The ruins of Motta castle stand on the summit of the south-western end of a ridge, near the confluence of the Torre torrent, which passes it to the west and the rio Motta. The walled structures extend over an area of circa 6000m2 , 115m long and between 40-60m wide. The toponym Motta appears on several maps of the 16th and 17th centuries but in earlier documents the fortified settlement is called Castellum Sabornianum, that is the castle of the lords of Savorgnano. The site is first mentioned in the year 921. After the mid 13th century, the noble descendants of Federico di Colmalisio began to settle here. They were soon identified with the predicate “de Savorniano” and came to substitute the old lords disliked by the patriarch of Aquileia. In 1412 the castle suffered the final siege by the army of Sigismondo d’Ungheria who was allied with Udine. The site was definitively abandoned in the mid 15th century. The “project for the recovery and valorisation of the castle of Motta di Savorgnano” which began in 1997 has the following objectives: increase the historical-archaeological knowledge of a fortified settlement and its territory in order to help shed light on the elusive moment of transition from the early medieval forms of settlement to those relating to castle-based seigniories; set up a field-school for archaeology students; recover the structures and environment so as to open the area to the public; circulate both in the academic world and to the general public the documentation and research results.
The data collected so far has lead to the reconstruction of a first sequence of phases, grouped into five periods:
Period A: early medieval “tower-house” (end 7th-beginning 8th century)
Period B: second tower-keep (11th-13th century)
Period C: “polygonal” keep (end 13th-beginning 15th century)
Period D: decline of the castle (15th-beginning 16th century)
Period E: abandonment, collapse and last period of activity (from the 16th century)
(Fabio Piuzzi)