BORGOFRANCO. - Also called Villanova or Villafranca, it is a medieval settlement, surrounded by walls and ditches, generally of square or rectangular plan, with two or four gates, founded for political purposes and in a strategic position in order to dominate the lines of communication, defend the territories most easily subject to invasion and constitute advanced points for the easier conquest of new lands. The Vercelli Republic alone founded twenty-two of them in a century.
From the economic aspect the b. was also a means of populating and bringing under cultivation many uncultivated zones. The rustics who settled in the borgo had the obligation of military service, but enjoyed the rights of citizens, were exempt from certain taxes for a determined number of years and, as we gather from the Vercelli franchises, received a house and a farm in emphyteusis (whose payment of rent was suspended in time of war), had the right of pasture and of wood-gathering on common lands, could receive other lands in emphyteusis from moral bodies and enjoyed a weekly market. One must not therefore forget that the b. contributed to a profound agricultural change and to the increase and the geographic redistribution of the population.
The rural character of the Italian b. is what differentiates it from the German « Freiburg » and the English « liber burgus », which instead rise to the importance of true cities.
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In eastern Venetia the Patriarch of Aquileia, who had full feudal dominion over Friuli, organized in an analogous manner the castles that he held under his immediate lordship and did not want to fall into the hands of his vassals. He entrusted them to his gastalds or captains, subjecting to them the ministerials of the Church; or he granted to the inhabitants feuds of residence, obliging them to keep stable residence there with the duty of defense and endowing them with a house, lands and a market; or he provided for them in another way; gradually these people had a part in the government of the castle and their representatives had a voice in the Parliament of the Patria. In the 13th century this organization was perfectly developed. In this way the communities of Cividale, Udine, Gemona, Tolmezzo, San Daniele, Sacile and other lesser ones had life and free institutions.