Chiusaforte: a village in a narrow Alpine valley and, above it, the slopes of Sella Nevea, by the numbers

The village sits at 386 m on the floor of the Canal del Ferro, the valley that carries the Fella river, the old Pontebbana road and the motorway to Tarvisio. From here the Val Raccolana climbs east to Sella Nevea, under Monte Canin. In Friulian the name is Scluse, in Slovene Kluže.

• Residents: population change since 2001 -29%; the mean age is 53.0.
• Homes without residents: 64% in 2011, counting Sella Nevea's holiday flats.
• Services (OpenStreetMap): 2 supermarkets, a pharmacy, a primary school; secondary schools are elsewhere.
• By bike: the Alpe Adria cycle route follows the bed of the old Pontebbana railway, and the village's former station is now a rest stop for cyclists.
• The area: the valleys around Tarvisio.

Sella Nevea, which spends 43 days in shade in the depths of winter, is also the part of the municipality where prices have risen. From January–June 2021 to the same months of 2026, OMI lifted its band for ordinary homes from €800/m²–€1,000/m² to €950/m²–€1,150/m², up 17% at the midpoint; the village with Raccolana and the rest of the land stayed put.

The lifts are run by PromoTurismoFVG, the regional tourism agency. For 2025–26 the calendar had Sella Nevea opening on 13 December, with the new Gilberti chairlift and an upgraded avalanche-control system, and closing on 6 April, two weeks after the region's other ski areas; that winter, residents of municipalities hosting PromoTurismoFVG lifts were entitled to reduced ski passes. For 2026–27 the season is planned from 5 December to Easter Monday, 29 March, snow permitting.

With 22,400 tourist nights in 2025, 38.3 per resident, this is a winter economy: slopes 21 min away, Austria's Nassfeld 25 min.

The Canal del Ferro is narrow, and in winter the rock walls decide. On 21 December, under clear skies:

The most enclosed hamlets of the Val Raccolana, below the Canin, go without a ray of sun from October to February. These are point calculations on a terrain model (our method); for a particular house we run them again at its address.

Climate: 2,220 mm of rain a year, one of the wettest valleys in Friuli, 81 frosty nights, average July highs of 28.0 °C.

• Emergency care: Tolmezzo, 27 min by car without traffic; in Austria, Villach (53 min); emergency cardiology and the stroke unit in Udine, 54 min. Where a patient goes is decided by the 112 control room (hospitals and travel times).
• Road: Pontebba motorway junction 14 min; Udine 55 min, Klagenfurt 1 h 13 min, Ljubljana 1 h 55 min, Vienna 4 h 43 min.
• Rail: the nearest station is Pontebba, 14 min, where regional services for Udine call, and the Mi.Co.Tra. that crosses into Austria (trains and airports).
• Sea: Sistiana 1 h 24 min.

• ILIA 2026, the regional property tax: 0.86% for any home you do not live in; 0.70% on the one an owner registers with the Region as «seconda casa» (how it works).
• Long lets: Chiusaforte is named in three decrees of the emergency commissioner for the storms of 2009 and 2010, so regulated-rent (canone concordato) leases qualify for the 10% flat tax (the list).
• First home: grants are higher in the mountains, €15,500, or €20,000 for buyers under 36, and only applicants registered as FVG residents for 5 of the preceding 8 years qualify (eligibility).
• Landslides: by ISPRA's count, 11.0% of buildings stand where the landslide hazard is rated high or very high; floods matter less, 2.3% in medium-hazard zones.
• Earthquakes: seismic zone 2; here the shaking of 1976 was rated 8-9 Mercalli.
• Fibre: FTTH covers 68.4% of households.