Our next trip from our temporary base in Grado was the fortress town of Palmanova, located in the lowland part of Friuli. It is easily accessible both by bus (running hourly from Udine and Grado) or by car (at the crossing of the motorways). Interestingly, you can enter the town only by driving through the gates by traffic lights. Parking is not a problem in Palmanova, you can park anywhere and without charge.

The city offers countless trails of varying length and difficulty. For a standard stroller, only the one around town inside the fort is easily passable. The others often lead along paths between meadows and are only accessible with difficulty with an all-terrain stroller. We opted for a combination. It is thus possible to visit both late Renaissance lines of fortifications, and the third one from the Napoleonic period, as well as the hinterland buildings in the town. There are signs all over the city with a map of these routes, as well as explanatory signs in Italian and English. One gets an idea of the fort's operation, which is enhanced by the possibility to view virtual reality on a mobile phone at selected locations thanks to QR codes. Currently, the Cividale Gate is under scaffolding and also part of the walls, which are being cleared of overgrowth plants.

The city suffers somewhat from the fate of all existing fortress cities, that after the loss of the purpose of such fortresses and the subsequent abandonment of a large part of the military garrison, many buildings have trouble finding meaning and are thus abandoned. I think finding a use for the buildings will now be a major task for the city administration.

To someone used to 18th century baroque fortresses, Palmanova may seem less imposing, and the overgrowth of plants certainly doesn't improve that. However, one must take into account the age of the fort at Palmanova, which is the predecessor of all these forts. Although it is not the most striking monument, it nevertheless fits into the mosaic of the development of military architecture at the turn of the Middle Ages.

For a comparison of the fortress development it is interesting to visit the slightly older fortress in the nearby Gradisca d'Isonzo, which was also built by the Venetian Republic and had the same anti-Ottoman and anti-Austrian purpose until its loss to the Austrians.