Sora (Lazio)

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Sora
coat of arms
Sora (Italy)
Sora
Country Italy
region Lazio
province Frosinone  (FR)
Coordinates 41 ° 43 '  N , 13 ° 37'  E Coordinates: 41 ° 43 '15 "  N , 13 ° 36' 52"  E
height 300  m slm
surface 71 km²
Residents 25,770 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 363 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 03039
prefix 0776
ISTAT number 060074
Popular name Sorani
Patron saint Restituta from Sora
Website Sora
Panorama of Sora
Panorama of Sora

Sora is a municipality in the province of Frosinone in the Italian region of Lazio with 25,770 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). It is 110 km east of Rome and 28 km northeast of Frosinone and is the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo .

geography

Sora is located in the upper Lirital on the edge of Abruzzo . It is a member of the Comunità Montana Valle di Liri .

The neighboring municipalities are Arpino , Balsorano ( AQ ), Broccostella , Campoli Appennino , Castelliri , Isola del Liri , Monte San Giovanni Campano , Pescosolido and Veroli .

traffic

Sora is connected to the road network with Strada Statale 82 della Valle del Liri , which leads from Itri to Avezzano .
There is a railway connection via the Avezzano-Roccasecca railway line.

history

Sora, an old Volscian city, was conquered three times by the Romans during the expansion of the Romans to the south, namely in 342, 314 and finally in 305 BC. Chr .; in the meantime it was lost to the Samnites . In 302 BC After hard fighting, it finally came into Roman hands through the establishment of a colonia Latina when around 4,000 Latin colonists were transplanted here. 209 BC BC Sora was one of the cities that refused further contributions to the war against Hannibal . At the end of the Confederate War in 88 BC Through the leges Iuliae , Sora received the rank of a Roman municipium , a country town with Roman citizens who were assigned to the tribus (voting district) Romilia , in which they could take part in the state elections in Rome. Administratively, Sora belonged to the Latium adiectum .

In the military conflicts after Caesar's assassination on March 15, 44 BC. BC, the consul Caius Vibius Panza raised a legion of around 4,000 soldiers from citizens of this area, the legio IIII Sorana . After its rapid dissolution after the battle of Aktium in 31, a colonia Romana was founded from the discharged soldiers of this unit . An honorary inscription for Lucius Firmius, who was deputy commander in this legion and, according to this legal act, was the first mayor and city priest, documents the establishment of the new colony. From the ancient period, under the modern Corso dei Volsci, you can see a piece of the main street made of stone blocks.

In late antiquity, a Christian diocese was established in Sora at an unknown time with the appearance of an episcopus . The city later remained in the Eastern Roman Ducat of Rome for a long time. It was only conquered by the Lombard Duke Gisulf I of Benevento in 702 and made the capital of a Gastaldate, an administrative unit within his sphere of influence. Conquered by the Duke of Spoleto , Guido I , shortly before 860 , Sora was destroyed by the Arabs in the early 10th century and raised to a county in 970 after their expulsion from central Italy. In 1062 the Normans conquered the place from Duke Robert Guiscard , which then belonged to the Kingdom of Sicily. Under King Wilhelm I, it was partially destroyed after an uprising in 1156, but rebuilt under his son Wilhelm II. In 1208 under Pope Innocent III. the city came briefly to the Papal States and then became a bone of contention between Emperor Friedrich II and Pope Gregory IX. After all, it remained in the Kingdom of Naples for centuries .

In 1399 King Ladislaus made Giovanni Tomacelli count. At the gates of the city, the condottiere Braccio Fortebraccio da Montone defeated the king's army in the spring of 1410. In 1443 King Alfonso the Magnanimous appointed Nicola Cantelmo, previously Count of Alvito and Arce , Duke of Sora. His son Piergiampaolo lost possession in 1462 in the conflict over the Kingdom of Naples against the troops of Pope Pius II , who were commanded by Antonio Piccolomini, nephew of the Pope, and Federico da Montefeltro , Count of Urbino. In 1472 Pope Sixtus IV raised his nephew Leonardo della Rovere, the younger brother of Cardinal Giuliano, later Pope Julius II , to Duke of Arce and Sora, who was followed in 1475 by his brother Giovanni. After a short recovery by Piergiampaolo Cantelmo 1494–1497, King Federico of Naples returned the duchy to the Della Rovere family. After a failed siege by Cesare Borgia in 1500, Giovanni della Rovere died in 1501. His son Francesco Maria I also inherited the Duchy of Urbino in 1508 ; in 1516, however, he was expelled by the Spanish general Fernando d'Avalos , Margrave of Pescara, who conquered the city for the new King of Spain and Naples, Charles I, who later became Emperor Charles V. After several years of rule by Guillaume de Croÿ, a Flemish confidante of Charles, the duchy returned to the Della Rovere in 1528. Finally it was in 1579 by Pope Gregory XIII. bought for his son Giacomo Boncompagni at the price of 100,000 Scudi and merged with Aquino and Arpino . Since then it has remained in the possession of this family and is still listed in the title of the Princes Boncompagni-Ludovisi .

Sora played a role in the struggle against French rule in Napoleonic times, because in 1806 the brigand and freedom fighter Fra Diavolo had his quarters here, which the French responded to with conquest and plunder. After the city was incorporated into the Italian state in 1861, it remained for a few years the center of resistance by supporters of the exiled King of the Two Sicilies, Francesco II. In 1927, Sora was separated from the Campania region and the Lazio region and the assigned to the newly created province of Frosinone . The area around Sora is known for its rural costumes.

The diocese of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo existed since June 27, 1818, which Pope Francis expanded on October 23, 2014 by assigning the parishes previously belonging to the Montecassino monastery to the diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo .

Attractions

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Sora
  • Cathedral of S. Maria , built into the 36 × 24 meter foundation of a Roman temple with its cella walls, which was apparently built after the Roman conquest. The church is a Romanesque building that was consecrated in 1155 by Pope Hadrian IV . Bishop Roffredo had the portal designed according to an inscription in 1100; it belongs to a previous building. The bell tower has two storeys, which have biforic windows with set double columns. After an earlier earthquake in 1634, the church was destroyed by fire on 12./13. Completely destroyed in January 1916. The three-aisled interior in the Gothic style of the Cistercian churches with pillars, pointed arches and wooden roof is therefore a reconstruction. A late Gothic triptych with the Assumption of Mary and two saints on the side is noteworthy . Attached to the podium of the cathedral is a low round tower belonging to the former city fortifications on the right. On the opposite side is the Palazzo Vescovile as the official residence of the diocesan bishop.
  • Collegiata S. Restituta , reconstructed after an earthquake in January 1915. It has a modernized facade in the late Gothic style with three portals. Embedded in the facade is an inscription by the King of Naples, Charles II , dated November 13, 1292, with which he declared Sora a royal city. There is a handsome portal on the left long wall. The interior shows the modern renewal with choir frescoes. The sarcophagus of the titular saint is located under the altar table as a small porphyry tub with a lid.
  • The pilgrimage church of Madonna delle Grazie on the slope of the Monte Casto hill with long stairs. The current facade is designed in the Baroque style, which is also shown in the single-nave interior with side altars.
  • The abbey church of S. Domenico in the hamlet of the same name from the high Middle Ages, consecrated to the Benedictine saint Dominic of Foligno. It was founded around 1030 and expanded in 1140, renovated after 1250 and completely renewed after the 1915 earthquake. Only one pillar is left of the former portico; In the central portal a Roman relief is walled in, depicting a scene of rural life. The facade is not completely covered with marble. The rear has three round apses of different heights. The three-aisled interior as a reconstruction after the earthquake has three naves with pointed arches and semicircular apses. Particularly noteworthy is the original three-aisled crypt with columns and capitals as Roman spolia, including a milestone of the Emperor Maxentius . Today the church serves as a monastery church for the Cistercian monks of the associated priory .
  • S. Bartolomeo Church with a neoclassical facade. The three-aisled interior with pillars has a raised choir with a dome, which, like the ceiling of the central nave, is decorated with late baroque frescoes. Behind the main altar is a crucifix from 1564 as a gift from Cardinal Cesare Baronio, whose mother is buried nearby according to an inscription. The altar at the end of the right aisle contains a painting of the Madonna and Child by the painter Sebastiano Conca from Gaeta in the middle of the 18th century.
  • Church of San Francesco with a 15th century fresco in the first left side chapel depicting the Madonna with two saints and in the second chapel a mural of the Madonna della Misericordia from the same period.
  • Castello di San Casto on the elongated Monte San Casto above the remains of the Cyclops wall of the Volscian Acropolis. The castle with its bastion-like towers is one of the typical fortresses of the Renaissance. It was completed over an earlier fortification from around 955, which was of great importance in the Middle Ages, by the architect Evangelista Carrara from Bergamo in 1520. The elongated outer bailey with two outer rectangular towers encloses the remains of four buildings with rectangular floor plans attached to the wall and a fountain. The adjoining main part has three bastion-shaped pointedly projecting and a fourth round tower as well as two inner residential buildings. In the pentagonal keep between the outer and main castle there is a chapel with a fresco of Saints Castus and Cassius.
  • Museo della Media Valle del Liri in the former Palazzo della Pretura, a former rococo-style convent building of the Franciscans. It shows finds from the city and its surrounding area on three floors, including a marble urn consecrated to the goddess Minerva , a fragmentary altar for the god of war Mars , other Roman inscription stones and portraits and, as a separate section, a collection of costumes and traditional costumes from Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Population development

year 1861 1881 1901 1921 1936 1951 1971 1991 2001
Residents 12,434 13,084 16,022 18,076 20,841 23,707 24,897 26,089 26,029

Source: ISTAT

politics

Ernesto Tersigni was elected mayor in 2011. After the election on June 5, 2016, Roberto De Donatis (Lista Civica: Sora Che Verrà) took office as the new mayor.

Culinary specialties

The Ciambella sorana is a salted bread flavored with aniseed. The sweet biscuits are particularly well-known on various festive days, such as the Ciambelline al vino, the Cicerchiata , the Ciecamarini and the Nnocche for Carnival, the Pigna for Easter and the Mostaccioli as rectangles made of chocolate with a filling of jam or fruit and the Susamelli at Christmas as a biscuit with honey and almonds.

Culture

Numerous mostly religious festivals, some with parades, take place throughout the year: on January 17th the festival of St. Anthony Abbas, on Shrove Tuesday the Carnevale del Liri, on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday two processions, on May 27th the festival of Holy Restituta, on Corpus Christi day an infiorata in the streets, on August 14th in honor of the Assumption of Mary a parade with the 16 meter high statue of the saint, on August 16th the feast of St. Rochus with a similar parade and from December 8th to January 6th a nativity scene exhibition, the Natale di Sora. Sporting events include the Sora half marathon, a run in the Valle di Comino on February 15, and the Canicola, a popular run through the city of around eleven kilometers on August 16.

Town twinning

Sora’s sister city is Vaughan (Ontario) in Canada.

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Eugenio Maria Beranger, Sora , in: Alessandro Nicosia - Maria Cristina Bettini (Ed.): Le mura megalitiche. Il Lazio meridionale tra storia e mito , Rome 2009 ISBN 978-88-492-1689-9 , pp. 169-176.
  • Gino Catenacci: Vocabolario della lingua sorana , Sora 2008.
  • Giancarlo Governi: Vittorio De Sica. Uun maestro chiaro e sincero , Milan 2016 ISBN 978-88-452-8138-9 .
  • Giuseppe Antonio Guazelli - Raimondo Michetti - Francesco Scorza Barcellona (ed.): Cesare Baronio tra santità e scrittura storica , Rome 2012
  • Patrizia Tosini (Ed.): Arte e committenza nel Lazio nell'età di Cesare Baronio , Rome 2009 ISBN 978-88-492-1688-2 .

proof

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.

Web links

Commons : Sora  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files