of the city from destruction during the retreat in November 1918.

literature

  • Paolo Francesco Gusso, Vanni Tiozzo: Il Centro Storico di Portogruaro . Associazione Accordi, Portogruaro 2004.
  • Attilio Nodari: Zibaldone Portogruarese - note storiche e noteizie curiose sulla Città del Lemene . Edizioni Pro Loco, Portogruaro 1999.
  • Ruggero Simonato, Roberto Barbuio (Eds.): Portogruaro nell'Ottocento. Contesto storico e ambiente sociale , Portugruaro 1993.

Web links

Commons : Portogruaro  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ Marco Baroni: Analisi dei dati di monitoraggio e del comportamento strutturale della Torre Civica di Portogruaro. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile Ambientale Meccanica, Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria Civile, Trento 2014, 20 pages, online at cias-italia.it (Italian)
  3. ↑ D. Zonta, M. Pozzi, P. Zanon, GA Anese, A. Busetto: Real-time probabilistic health monitoring of the Portogruaro Civic Tower. In: Structural Analysis of Historic Construction. London 2008, pp. 723–731, online at ing.unitn.it (English)