The Savorgnan (sometimes also Savorgnani) were a Friulian aristocratic family, ascribed to the Venetian patriciate. The family takes its name from Savorgnano del Torre, a small town just north of Udine (today a hamlet of Povoletto) of which they were feudal lords. The date of the investiture is not known, but probably occurred in the second half of the thirteenth century, after the Ghibelline revolt Rodolfo Ciprioner against the patriarch of Aquileia Gregorio da Montelongo: on that occasion the prelate would have removed the castle from the noble rebel to assign it to one of the sons of Federico di Colmalisio, who already in 1261 had obtained a fief of habitation in the same town. His son Leonardo is the first to assume the surname "di Savorgnano".
Tradition would like them to originate from Aquileia, or perhaps descendants of a member of the Ciprionieri family, who followed Gisulfo I del Friuli, nephew of King Alboino dei Longobardi, during the decline of the latter in Italy. After the victory of Charlemagne on the Lombards, the new emperor would establish the Parliament of Friuli (777), within which the Savorgnan family distinguished itself as owner of the castle of Savorgnano, thus obtaining from Charlemagne and his vicars (the Patriarchs of Aquileia) several jurisdictions, baronies, fiefs and, subsequently, the noble Federico Savorgnan, "Vice Domino del Friuli" and Marquis of Istria, obtained the title of Palatine accounts by Emperor Charles IV.
In 1385, the family was assimilated to the Venetian patriciate in the person of the said Count Federico, and all their titles were consequently recognized by the Council of the Pregadi. In 1797, the year of the fall of the Serenissima, the Savorgnan still appear among the families entitled to vote in Maggior Consiglio.
The family crest is, in fact, still today that of the city of Udine.