Restaurants Pocenia

Trattoria Paradiso

Paradiso. May charm, coziness, sense of history, artistic interest be found in a small rural village, lost in the vast plain of Lower Friuli? At Paradiso you often meet people who come to this place from big cities in search of a less impersonal and less empty environment: from this village, all are immediately conquered, since the spontaneous architecture of the rural village becomes part of the landscape, evoking the most sincere expression of the culture and the development of a people. Paradiso is part of the municipality of Pocenia, easily accessible from the ss353 in the stretch that connects the town of Castions di Strada to Muzzana in the so–called "zone of springs". Historical documents prove the existence of a household named Paradiso or "Paravisi" since the Middle Ages, but only with the arrival of the noble Caratti family, in the seventeenth century, the village takes on a definite structure and a specific rural organization. At the origin of the unusual name there are probably the particular environmental characteristics of the area, being characterized by abundant running water that ensured a safe haven for flora and fauna of different kinds and at the same time kept away bad diseases, such as malaria and pellagra. The Caratti family also gave start to the pioneering business of land arrangement which saw them protagonists, together with the families of Savorgnan, Frangipane and Badoer, of the first reclamation works in Lower Friuli. The structure of the village was created and developed as a result of the need for construction and expansion of the property, depending on the agricultural use. Therefore, buildings were used for the storage of supplies, as homes of the settlers and barns for cattle ranching. Paradiso developes on two orthogonal axes: from a vertical line, the entire housing finds its structure, while the ortogonale structure divides the country into three parts, including the church and a collective space for residents, the manor house and the park. The rustic buildings, developed according to the classical scheme of rural houses of Lower Friuli, have habitation, fogolar, a separate barn, hayloft and courtyard. Peculiar is the structure of the church, intimate and cozy inside, built about at the end of the seventeenth century and known as "La Rotonda" because it stands on a circular base. Its initial appearance was partially modified in the nineteenth century, with the addition of the chancel and the replacement of the primitive rib vaulted bell cell with the current bell tower. A restructuring of the sacred building is ongoing, that will give back to Paradiso one of its jewels, returned to its original splendor. Prominent element in the structure of the village is villa Caratti, a manor house with a double body, made for subsequent additions and alterations, from 1691 to the late nineteenth century. Evident is the stylistic connotation of neoclassical style of the main facade. The outbuildings of the manor house include a botanic gardens, a formal garden and a greenhouse of exquisite aesthetics. Nine are the hectares of the ornamental green area, with flowerbeds with precise designs and rich in various plant species that reflect a fine aesthetic sense and give a high degree of preciousness of botany. Another building of interest is without any doubt Villa de’ Giudici, currently owned by the Veritti family, located on the road which leads to the establishment of mineral waters of the Corte Paradiso Fountain, a modern testimony of the environmental value of the area and the purity of the water in particular. Despite the general conditions of neglect, finally, the charm and beauty of the village can be actually appreciated entering the "Al Paradiso" tavern, an excellent example of a rural house renovation, carried out following scrupulous criteria of architectural recovery.