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After twenty days of talks, the French general presented his ultimatum at Udine on 16 October. It was rejected. Desso then got up, picked up a porcelain inkpot of which Cobentzel was very fond, it having been given to him by Catherine ii of Russia, and loudly proclaimed these words: “So war has been declared but remember that not three months will pass before I shatter your monarchy as I have shattered this porcelain”, and he threw the inkpot to the floor. Having said this, he left […]. The following day (17 October), in the village of Campoformido between Udine and Passariano, the peace that betrayed Venice was signed”.
Except for a brief war in 1809 when the city was reconquered by the Austrians, from 1805 to 1813 Udine was the centre of the Department of Passariano. During this period, the town underwent various
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Ancient convents and noble palazzos were requisitioned and converted into barracks, military quarters, hospitals and administrative offices. The layout of the town itself was transformed, as is documented by the plans for the restructuring of Giardin Grande (now Piazza i Maggio), the hospital and the cemetery.
The middle classes adapted to the rhythms of French society. The salon of the Udinese noblewoman, Lavinia Florio Dragoni, for example, was open to local intellectuals who were not averse to praising Napoleon. Bonaparte himself returned to Udine in 1807, and was welcomed, together with Josephine and the viceroy Eugene, by a reception from the cream of local society held at Palazzo Antonini Belgrado.
After the French, the Austrians held the town until July 1866, the year in which it was liberated and incorporated into the kingdom of
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One noteworthy date in the course of that century was 21 July 1860, when the Udine-Casarsa-Venice railway line was
inaugurated. It was a crucial moment in Udine’s development into a modern city. During the two world wars of the twentieth
century, Udine’s role was far from insignificant. As the headquarters of the Italian Army High Command in 1915, it was the point of departure on a journey to the front with no return, particularly for thousands of Alpine troops from the Julia
Division, and it was bombed many times during the Second World War. Subsequent reconstruction partially transformed the city and started to give it the appearance we know
today. Despite some inevitable problems, Udine still has human
dimensions and remains a very pleasant city to live in.
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