Frisanco lies in the Val Colvera, below Monte Raut, and consists of three villages and a dozen hamlets; one of those villages, Poffabro, with its massive stone houses, is among the most beautiful in Italy. The name first appears in 1293, written de Frasanco, and seems to come from Freidank, a Germanic personal name. Local history is hard to reconstruct for a precise reason: in 1606 a fire destroyed the whole village, and with the houses burned all the public and religious registers.
In the archives of the curia of Udine, on the other hand, there survive the papers of an Inquisition trial held between 1648 and 1650 against women accused of witchcraft: they were said to gather in the meadow of Malgustât, behind Monte Raut, and one of those documents states that the village of Frisanco in particular was called the witches' nest. The other matter that has run through the centuries is the relationship with Poffabro: on 28 September 1810 a Napoleonic decree made Frisanco the administrative centre of the valley and annexed Poffabro, which was richer and loyal to Venice, and since then the bad blood between the two has never quite gone away.
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📅 Every year, on 13 February
On 13 February Frisanco celebrates its patronesses Saints Fosca and Maura, to whom the town's church is dedicated; the Dolomiti Friulane regional nature park lies in its territory.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Frisanco, but an easy day trip away.
