Etappe 13 - vrijdag 20 mei Vertrekpunt: Spilimbergo - Grossglockner Afstand: 159 km

SPILIMBERGO
The name of this small town, established on a natural terrace which dominates the area of the Grave and the Tagliamento river valley, derives from the Carinthia Counts Spengenberch, (or Spengenberg)  appointed by the Aquileia Patriarch in the second half of the thirteenth century for controlling the territory. During the Middle Ages Spilimbergo was an important place of transit and commerce and its richness is witnessed by the several vestiges which are kept in old town surrounded by three circles of walls. Sightseers can visit the Castle, which has been enlarged several times between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, and a series of Gothic and Renaissance buildings, among which the fifteenth-century Palazzo Dipinto, frescoed by the Bellunello and embellished by small stone balconies. In front of the Castle stands the thirteenth-century Duomo, which has a remarkable Romanesque portal, bearing the engraved coat of arms of the local notables. Inside there are valuable frescoes in the apses of the Gothic arches, which represent chapters of the Old and New Testaments, the font and the ports of the sixteenth-century organ, painted by the Pordenone. The town is renowned for the ability of its craftsmen, specialized in the art of mosaic, and hosts the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, a world wide known training centre.

FROM SPILIMBERGO TO GROSSGLOCKNER

Pinzano al Tagliamento
It is a small town of the province of Pordenone, located in a slight slope between the castle hill and the natural slope of the Tagliamento river. Already in pre-Roman time Pinzano was an important intersection towards the Croce Carnico Mountain Pass. Visitors can stop in the eighteenth century Church of San Martino, in order to admire certain frescoes of the Pordenone, painted around 1526, among which the Martirio di San Sebastiano (the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian's) and the Madonna in Trono col Bambino (Virgin and Child enthroned). During WWI the church has been used as a military hospital.

Tolmezzo
Capital of Carnia, boasts a jewel historic centre known as Borgat, characterized by arcaded streets, ancient buildings, small workshops in which the ancient luthier’s art is still handed down. The Duomo di San Martino hosts works of the Venetian school and a cupola frescoed by Antonio Schiavo. Among unmissable things, the Museo carnico delle Arti Popolari, housed in the eighteenth-century Palazzo Campeis. The Museum exhibits the reconstruction of typical environments of the domestic life, tinsmiths and carpenters’ shops, weaving and embroidery tools  and also ceramics and fabrics.

Kötschach-Mauthen
This small town, at a few  kilometer from the Italian border, is located in the Gail Valley, hosts and interesting museum dedicated to WWI displaying Italian and Austrian war finds. However, most of all, visitors stop here for the unpolluted nature. Kötschach-Mauthen is the access door to the magnificent Lesach valley, which boasts resonant prizes such as “Landscape of the Year” and “The most genuine and environment respectful European valley”: 72 valleys, as many streams, about twenty small altitude lakes, well kept larch, pine and fir tree woods, plenty of pasturing sheep and cows who produce gourmand meat and cheeses.