Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio is a town about halfway between the 30 kilometers away, Viterbo and 19 km distant Orvieto in the Lazio region on the border with neighboring Umbria and is located a few kilometers east of Lake Bolsena. The present district of Bagnoregio has an older history as the seat of the council offices and preserved Etruscan and Roman remains in its medieval walls.

He was inducted in the list of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Etymology / Location

With Civitas one called in late antiquity the older, original settlement nucleus of a community - often a bishopric - which differs from the adjacent Borghi ( suburbs ). In the case of Bagnoregio, the current seat of the municipal administration in the plane a former Borgo represents the sharply demarcated by a deep gorge of the lying on a steep tufa ridge former Civitas and only over a narrow, steep, not navigable, 250 meters is long pedestrian bridge accessible. Civita di Bagnoregio is at risk of permanent soil erosion for centuries, owes her but also its unique, almost impregnable and easily defended position. By the only city gate, the Porta provided with sculptures of Santa Maria or Porta del cassero the stranger enters today Civita di Bagnoregio.

History

The Tuffhügel, on which today's Civita di Bagnoregio is located, was already settled as archaeological grave finds from the 7th to the 5th century BC by the Etruscans. However, the historical identity of this precursor is controversial. The view of some authors in 1500, it was the mentioned by Pliny the Elder Novempagi ( The city of nine villages) could not be proven. The researcher M. Lopes Pegna presented in his book "Problems of Etruscan history and topography " on the thesis that the present Civita di Bagnoregio could be identical with the mysterious Etruscan cult Fanum Voltumnae where every year the priest-kings of the covenant of the twelve cities of the Lukumonen met to put together the specific in his temple of the gods, to advise prophesied destiny. As is known, was the Roman consul Marcus Flavius ​​Flaccus the sanctuary in 264 BC, destroy, to launch the final end of Etruscan independence.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the Lombard invasion ends the story of the ancient precursor settlement. The medieval Civita, which belonged to the Papal State since the Pippi 's donation as all Latium was the oldest and most important of three quarters ( contrade ) the rebuilt now called Bagnoregio city and to the extent bound as a bishop's seat in its history. Changing feudalism were in conflict with the pursuit of local autonomy. In contrast to the other two Contraden Civita made ​​strong resistance at the conquest by Charles VIII in 1494, but was subjected to after two days of siege.

1695 were shaken by an earthquake Bagnoregio and Civita. The Bishop of Bagnoregio then moved his residence from the town on the Tuffhügel in the nucleus in the plane.

Civita di Bagnoregio Since 1870 belongs to the entire Church government of the Italian Republic.

Townscape and sights

Civita di Bagnoregio has paved narrow streets, a fountain in Piazza San Donato, the same church that acted since the 6th century to 1699 as a cathedral and episcopal palaces and old, under which the former episcopal palace is particularly noteworthy, since in his farm and in the Renaissance Palazzo Mazzoncchi - Alemanni finds and exhibits from the Roman and Etruscan times are shown. The church was probably built in the 8th century on the ruins of a pagan temple, as the Lombard king Desiderius the place after a landslide under the name Balneum Regium leaves (Eng. bath of the king) rebuild. In the 11th century the church underwent a renovation was completed in the 12th century by a Campanile, when the settlement in the age of the city republics enjoyed a certain autonomy and received during the 15th century a new facade.

" Dying City " / Economic Impact of Tourism

Civita di Bagnoregio is one of the città che muoiono (Eng. " dying cities" ), of which there are hundreds in Italy, because fewer and fewer people want to remain in the small, with difficulty accessible mountain areas with a risk of falling through soil erosion and landslide buildings. Around 1990, lived in Civita di Bagnoregio only seven to 15 elderly withdrawn until a Roman ex-manager and numerous dropouts and nature enthusiasts as a result discovered the area and revived by purchase and redevelopment of abandoned building ruins.

Since then, the number of second homes as repaired buildings, and an American University held here their summer courses. Today, the site has also become a holiday residence of artists. Concerts in the Church give additional impetus, wedding couples choose the location as a backdrop for their wedding photos. In the renovated buildings cafés and restaurants, a small hotel and a gift shop were established. Even U.S. American tourists frequent the place, inter alia, as a restaurant owner perception managed by the U.S. press and an entry in U.S. guidebooks. The remaining original inhabitants of the village do not take an active part in this new economic factor, possibly through presentation of house and garden against a voluntary mite of tourists.