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ONLINE EXHIBITIONS

- BEHIND THE SCENES ONLINE

While the restoration works of the buildings born as the Slaughterhouse of the city of Udine in 1924 and waiting to realize the permanent installation are being completed, themes and reflections of a museum of natural history become a path of an exhibition that crosses spaces reworked from the functional point of view: educational workshops become exhibition halls, Green areas are redesigned as an Open Air Museum and places generally excluded from public visits, such as repositories and archives, are transformed into environments open to the knowledge of all. On the web, themes and concepts are proposed in a multimedia path realized thanks to the Project funded by the POR FESR 2014-2020 Axis 4 Urban Development Action 4.1 'Digital Museums and Libraries'.

The exhibition route runs through various thematic stations, both inside the Museum and outdoors, illustrating the history of the Museum, its palethnological and palaeontological heritage, some of the Region's significant habitats and the impact of human activities on our territory.

View of a wetland found near the resurgence belt

- BETWEEN LOW AND HIGH PLAIN

In the high plain of Friuli, characterized by gravelly soils poor in nutrients, the magredi can form: meadows rich in plant species, including many orchids. Often their permanence depends on the action of man through periodic mowing. An example of lean habitats can be seen in the Museum’s garden. Where the permeable soils of the high plain meet with those impermeable clay of the low plain, the waters, accumulated in the underground aquifers, resurface in the 'Olle', giving rise to the band of the resurgences. It extends south of a line that ideally joins the localities of Polcenigo, Casarsa, Codroipo, Castions di Strada, Palmanova up to Monfalcone. At the Botanical Garden Friulano was rebuilt a cross-section of wet area, where some endemic species can be observed.

- THE MAGREDI

The magredi are lean meadows typical of gravelly soils poor in nutrients, which are encountered especially in the high plains and morainic areas. They are divided into two main types: the primitive magredi and the evolved magredi.

- THE RESURGENCES

The so-called resurgences correspond to a continuous strip of territory distributed along the Po Valley plain in which one has the day ascent of the groundwater, following variations in the permeability of the deposits of the plain.

- THE LOWLAND FOREST

In the low plain of Friuli it is still possible to observe the wrecks of the ancient Silva Lupanica, the original planitial wood that until the IV century A.D. extended in the territory between the rivers Isonzo and Livenza. These woods consist of various species of broad-leaved trees, while in the herbaceous layer several showy flowering plants complete the reproductive cycle before the foliation of the trees. An important component of this ecosystem is given by the decaying or dead trees standing or on the ground, which represent the so-called 'dead' wood: 30% of the biodiversity of a forest ecosystem is linked to them. In the Museum Garden are collected stacks of trunks and branches laid on the ground.

View of the interior of a Friuli plain forest, with dead trees on the ground

- GEOPHYTES

The undergrowth is colored by early blooms of geophytes in early spring. These species use the nutrients accumulated in their underground organs to complete the life cycle before the trees emit leaves.

- FROM DEAD WOOD, THE LIFE OF THE FOREST

Una componente importante dell’ecosistema di un bosco è data dagli alberi vetusti o morti in piedi o al suolo, che offrono rifugio e risorse ad oltre un terzo della biodiversità forestale ed ospitano organismi fondamentali per la funzionalità dell’ecosistema.

View of the interior of a karst cave

- CAVE

The caves are peculiar environments in which the most evident phenomenon is the total absence of light, with the exception of the first meters from the entrance. Additional features are a certain temperature stability, which can be constant in the innermost parts, and high humidity. Some animals living underground have marked adaptations, such as the absence of eyes, the lack of coloring and the lengthening of the appendages (legs, antennae). This group includes the proteus, the only strictly cavernicolous European vertebrate. Other species do not present morphological and physiological changes so pronounced, but nevertheless occupy the underground cavities actively, carrying out within them some vital phases. An example of this category is represented by some troglophile chiroptera, which can use the caves for breeding or wintering.

- PROTEUS

The proteus is an amphibian with peculiar adaptations to the hypogeal life. The species is present in the underground water systems of the eastern Adriatic coast, from north-eastern Italy to Montenegro, and is the only troglobium vertebrate of the European fauna.

- THE TROGLOPHILE CHIROPTERA

Bats are not strictly related to caves, but can frequent them for breeding and hibernation. They often gather in large reproductive assemblies, which may include several thousand individuals even of different species.

- THE FIRST IMPACT OF MAN ON THE ENVIRONMENT

It is difficult to recognize the traces of the communities of the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that populated Friuli, as the predation activities carried out by these groups are labile and do not impact the landscape. Thus the first signs of the interactions between our species and the environment are recognizable in the transformations that the Neolithic communities operated in order to carry out agricultural and breeding activities about 7000 years ago: The deforestation of tracts of mixed oak allowed them to build villages, cultivate small gardens and raise some animal species.

Immagine dell'area coltivata a grani antichi all'interno del giardino del Museo

- THE MESOLITHIC POPULATION OF FRIULI: RAW MATERIALS, TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS

The team of the University of Ferrara presents the latest data on the population of the last hunter-gatherers in Friuli.

- THE CASTLE HILL. EUROPE’S LARGEST MOUND

According to popular tradition, the hill of the Castle of Udine was built by the soldiers of Attila to allow him to observe the fire of Aquileia. Now geoarchaeological data presented by Alessandro Fontana show that the hill is artificial and was erected in the Bronze Age, between 1400 and 1300 B.C.

- EVOLUTION OF THE COAST LINE OF FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA

Although the level of the Adriatic Sea has changed a lot in the last million years, we are now seeing an acceleration due to global warming.
We will have to deal with increasing sea levels and act promptly, therefore, both by making a cultural change, and intervening on the remediation systems already present to get prepared and keep the territory dry.

- THE ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS

Human beings have been able to profoundly change the environment in which they live to their advantage. The transformation of the territory began thousands of years ago with Homo sapiens, and has grown exponentially as technological progress increased. Man is currently a key element of the landscape and can affect the existence of species, habitats and entire ecosystems. In our region the human footprint has been particularly evident in the planitial sector: in the sea and in the lagoon mainly with fishing activities and pollution; in the mainland with agriculture, which has altered the structure and composition of the original territorial planning. The mountain belt, apparently less compromised, has however been influenced by forestry and an environmental management not always correct. It is difficult to recognize the traces of the communities of the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that populated Friuli, as the predation activities carried out by these groups are labile and do not impact the landscape. Thus the first signs of the interactions between our species and the environment are recognizable in the transformations that the Neolithic communities operated in order to carry out agricultural and breeding activities about 7000 years ago: The deforestation of tracts of mixed oak allowed them to build villages, cultivate small gardens and raise some animal species.

Immagine di una ripresa subaquea di una tartaruga marina comune (Caretta caretta) accanto a rifiuti in plastica

- human impact. agriculture.

Agriculture is one of the greatest anthropogenic impacts on the natural environment. In particular, it causes the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats and the contribution of pollutants to the territory.

- anthropic impact. the forest.

Human activities have had a significant impact on forest cover in our region. In the plains the ancient oak-carpineto has been almost completely destroyed, while in the mountains the forest layout has been modified by a forestry management mainly linked to woody production.

- anthropic impact. the sea.

There are several anthropogenic activities that impact the marine ecosystem. Fishing, which is impoverishing its resources, but also the pollutants and waste produced by man that end up, directly or indirectly, in the seas.

Via Cecilia Gradenigo Sabbadini
22-32, 33100 Udine
How to reach the museum

0432 1273211
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