On the door of a manor house at Gramogliano, there is a small stone dated 1607, on which is written: “ FOVET GREMIUS IANO”. An interpretation, dating back to the eighteen century, would explain the origin of the name of Gramogliano, which means: “ Giano rocks on his laps the town” that it’s: Gramogliano temple of the rural peace. Such interpretation would confirm the existence of a road built by the Romans legionnaire to link Aquileia, the second town of the empire, with Pannonia, going through Cormons, Corno, Cividale and the Giulia Alps. But this is a post-dated interpretation, as the first signs of this locality goes back to the year 1247. According to another interpretation, the place-name should be a derivative of “- anu” from the pre-Latin gramula, slaughter-house for hemps and other.
The Castle of Gramogliano, that in the course of the centuries was several times destroyed and rebuilt, has ancient origins. A tower, close to the manor house, is what remains today of the old feudal castle, that extended, with stronghold and towers, for hundreds of meters all around. It seems, that it was built by Lord Vecellio of Gramogliano, as it was used as a fortress in the battle against the strong feudatory Magio of Buttrio.
The Patriarch of Aquileia, Raimondo della Torre in 1298, allows to the feudatory of Gramogliano to build a big tower next to the rock and to dig a ditch all around full of water and provided of a drawbridge, At its origins, therefore the castle was only a small fortress. At the beginning of the 12 century, the castle was destroyed by Patriarch Ottoboni de Razzi. After the castle was rebuilt, it was taken over from the Lord of Gramogliano to the Austrian Lords of Herbestein.
In the year 1323, a certain Progna Walterpertoldo of Spilimbergo, donated to the count of Gorizia a tower of the castle of which he was owner.
In the year 1332 the new castle, was destroyed by the Partriarch Nicola I of Lussemburgo to revenge the death of predecessor Bertrando, murdered by some feudatories from Friuli and Gorizia.
In the year 1424, despite of the opposition of the Lords of Cividale, the castle of Gramogliano was rebuilt by the counts of Gorizia, Enrico and Gianmainardo, perhaps reproducing the same shapes of the past centuries, with three towers towards west, two towards east and a central tower which still exists today.
In the same year, the Republic of Venice took possession and ceasing it over to the Lords of Faedis and the Counts Zucco of Cuccagna. They strengthened the castle’s defenses and closed in it they resisted to the Uscocchi invasion.
In 1439, the section of the castle owned by Antonio of Cormons, was acquired by Guarnero Pretto of Zucco. From that year, the castle and the houses built in that area, remained property of Counts Zucco of Cuccagna till 1884.
In the 1884 Mr Domenico Visintini acquired the property.
The castle In 1915, was inherited by two of his sons: Umberto and Antonio. Antonio after serious financial problems, in 1926 had to give up his part to his brother Umberto, who become the legitimate owner of the castle and began an agricultural activity. In 1973 Umberto decided that the time was right to hand over the activity to his son Andrea, that from then gave new impulse and valorized even more the winery traditions.
Today’s reality is such that, the traditional activity has been hand over to Oliviero, Cinzia and Palmira by the father Andrea.