Civita di Bagnoregio
| Civita di Bagnoregio | |||
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| Panorama of the village | |||
| Country | Italy | ||
| region | Lazio | ||
| province | Viterbo (VT) | ||
| local community | Bagnoregio | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 38 ' N , 12 ° 7' E | ||
| height | 443 m slm | ||
| Telephone code | 0761 | CAP | 01022 |
The Civita di Bagnoregio in Italy is a fraction of Bagnoregio and is located between Viterbo, 30 kilometers away, and Orvieto, 19 kilometers away, in the Lazio region on the border with neighboring Umbria and a few kilometers east of Lake Bolsena . The current district of Bagnoregio has an older history than the seat of today's municipal administration and preserves Etruscan and Roman remains within its medieval walls.
Civita di Bagnoregio is a member of the association I borghi più belli d'Italia (The Most Beautiful Places in Italy).
Etymology / geographic location
With Civitas often later bishopric - - one called from late antiquity to the older, original settlement nucleus of a community that extends from the adjacent Borghi different (suburbs). In the case of Bagnoregio, the current seat of the municipal administration in the plain is a former borgo , which is sharply demarcated by a deep gorge from the former civitas, which lies on a steep tuff ridge, and is only over a narrow, steep, non-passable 250 meters long footbridge is accessible. Civita di Bagnoregio has been threatened by constant soil erosion for centuries, but it also owes its unique, almost impregnable and easily defended location. The stranger enters Civita di Bagnoregio through the only city gate , the sculpted Porta di Santa Maria or Porta del Cassero.
history
The tuff hill on which today's Civita di Bagnoregio is located was, according to archaeological grave finds from the 7th to 5th centuries BC, settled by the Etruscans. However, the historical identity of this precursor is controversial. The opinion of some authors around 1500 that it was about the Novempagi (city of nine villages) mentioned by Pliny the Elder could not be proven. The researcher M. Lopes Pegna put in his book "Problems of Etruscan History and Topography" on the thesis that today's Civita di Bagnoregio could be identical to the mysterious Etruscan cult site Fanum Voltumnae , where the priest- kings of the league of the twelve cities of the Lukumonen met to discuss together in his temple the fate determined and prophesied by the gods. It is known that the Roman consul Marcus Fulvius Flaccus had the sanctuary in 264 BC. To usher in the irrevocable end of Etruscan independence.
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the Longobard invasion, the history of the ancient settlement ended. The medieval Civita, which since the Pippi's gift to all as Lazio Kirchenstaat part was when bishopric the oldest and most important of three quarters ( contrade bound) the rebuilt now called Bagnoregio city and the extent of its history. Changing feudal rule conflicted with the striving for communal independence. In contrast to the other two contrades, Civita offered strong resistance when it was conquered by Charles VIII in 1494, but was subdued after a two-day siege.
In 1695, Bagnoregio and Civita were shaken by an earthquake. The bishop of Bagnoregio then moved his residence from the town on the tuff hill to the core town on the plain.
Since 1870, Civita di Bagnoregio, like the entire Papal States, has belonged to the Italian state.
Site and sights
Civita di Bagnoregio has small cobbled streets, a fountain in Piazza San Donato , the church of the same name, which served as a cathedral and bishopric from the 6th century until 1699 , and old palaces, among which the former episcopal palace is particularly noteworthy, as in Finds and exhibits from Roman and Etruscan times are shown in his court and in the Renaissance Palazzo Mazzoncchi-Alemanni . The church is believed to have been built on the remains of a pagan temple in the 8th century when the Longobard king Desiderius had the place rebuilt after a landslide under the name of Balneum Regium (English: Royal Bath). In the 11th century the church underwent a renovation, was supplemented by a campanile in the 12th century , when the settlement enjoyed a certain autonomy in the age of the city republics , and was given a new facade during the 15th century.
“Dying City” / Tourism as an economic factor
Civita di Bagnoregio is one of the città che muoiono (dt. "Dying cities"), of which there are hundreds in Italy, as fewer and fewer people want to stay in the small, difficult-to-reach mountain villages with buildings that are in danger of falling through soil erosion and landslides. Around 1990 only seven to seventeen old people were living in seclusion in Civita di Bagnoregio, until a Roman ex-manager and numerous dropouts and nature enthusiasts discovered the place and revived it by buying up and renovating the abandoned building ruins.
Since then, the number of buildings being repaired as second homes has increased, and a US university has held its summer courses here. Today the place has also become a vacation home for artists. Concerts in the church give additional impulses, wedding couples choose the location as a backdrop for their wedding photos. Cafes and restaurants, a small hotel and a souvenir shop have been set up in the renovated buildings. Even US tourists frequent the place. a., as a restaurant owner gained recognition in the US press and an entry in US travel guides. The remaining original inhabitants of the village do not take an active part in this new economic factor, at most by presenting the house and garden in exchange for a voluntary contribution from tourists.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ I borghi più belli d'Italia. Borghipiubelliditalia.it, accessed August 31, 2017 (Italian).