Orvieto, What is Orvieto, the rock Orvieto

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A city, a wine, a cathedral, a well. A rock, a city underground. A jevel to be saved, an example of how to restore a medieval town. A convetion center. It is this and more. Velzna. Urbs Vetus. Orvieto. Let's take them by one.

The Rock - That's it's called in Italian. La Rupe. And it is jast that. A crag rising over the plain, formed about 100,000 years ago by an enormous volcanic eruptionwhen strata of tuff (or tufo, formed of volcanic detritus) laced with veins of pozzolana (siliceous material that reacts chemically with slaked lime in the presence of moisture to form cement) were laid down. Weather and rivers midst of the valley was the enormous crag.

A jewel to be saved - That's what it was called in an American magazine article (GEO, January 1982) after landslip in 1978 had set off the alarm, with a big chunk of the cliff detaching from the rock no more than 300 meters from the Cathedral. Part of the problem depends on the fact that this emormous rock of soft friable tuff rests on a layer of clay and is therefore basically unstable. As time passes, the outer strata have a tendency to open out and peel off like the outer leaves of an artichoke. Orvieto with its wealth of treasures in the fields of archaeology history, art and landscape, had to be saved.Once the campaign had been launched, the government, with unusual speed, set aside 6,000,000 of old lire (law 25-5-1978 n.230) for consolidating the cliff. This meant first of all letting in long tie-rods to anchor the outer layers and redoing the whole sewage and aqueduct systems, which still dated in part to the nineteenth century. Equipment for monitoring movement of the rock were installed at the base and around the perimeter of the cliff. Over a third of the network of caves and grottoes and galleries in the rock itself, one might say the bowels of the city, were surveyed, photographed and mapped. The accusing finger was also pointed at traffic circulation on the pleteau, leading to the development of a plain, called "Mobilità Alternativa", to regulate cars and traffic. The old water-run funicular, originally inaugurated in 1988, Which brought passengers from the railroad station to the top of the cliff was renovated. Now run by electricity, it is over 577 meters long with an average slope of 27.86% and it takes less than two minutes to rise 156 meters from down below to up above. Parking were projected - one downat the station, the other recently terminated at the Campo Boario just outside Porta Romana (the city gate of the road leading to Rome and dating to the nineteenth century).

An example of how to restore a medieval town - The concern with the cliff also led to a concern with the city itself and its monuments, in particular the churches and other buildings. Orvieto sometimes looks like one of Italo Calvino's imaginary cities where everything seems constantly in construction, in restoration. Take the scaffolding down in one street, and up it goes on another. "why is this building going on so endlessly?" "So that the city will not begin to fall to pieces". Buildings involved in restoration included first of all cathedral itself - the Signorelli frescoes, the lovely Madonna Enthroned by Gentile di Fabriano, the apse and its stained-glass windows; then the church of St. Andrea which stands on top of a fascinating palimpsest of Etruscan, Roman and Early Christian remains, the former churches of the Santi Apostoli and of the Carmine (now a fine auditorium), and S. Agostin and private buildings everywhere. The Theater, a striking nineteenth century interior, in which preview performances were frequently given, has finally raised its curtain once more in all its splendor after restoration works that seemed endless, and Orvieto is again a theater town. But perhaps the star example of restoration is the splendid thirteenth century Palazzo del Popolo, where the Etruscan and medieval remains brought to light in the foundations during restoration now stand side by side with the technical faciities of a modern Convention Center.

A convention center - Thanks to the restoration of the Palazzo del Popolo, the building can now be used as originally convention center has a main assembly hall capable of seating 400, booths, for simultaneous translation, exhbition facilities, smaller rooms for conferences and lectures, and all planed with a view to eliminating architectural barriers.

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