Forni di Sotto

Forni di Sotto is the largest municipality in Carnia and it is supposed it was inhabited already in the pre-Roman age.

The ruins of the castle are still visible in the locality called Chiastelàt (at 960 metres).

Completely razed to the ground in 1944 by the Nazis who had set it on fire in reprisal, of its past Forni di Sotto preserves the fountains of the three boroughs into which it was divided, around which the town was rebuilt after the war.

The town's history is peculiar: along with Forni di Sopra, in fact, for a long time it constituted the autonomous territory of the so-called Forni Savorgnani, possessions of the powerful Savorgnan family, who had received it from the patriarchs of Aquileia. Its name probably derives from "furno", that is to say, furnace for melting minerals; in the past, in fact, the minerals extracted from the caves of the surroundings were worked in the area. The town is an ideal starting point for hikes in the mountains of the upper Tagliamento Valley and walks in the Friulian Dolomites Park, whose eastern part extends here.

Well worth a visit is the small San Lorenzo Church, situated in a charming position on the edge of the town. Built between the 14th and the 15th century, it has a characteristic portico and a small bell gable and is frescoed with one of the most important cycles by Gianfrancesco da Tolmezzo, one of the main 15th-century painters in Friuli: of 1492, the frescoes depict the Doctors of the Church, the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, the Annunciation and Saints.