The antique Roman "Portus Naonis" began to be historically important in the fifth century. In 1202 the city withdrew from the dominion of the Patriarch of Aquileia thus beginning a period of subjection to Austria. The Hapsburg enclave in Friulan territory, tied by transalpine markets as well as by the Noncello-Meduna-Livenza inland waterway to Venezia and her markets: this was the historical potential that determined the successive development of the city.

Already during the period of the Hapsburg domination, in the city there were a series of businesses: mills and paper mills, shops producing ceramics and gold, wool and silk weaving, pawn shops and schools, doctors and notaries. But it was during the Lombard-Veneto reign (1815-1866) that the city enjoyed an authentic industrial boom in the production of ceramics, paper, and cloth, supported in large part by hydroelectric power, a field in which Pordenone can boast enviable priority. After the transfer to Italy in 1866, in the decades around 1900 other sectors were activated among which are: metalworking, iron and steel working, chemistry, flour mills and woodworking by the various "dynasties" of the Zanussi, Galvani, Savio, Tomadini, Bertoja families, etc. Having become the goal of a notable influx of immigrants, the population expanded rapidly, becoming a county seat in 1968, at the head of 51 towns and about 270 thousand inhabitants.

A visit to the city starts from the Duomo di San Marco (today a cathedral), the result of a series of secular interventions that mix Gothic-Roman, Renaissance, Baroque, and neoclassic influences. Inside are housed not only works such as The Madonna di Misericordia (Our Lady of Mercy) by Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis, also known as "the Pordenone" but also frescos by Tintoretto. Of particular interest are Palazzo Riccheri, seat of the civic museum, and Palazzo Comunale (the Municipal Building), from which rises a clock tower where two bronze Moors strike the hours.

Worth seeing in the area surrounding Pordenone are the towns of: Spilinburg, seat of the Friuli School of Mosaics, Sacile, where for over seven hundred years the celebrated "Sagra dei Osei (Feast of the Birds) is held, Maniago, an important center for cutlery production, and Sesto al Reghena, famous for the imposing Saint Maria in Sylvis Abby which dates from the ninth century and is considered to be the most antique abby still in existence in the world.