The town lies 135 metres (443 ft) above sea-level in the foothills of the eastern Alps, 15 kilometres (9 mi) by rail from the city of Udine and close to the Slovenian border.

[7] After the destruction of Aquileia and Iulium Carnicum (Zuglio) in 452 AD, Forum Iulii became the chief town of the district of Friuli and gave its name to it.

The interior houses an altar dedicated to the Madonna, in the right aisle, and the altarpiece of patriarch Pellegrino II (1195−1204), a silver retable which had been inscribed in Latin by the means of individual letter punches,[10] 250 years before the invention of modern movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg.

The fine 15th-century Ponte del Diavolo leads to the church of S. Martino, which contains an altar of the 8th century with reliefs executed by order of the Lombard king Ratchis.

[3] The small church of Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle (also known as Lombard Temple), next to the Natisone river, is a notable example of High Middle Ages art sometimes attributed to the 8th century, but probably later.

In the collegiata, the altarpiece of Pellegrinus II (1195−1204) is a silver retable which had been inscribed in Latin by the means of individual letter punches, 250 years before the invention of modern movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg.

[11] On 25 June 2011 a part of the historical centre of Cividale (the one belonging to the Lombards era) entered the UNESCO heritage list.

On 6 January residents celebrate the Messa dello Spadone (Mass of the Broadsword), a religious rite observed with an historical reenactment of Patriarch Marquard of Randeck’s arrival in Cividale in 1366.

A manuscript preserved in the National Archaeology Museum of Cividale del Friuli traces the game back to the 18th century.

While Truc is exclusive to the central squares of Cividale, a similar game is played in Venice and in Emilia Romagna (Italy).