The territory of Polcenigo has always been a great favourite with communities looking for food and shelter, thanks to its strategic position and natural resources. Traces of human presence, dating back to prehistoric times, have been found in the area known as Palù di Livenza together with lithic, ceramic and wooden finds that attest the presence of a Neolithic pile dwelling village which could rely on the abundance of water, vegetation and wildlife that the marshy lands of the Palù and the nearby mountains provided in large quantities.

Other finds from an Iron Age necropolis (I-II millennia BC) have been unearthed at the foot of San Floriano hill, in San Giovanni. Roman coins, fibulas and fragments of terracotta have also been found in the territory of Polcenigo as the Romans, who conquered the territories east of the Livenza afterthefoundationofAquileia (181BC),lefttracesoftheirpresenceall over the area.

Between the V and VI century AD, with the spreading of Christianity, Polcenigo became a major religious centre thanks to worship sites such as the one on San Floriano hill (St Florian’s). In the Middle Ages, when castles were a common feature, Polcenigo boasted a cluster of fortified buildings, already known as the castle at the end of the X century AD. Between the XI and XII century the castle and the fiefdom were handed down to the Signori di Polcenigo, later appointed counts.

In 1420 the Serenissima Republic of Venice extended its dominion over the territory, followed by the Turks who wreaked havoc throughout Friuli (1499) reducing Polcenigo to a pile of rubble.