Varmo

Varmo is only the Italian adaptation of the original Vil di Var, and one would think the village took its name from the spring-fed river Varmo that runs close by. It did not: the name comes from the family that held the fief from the first years after the year one thousand, the counts of Varmo, and Vil di Var means the village of the Varmo. Friulian is spoken here, in its central-eastern variety, and the comune gathers nine settlements around the main village: Santa Marizza, Gradiscutta, Belgrado, Roveredo, Romans, Canussio, which lies beyond the Tagliamento, Madrisio and Cornazzai. The arms, granted in 1937, are a truncated and crenellated shield, and in the main village stands the church of San Lorenzo Martire.

At Belgrado, one of those villages, there is a castle which around 1462 was bought by Stefan Branković, former despot of Serbia, who had reigned a little more than a year: he lived there with his family until his death, in 1476. Varmo, moreover, has given its name to books that do not always speak of it. «Il Varmo» is a country novella that Ippolito Nievo published in 1856 and set in the mill of Glaunicco, which lies in the neighbouring comune of Camino al Tagliamento; while two novels by Sergio Maldini are set here, «La casa a nord-est» and «La stazione di Varmo».