Spilimbergo is named after the Carinthian counts Spengenberg who settled here around the 11th century.
The first document that mentions the name of the "castrum de Spengenberg" dates back to 1120, but the history of the site is much older, as it was located near the Roman road that, through the Tagliamento, connected Sacile to Gemona and therefore to Germany. Furthermore, the presence of the "castelliere di Gradisca" on the Cosa attests to a millennia-long continuity of habitation.
Walterpertoldo II, lord of the place, laid the first stone of the cathedral which today is the most distinguished Romanesque-Gothic monument in Friuli Venezia Giulia. In those years, the "Palazzo del daziario", the "Casa del Capitano" and the "Loggia" or "Pergola", the representative seat of the judges, were also built, later becoming a granary, prison, theater, and, in our days, the municipal residence.
The noble brothers Bregonia and Bartolomeo promulgated the Statute of the Land of Spilimbergo, a body of legal and behavioral norms for every aspect of social life, in which the law of force still prevails over the force of law; six years earlier, on December 2, a division of the assets of the comital house had occurred, splitting into two branches called “di sopra” and “di sotto”, whose territorial boundary was the current road axis corso Roma-via Cavour running from the castle to Tauriano, which still determines the north and south sides of the city.
The city, like the entire Patria del Friuli, came under the rule of the Serenissima and followed its fortunes with varying outcomes.
The place became a theater of wars and bloody civil struggles, including at least the one between "Strumieri" (pro-imperial) and "Zamberlani" (pro-Venetian), during which, in 1511, the castle was burned. It was then rebuilt according to Renaissance models and in 1532 hosted Emperor Charles V. From this period is the beautiful "Chronica" by Roberto, in which events and incidents that occurred in the first half of the 16th century are faithfully recounted.
With the Treaty of Campoformido in 1797, Spilimbergo passed to Austria, and in those tumultuous years, significant liberal movements also emerged here. Some inhabitants of Spilimbergo, in fact, were at the forefront starting from 1848/49, especially with Gian Battista Cavedalis and Leonardo Andervolti, who played a very important role in the resistance against the Austrians in Osoppo and Venice.
In 1922, through the efforts of the Municipality and the Società Umanitaria of Milan, the Scuola di mosaico was founded, named after Irene, whose students, scattered all over the world, enjoy well-deserved fame. Spilimbergo, located on the right bank of the Tagliamento, became a city with D.P.R. 9.10.1968 and is today in tune with the times; it has been greatly renewed even though its truest face is the one that is daily reflected in those monuments that attest to a past worthy of memory.