Villa d'Attimis at Strassoldo is one of the historic houses that has always exerted the charm of beauty in Attimis. At this time of the year, it is even more wonderful because this fairytale setting hosts the fourth show of nativity art, organised by the Pro Loco Attimis and entitled: “The waters of the Malina and the poetry of the Nativity”.

The show will remain open throughout the month of December and until Epiphany every Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm and from 3.00 pm to 6.30 pm. By prior booking, it will also be open on weekdays for groups of at least 20 people, free admission: (info: prolocoattimis@alice.it).

We have called it the “Villa dei Presepi”, but Villa Strassoldo, formerly Attimis dell’Orso, is actually one of the historic houses representing the prestigious architecture of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Surrounded by a large park with centuries-old trees, positioned on either side of the fine iron gate that leads into the park, the house bears two bears, so-called of the castel vecchio—of the old castle— evoking the family of the first owners and, at the centre, the family coat of arms of the Strassoldo Soffumbergo family.

The house was built by the Counts of Attimis or Attems dell’Orso in the sixteenth century, pulling down the two earlier ones: the upper one of the eleventh century and the lower of the thirteenth, of which the ruins on the hills overlooking the village remain, on the opposite side of the Malina torrent. In the eighteenth century, the property passed by marriage to the Counts Strassoldo Soffumbergo, who used it as a summer home; they had it decorated in rococo style with stuccoes typical of the eighteenth-century Venetian villas of the family. In the twentieth century, during the Second World War, the villa was the headquarters of the Cossack troops stationed in Friuli who, at the end of the occupation, left it severely damaged.

In recent times, between 1977 and 1997, the family engaged in the restoration of the structures and decorations that had suffered renewed serious damage following the earthquake of May-September 1976, bringing back to light the ancient marmorino plasters with the original colours thanks to long and patient restoration work.

The most important part dates from the sixteenth century, and on the piano nobile includes the main drawing room with its fine beamed ceiling, surrounded along the upper perimeter by a series of tiles decorated with the coats of arms of noble families associated with the house and with stucco frames on the walls. The same floor has the “blue drawing room” and the “green dining room”, also with stucco decorations.

On the ground floor there is a large “Folador” or wine cellar and a large general cellar. Attached to the Villa, immersed in the park, there is a lovely private chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, dating back to the seventeenth century (above the door there are the remains of a sundial) with a carved wooden altar and an altarpiece by the school of Raphael of 1500 by Francesco Floriani (or Floreani), a painter from Udine, depicting the Madonna and Child who stretches towards the one a figure presumed to be St. Jerome, crouching and covered with a cloth, behind St. Joseph.