Cervignano del Friuli

Cervignano del Friuli probably owes its name to the Roman patrician family that received the territory as a donation when Aquileia was first founded.
 

After a long period of devastation and raids by northern peoples, the area recovered thanks to the reclamation and repopulation program developed by the Benedictine nuns of the Monastery of St. Mary of Aquileia
From the 15th century onward Cervignano came first under the domination of the Serenissima Republic of Venice and then under the domination of Austria, passing only briefly under Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy. In 1915 the area was occupied by Italian troops and became a military center.
 
The history of the town is thoroughly documented in the Civic Archaeological and Historical Museum (CiMAS), in which documents and artefacts from the territory are on display.
Villa Chiozza is a short distance from the Alpe Adria Cycle Route. In the second half of the 19th century, it was the residence of Luigi Chiozza and was home to Louis Pasteur in 1870. Radically renovated at that time, the villa was also surrounded by a vast English landscape garden with more than 140 different essences, featuring a reed forest (The park is open to the public from Monday to Friday weekdays. The villa is closed to the public).