Bordano was destroyed twice in thirty years. In July 1944 a Nazi-Fascist reprisal razed almost all of it, and the inhabitants were moved out to make room for the Cossacks, to whom Hitler had promised Upper Friuli as a land of their own. Then came the earthquake of 1976: the epicentre was long believed to be right above here, on Monte San Simeone, and Bordano and the hamlet of Interneppo were levelled, along with every building of any value.
The village rebuilt itself, and to do it, it chose butterflies. In late spring thousands of them fly here, of many different species, and Bordano has made them its emblem to the point of becoming known beyond Italy as the village of butterflies; the Casa delle Farfalle opened here, and there is nothing else like it in the country. The old trade survives too: wood, still worked by hand in small workshops. And some derive the village's name from bord, a wooden plank, because the houses here were put up with boards from the woods around.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Bordano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Bordano, but an easy day trip away.