Map - Grado, Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Grado)

Grado (Gravo; Grau; Gradež; Gradus ) is a town and comune of 8,064 residents in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on an island and adjacent peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste. The territory of the municipality of Grado extends between the mouth of the Isonzo and the Adriatic Sea and the lagoon of the same name which covers an area of about 90 square kilometers and goes from Porto Buso to Fossalon. Characteristic of the lagoon is the presence of the casoni, which are simple houses with thatched roof used in the past by the fishermen of Grado, who remained in the lagoon for a long time, returning to the island of Grado only during the colder period of the year.

Once mainly a fishing centre, today it is a popular tourist destination, known commonly as L'Isola del Sole ("The Sunny Island"). It is also famous because it is a spa town; from 1873 a maritime hospice for children called Ospizio Marino wanted by the doctor Giuseppe Barellai was established on the island, because the climate and the environment of the island are a good place for the treatment of some childhood diseases. Subsequently, Grado was the chosen destination for marine thermal treatments, especially by the Austrian population. Together with Marano Lagunare, it is the centre of the Marano-Grado Lagoon, which is famous for its uncontaminated nature. Grado is the birthplace of Biagio Marin, a poet who sang about the island in the local Venetian dialect.

In Roman times the city, known as ad Aquae Gradatae, was the first port for ships entering the Natissa (Natisone), headed upstream to Aquileia.

During the late years of the Western Roman Empire many people fled from Aquileia to Grado in order to find a safer place, more protected from the invasions coming from the east.

In 452, Nicetas, Bishop of Aquileia, took refuge briefly at Grado; of the same period is the earliest construction of Grado's first cathedral, the first church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and the baptistery. Grado was the home base of the patriarchate's fleet.

In 568, after the invasion of the Lombards, the seat of the Patriarchate of Aquileia was transferred to Grado by the Patriarch Paulinus. After the Schism of the Three Chapters, two different patriarchs were elected: the patriarch of Grado exerted his jurisdiction over the Latin-origin people living on the coast and in the Venetian Lagoon, while that of Old-Aquileia, later moved to Cividale, had its jurisdiction over the interior.

A long-lasting dispute over the authority of the two patriarchs ensued. In 993, the patriarch of Aquileia, Popo, conquered Grado but was unable to keep possession of it. The matter was settled only in 1027 when the pope declared the supremacy of the See of Aquileia over Grado and the Venetian province.

The seat of the patriarchate was transferred to Venice in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V. Reduced to a minor hamlet, Grado was sacked by the English, who burned the city archives in 1810 and by the French in 1812.

Grado was acquired by Austria in 1815, to which it belonged until 1918 when it was ceded to Italy after its victory in World War I.

In the Belvedere area where the land is interrupted and gives way to the lagoon, it was possible to embark to reach the island of Grado. Subsequently, there was a tourist and urban development and in 1905 a road was built in the middle of the lagoon to connect the two parts of the territory. In 1936 Grado was definitively connected to the mainland through the construction of a swing bridge which put an end to the isolation of the island.