Mischievous goblins, water creatures, witches in the woods: all these fantasy creatures are said to be still haunting the small, beautiful stone villages in Val Colvera. And when these creatures succeed in entering some villagers’ home, anything could happen…..
Due to the isolation from the plain - the road that leads to Maniago was inaugurated only in 1888 - local legends were kept alive by being re-told again and again from generation to generation. According to myth, Frisanco woods were populated by extraordinary beings : the "anguane” or “linguani”. They were mythical water creatures: very beautiful ladies for only three days a week, they turned then into snakes, salamanders, or goat-legged women. The anguane were said to come out from a cave still to be seen on the ancient road which leads to the heart of Val Colvera. They wore white, red and blue clothes that used to wash in the water of the stream, before spreading them out to dry on the stones by the bank. One day a woman who was passing by was attracted by the beauty of those colours and decided to steal the clothes, hiding them in her basket. When she got home she faced a very nasty surprise: all the anguanes’ clothes had turned into useless stones. Another version of the legend is scarier: all the stolen clothes had turned into dozens of toads that came out of the basket, invading her kitchen.
In those woods even ogres and elves were thought to find shelter. Some of them had funny properties: they would transform into balls of wool, that were collected by poor passers-by, glad to have found something precious for free. Once they were carried home, the wicked elves revealed their real nature and drove people crazy with jokes and tricks. But the scariest creatures were undoubtedly the famous witches, whose presence was recorded by the diocese of Aquileia and Concordia Inquisitor General register, that reports very detailed descriptions of black masses held every thursday on the Plan of Malgustà on Mount Raut. Here the witches danced wildly, trampling on a cross, and exhibiting the bodies of babies who claimed to have put to death by consumption, (child mortality from malnutrition was very high at the time). After removing the poor creatures’ ribs and replacing them with sprigs of elderberry, they ended the ceremony with a terrifying cannibalistic ritual. This event was witnessed by a little child, Mattia Bernardone, who told the inquisitors to have been taken there overnight on a flying ram by his grandmother. This episode is reported in the trial records of a court case which took place at the tribunal of the Inquisition in 1648.
The presence of man in Val Colvera was documented since prehistoric time and from then the valley still exerts a peculiar charm and attracts visitors. Nowadays, most of them can still appreciate the architectural heritage that dates back to the 16th century and that blends here perfectly with the natural environment. In Roman times the valley was reachable by a paved road which started in Julia Concordia. The name of the main village in Val Colvera, Frisanco, probably derives from the proper name of the person of German origin, Freidank, quoted in a notarial document of 1293. The origins of Poffabro’s toponym seems to be clearer. In old documents a “decimam Pratum Fabri," the meadow of the smith, was mentioned: since its proximity with Maniago, “the city of knives”, the presence of a blacksmith shop is very probable. The name Poffabro is found in a notarial document in 1357, when the son of a nobleman, Galvano, inherited a portion of his land that included that village. Poffabro only, though: it must in fact be remembered that the valley was divided into two parishes, one dependant from Maniago, (Poffabro and the mount Raut) while Frisanco, with the nearby village of Cavasso were the property of their earl of Polcenigo. From late Middle Ages, towns and villages began to take on the present appearance, with row of houses or buildings clustering in closed courts, whose entrance is still characterized by an arched doorway. The architectural heritage valcolverino, the now famous stone houses and wooden balconies with a view, original and perfectly preserved, combine modern standards of liveability and great respect for tradition. The plan of this real "jewels" generally followed a common pattern: kitchen and pantry on the ground floor, bedrooms on the first floor , barn and granary on the top floor. Only in Frisanco there is an altogether different building: Palazzo Pognici, a palace of the seventeenth century, once owned by the nobleman Teofoli.
The magnificent architectural examples, a perfect symbiosis between nature and man, also respond to practical needs: building houses close to each other provided an effective protection and would cost less than building single units. Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century this area was still very poor, but the central government asked the populace incessantly to provide them timber to erect buildings in Venice and numerous pleas were sent to the Government of the Serenissima to limit the devastation of the forests. Later, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a long period of emigration to Europe and America favoured the abandon of the valley. Only in recent years the trend has finally reversed and more and more second generation immigrants have made a come-back: they joined the many young families (and artists, and journalists…) that have chosen to leave chaotic towns to come live in this very quiet, green valley. No wonder: how to escape the fascination of these wonderful, small villages, praised even by famous artists like the painter Armando Pizzinato, who talking about Poffabro called it a "magical and inspiring place" ?
Anna Vallerugo
