UDINE, a town and archiepiscopal see of Venetia, Italy, capital of the province of Udine, situated between the Gulf of Venice and the Alps, 84 m. by rail N.E. of Venice, 450 f t. above sea-level. Pop. (1931) 31,703 (town) ; 66,488 (commune).
The interesting Porta Aquileia (14th cent.) is almost all that is left of the old city walls. Some of the streets are arcaded and there are some fine palaces. The old castle on a hillock in the centre of the town, at one time the residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia, and now used as a museum and picture gallery, was erected by Giovanni Fontana in 1517 in place of the older one destroyed by an earthquake in 151I. The Romanesque cathedral contains some interesting examples of native art by Giovanni Martini da Udine, a pupil of Raphael, and others. The church of S. Maria della Purita has frescoes by Giovanni Battista and Domenico Tiepolo. In the picturesque principal square stands the town hall, built in 1448-1456 in the Venetian-Gothic style, and skilfully restored after a fire in 1876; opposite is a clock tower resembling that of the Piazza di San Marco at Venice with the elegant loggia of S. Giovanni leading to the church of the same name (1533). In the square is a statue of Peace, erected in commemoration of the peace of Campo Formio (1796), which lies 5 m. to the W.S.W. and two columns, one with the tier of S. Mark, the other with a statue of Justice. The archiepiscopal
palace contains frescoes by G. B. Tiepolo. The leading industry of Udine is silk-spinning, but it also possesses manufactures of linen, cotton, hats and paper, tanneries and sugar refineries, and has a considerable trade in flax, hemp, etc. Branch railways lead to Cividale del Friuli and S. Giorgio di Nogaro.
Udine lay on the line of the Via Iulia Augusta, and there is proof of its existence in Roman times. In 983 it was given by the emperor Otto II. to the patriarch of Aquileia, to whom it may have belonged even earlier. In 1222 or 1238 the patriarch Berthold made it the capital of Friuli, and in 1420 it became Venetian. In 1752 it became an archbishopric. It was the seat of the Italian Comando Supremo (G.H.Q.) during the World War from 1915 to 1917.