Bagnoregio

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Bagnoregio
coat of arms
Bagnoregio (Italy)
Bagnoregio
Country Italy
region Lazio
province Viterbo  (VT)
Coordinates 42 ° 38 '  N , 12 ° 5'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 37 '48 "  N , 12 ° 5' 21"  E
height 484  m slm
surface 72.63 km²
Residents 3,556 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 49 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 01022
prefix 0761
ISTAT number 056003
Popular name Bagnoresi
Patron saint San Bonaventura (July 14th)
Website Bagnoregio

Bagnoregio is an Italian municipality in the province of Viterbo in Lazio with 3556 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). It is not far from Lake Bolsena .

geography

Bagnoregio is 103 km north of Rome , 28 km north of Viterbo and 11 km east of Bolsena with Lake Bolsena . The city lies on the edge of the volcanic Monti Volsini in a hilly landscape with deep gorges.

The neighboring municipalities are Bolsena , Castiglione in Teverina , Celleno , Civitella d'Agliano , Lubriano , Montefiascone , Orvieto ( TR ) and Viterbo .

traffic

Bagnoregio is on a provincial road that connects the A1 Autostrada del Sole motorway from Rome to Milan (Orvieto exit) with the SS 71 Umbro Casentinese Romagnola state road. The nearest train station is in Montefiascone.

Place name

The city was originally called Balneum Regis (bath of the king) which goes back to the numerous thermal springs of the territory in the volcanic area of ​​the Monti Volsini. From this the modern name Bagnorea developed . In 1922 the name was Italianized in Bagnoregio .

history

Bagnoregio was first mentioned in a letter from Gregory the Great at the beginning of the 6th century . It is about the establishment of a bishopric at Balneum Regium , where there were healing springs or thermal baths in late antiquity, in which a king bathed. From the chronological point of view, it can only have been a king of the Visigoths , but not the Longobard king Desiderius , as occasionally passed down later, or Theodoric the Great , as claimed by the Icelandic abbot Nikulás Bergsson in his Leiðarvisir ("Signpost").

The medieval Bagnoregio consisted of three districts ( contrade ). The oldest settlement center around the cathedral and the bishopric was on the tuff rock , isolated from the plain by a ravine , which was already Etruscan (Contrade and today's district Civita di Bagnoregio ); subsequently, however, a Borgo was built on the plain (Contraden Mercato and Rota , corresponding to the current administrative center of Bagnoregio).

The formally since the Pippi niches donation to the Papal States belonging Bagnoregio shelter changing feudal in conflict with the efforts of citizens to establish an autonomous city-state (comune). In this respect, the Guelphs - represented by the Counts of the Monaldeschi with their seat in the now defunct Cervara fort - were in battle with the Filippeschi, who belonged to the Ghibelline faction . After Bagnoregio was temporarily a free commune in the middle of the 12th century, the Monaldeschi regained control in the 14th century. The population, weakened by epidemics and natural disasters, became impoverished.

After the invasion by Charles VIII's troops, the papal central power succeeded in breaking feudal rule in the 15th and 16th centuries. Alexander VI. ( Borgia ) and Paul III. ( Farnese ) installed cardinals as regents. There was an economic recovery.

In 1695, Bagnoregio was shaken by an earthquake that hit the Contrade Civita worst. In 1699 the bishop transferred his seat from the tuff rock to the plain. This strengthened the younger Bagnoregio, in which the local government was also located, compared to the older settlement core, which was difficult to access and repeatedly endangered by soil erosion and landslides, and which increasingly lost its population in the following centuries.

In the Risorgimento , Bagnoregio was the battlefield of Giuseppe Garibaldi's troops on the march on Rome. The Battle of Bagnoregio on October 5, 1867 ended in defeat for the Republicans, and in 1870 the community, like the entire Papal State, became part of the Italian nation-state.

In June 1944, Anglo-American bombing attacks and German artillery clashed in Bagnoregio; the city was abandoned and destroyed.

During the reconstruction in the second half of the 20th century, only the Bagnoregio administrative center was revitalized communally. Civita was given up and its population decimated to 7 to 15 remaining elderly people around 1990, before "dropouts" discovered the district as città che muore (= "dying city") after 1990 and helped it to a new identity as an artist enclave and tourist attraction.

Population development

year 1881 1901 1921 1936 1951 1971 1991 2001 2011 2017
Residents 4,419 5,059 4,896 4,870 4,986 4.032 3,857 3,639 3,669 3,609

Source ISTAT

Cityscape and landmarks

Piazza Sant'Agostino with the Augustinian Convent, Bonaventure Monument and SS. Annunziata Church
Civita di Bagnoregio

Bagnoregio is a traffic-calmed place; The passage through the main street (Via Mazzini) to the former Contrade Mercato is only permitted for residents. Tourists have to walk the two kilometers to Civita di Bagnoregio ; A shuttle bus also operates during the season if required. The main town on the plain is often only perceived by tourists as a transit point on the way to Civita; its infrastructure (bars, retail shops, small craft and service businesses) is geared more towards the needs of the locals than those of the tourists. The mediaeval building stock is heavily mixed up by the new buildings after fires and war damage; numerous buildings are in need of renovation.

  • The Porta Albana was the gateway to the former Contrade Rota. It goes back to the papal regent Cardinal Giovanni Girolamo Albani in 1586 and replaces an older city gate. The little church to the right of the archway is dedicated to St. Bonaventure; the building from 1856 replaces a previous one.
  • The center of Rota is the Piazza Cavour with the monument to the fallen of the First World War of 1922 and the Church of San Nicola (built in 1581 on the remains of a forerunner) on its south side. The interior of the building, which became a bishop's seat in 1699, is baroque. To the left of the new cathedral is the bishop's palace, to the right the campanile.
  • At the Piazza Sant'Agostino with the former Augustinian convent is the church of Santissima Annunziata (erroneously popularly called Sant'Agostino due to the association with convent and square ). The facade of the Romanesque-Gothic building dates from 1735. Inside, Renaissance frescoes from the early 15th century have been preserved; baroque stucco was removed again in 1933. A Madonna and Child is ascribed to the Gentile da Fabriano school . The oldest and most valuable pieces of equipment in Bagnoregio were wooden altar panels of saints, Taddeo di Bartoli and Giovanni di Paolo , all but four of which were burned (depicting Saints Augustine, Nicholas, Catherine and Monica). In front of the church is a monument to Bonaventure, erected in 1893.
  • The Palazzo Comunale not far from Piazza Sant'Agostino replaces an older building in the Contrade Mercato. It dates back to the 16th century when Domenico Grimano was the ruling cardinal of Bagnoregio.
  • Halfway to Civita was the Franciscan monastery founded by Bonaventura. Today the site only constitutes an attractive vantage point for tourists on Civita. The monastery and church were destroyed by an earthquake in 1764. In the rock below the vantage point is the grotto of St. Bonaventura , an Etruscan grave that has been converted into a meditation site, where the young monk is said to have often withdrawn to pray.
  • From the Belvedere there used to be an avenue through the former Contrade Mercato to Civita, which was destroyed on Epiphany 1901; the only access left was a stepped path with an adjoining footbridge over the gorge.

politics

Francesco Bigiotti ( UDC ) was elected mayor in 2009 and confirmed in office in May 2014. His list of citizens also includes 8 of the 12 municipal councils. He replaced Erino Pompei, who was no longer running.

coat of arms

A gold two-story tower on a red shield. On the right of the tower an upright golden lion, on the left crossed keys. Below is a green dragon.

Administrative division

In addition to the administrative center of Bagnoregio, the municipality today consists of the districts ( frazioni )

The latter four are former feudal residences and hamlets on neighboring hills in the diverse landscape formation of tufa gorges, maquis , forests and fields.

Sons of the city

  • Bagnoregio is the birthplace of Giovanni da, the Fidanza as Doctor seraficus was known and as a church teacher and Superior General of the Franciscan Order under the name Bonaventure of Bagnoregio entered (1221-1274) in the history. He was born in Civita, but the house fell victim to a landslide. The Franciscan monastery he founded, which also no longer exists, was on the plain.
  • The writer Bonaventura Tecchi (1896–1968) was not only born in Bagnoregio, but remained connected to the place through several months of visits throughout the year.

Local festive traditions

  • Sunday after January 17th: Feast of St. Anthony with animal show and games
  • Good Friday: Passion Festival in the main town and in the district of Vetriolo
  • June + September: donkey races between the historical contrades based on the Palio principle
  • July 15th: Patron feast of St. Bonaventure in the main town
  • August: Literature and music festival in Civita, Assumption of Mary on August 15th, patronage festivals in several districts.
  • Christmas time: Nativity plays.

literature

  • Christoph Henning: Central Italy. 2nd updated edition. DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-5828-8 .

Web links

Commons : Bagnoregio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ "... þa er dagfor til boternis borgar þar er Þiðreksb [að]. - ... then a day trip to Viterbo, there is the Thíðreksbad [Bagnoregio]. ”, Quoted from: Simek, Rudolf : Old Norse Cosmography . Studies and sources on the worldview and description of the world in Norway and Iceland from the 12th to the 14th century (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 4). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1990, ISBN 3-11-012181-6 (also: Wien, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1988).
  3. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT . Population statistics from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, as of December 31, 2011.
  4. ^ Italian Ministry of the Interior