Villa de Claricini Dornpacher

Villa de Claricini Dornpacher is located in Bottenicco di Moimacco, a rural village on the outskirts of Cividale del Friuli. It was completed in 1697 by Francesco Claricini, as he writes in his will “Having made rubrics and built a church in my local area in the Villa of Bottenicco… my building in Bottenicco, that is, Casa Dominicale, farmhouses, lands and fields and meadows”.

It is a Venetian villa – located at the centre of the Claricini agricultural properties – which has the dual function of a manor house and a farm. The well, located in the center of the courtyard of honor, was built by Francesco Claricini for agricultural and residential needs; today it is only decorative.

The main building is the owner’s residence. To the side, there is the family chapel and the guesthouse, dedicated to the temporary accommodation of guests. The upper part of the manor house housed the servants’ quarters.

On the west side, two barchesse open onto the service courtyards. The largest housed the pressing room (in Friulian: filledôr) and the cellar. The attic served as a warehouse for storing crops and foodstuffs. Next to it, a smaller barchessa accommodated the stables, depots and wagons.

To the south opens the Italian garden. It was redesigned in the early twentieth century by Nicolò Claricini Dornpacher, the last count to live in the villa. The garden is crossed by a paved path that delimits four flowerbeds, decorated with boxwood shrubs pruned into geometric shapes, and by two fountains with stone sculptures depicting musical cherubs.

Between the balustrades, on which the statues depicting the Four Seasons are placed, there is a passage leading to the English garden (park). From here you enter the cypress-lined avenue which ends with a portal closing off the noble area.

The perimeter wall delimits a lemon house, intended to store potted lemons during the cold season. It was built in 1883 by Count Guglielmo Claricini Dornpacher, after recent restoration it has now become an exhibition hall.

Between the balustrades, on which the statues depicting the Four Seasons are placed, there is a passage leading to the English garden (park). From here you enter the cypress-lined avenue which ends with a portal closing off the noble area.