A unique feature of Toppo is the persistence of the memory of the masi, family-run rural houses, which in the Middle Ages formed the basis of agricultural organization. In 1220 there were eight, which became 25 in the sixteenth century. However, renovations carried out after the 1976 earthquake revealed that in at least three cases, the site of the medieval masi was occupied by settlements from the Roman era.

From one of these masi in the 16th century, the Palazzo Toppo-Wassermann developed, at the foot of the castle. Reworked in the eighteenth century, the building served as an administrative headquarters for the affairs of the Toppo family and, at the same time, a vacation spot. The entrance gate bears a curious welcome formula in Latin engraved on the architrave, which translated means: “If I am closed, I am opened to the wicked, if I am open, I close to the good. 1543”.

From Palazzo Toppo Wassermann begins the path of the masi which leads to the discovery of the original nuclei of the village. In the square in front of the palace, there is a seventeenth-century building with an entrance arch, once the summer residence of the Counts of Spilimbergo. Another maso from the same era is encountered ascending along via della Colonia. A little further on, to the left, begins the road that leads to the castle.

The imposing remains of the castle dominate the plain and the settlement of Toppo from the slopes of Mount Ciaurlec and can be visited with a guided tour. The manor, restored in 2012, is one of the most important examples of fortified architecture in Friuli from the 12th-14th century. The central core of the fortification enclosed the mighty tower-keep and the residence of the lords of Toppo. An outer circle protected this core and defined the space within which the stables and other service structures were located. On this curtain wall, the small church of Sant’Antonio Abate was also erected, with the valuable 14th-century frescoes discovered during the restoration work. In the sixteenth century, the manor was already abandoned and in ruins, as the lords of Toppo had moved to the foot of the hill, in the current Palazzo Toppo-Wassermann.