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Orvieto
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The Umbrian town of Orvieto is magnificently situated
on a tufa crag which rears up out the Paglia valley.
Founded by the Etruscans, it was known in late antiquity as URBIBENTUM
or URBS VETUS (the “old town”) and later became a
strong-hold of the Guelf party, in which the Popes frequently
sought refuge.
The
Cathedral of Orvieto,
one
of the most splendid examples of Italian gothic architecture,
was built in alternating courses of black basalt and greyish-yellow
limestone and decorated by the finest artists of the day.
It was founded before 1290 in honour of the “Miracle of
Bolsena” and consecrated in 1309....
......and there is an interesting Etruscan Necropolis, with tombs mostly dating from the 5th century B.C.
...and very more as written in "What is Orvieto" (kindly granted of to mention in the site web)...
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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.
A city - A "city high and strange" as described by Fazio degli Uberti in his Dittamondo in the fourteenth century. Rising up in the midst of the plain of the river Paglia, in the southwestern corner of Umbria, the green heart of Italy. A city With almost 22.000 inhabitants, if you include the surrounding districts, and with less than 8.000 up on the plateau itself. A city that lives, still, on agriculture, in particular the wine and tobacco and oil, on tourism, and small artisan firms (about 650 of them) with only a few that could be called small industries, one the field of high technology, and the other for the bottling of mineral water from the Tione springs, not tar distant. The over a million visitors a year are however the mainstay of the economy with the hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops that cater to them.
A wine - Of course. Many, even abroad, will know of Orvieto classico, of Orvieto secco and abboccato, DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) which means only grapes from specific areas were used to make these wines. A light golden fragrant wine, made of a mixture of grapes: Trebbiano Toscano, Verdello, Druppeggio, Sacchetto, Malvasia Toscana. Throughout the centuries the wine of Orvieto, ranging from 11 to 12°, and with a delicate bouquet, has been appreciated by the artist who helped ambellish the city (Signorelli for instance had over a thousand liters a years as part of his contract) and by popes, as well as the Orvietani themselves. The yearly production is now about 150,000 hectoliters, sold both at home and abroad, and there are innumerable places to buy it, either by the bottle or by the case (winw cooperatives, specialized producers, enoteques or wine libraries, shops). Frequently the wine may also be sampled.
The Cathedral - Likened to a peacock, to a wedding cake, it has been called the finest example of Gothic in Italy. the foundation stone was laid in 1290 and by 1320 Maitani's reliefs on the facade were in place. Like many other Gothic cathedrals in Europe, it has recently celebrated its 700th birthday. An idea of what must have been like during the building is provided by Norton's list of contributions for the first yera: "Altogether the contributions recordere for this year from towns and barons amount to 731 puonds of wax, 24 markes, 29 horses, 3,858 loads of grain, and bravia (hangings or drapes in precious fabries) worth 84 gold pieces....The gifts of horses must have been of special value, from the fact that materials for building were all to be brought from a distance, and to be carried up the difficult ascent to the very crest of the mountain of Orvieto." unique for its glittering mosaic gold and marble facade, the cathedral also contains many other works of art, including thr famous frescoes in the Chapel of San Brizio where Luca Signorelli of Cortona worked for five years (1499-1504) on his Last Judgement, and where his nudes of the Damned and the Elect bear witness to the fascination anatomy held for artists of the time. The two are in a sense inseparable: Orvieto and its Cathedral, or if you like, the Cathedral and Orvieto.
A well - In the nineteenth century, Geroge Dennis, English ambassador who was travelling through the central park of Italy studying Etruscan antiquities, said of Orvieto that the two lions were its cathedral and its well of St. Patrizio. The concept of a well in itself means water. and in Orvieto. this ideal fortress city, water was essential for the inhabitants in case of siege. But St. Patrick's well is more than this, for it mirrors the fascination of the human race with architectural structures, Built rather like a seashell with its double spiral staircase, a tower sunk into the ground, it impressed most 19th-century travellers more even than the cathedral. About 62 meters deep, with 248 steps to Sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V in 1527 and decided it would be best to have a well built to supply his fortress with water. His architect, Antonio da San Gallo the Younger, saw to the design. Building proceeded at a goodly rate, first through the tuff and the through layers of clay, and it was terminated in 1537 under Paul III. And the name? St. Patrick in Ireland also had a deep grotto where he went to meditate, a grotto which was likened to Purgatory, and so somehow in the nineteenth century this well, which up to then had been known as the Pozzo della Rocca (Fortress), got its present name. To be noted is that Carles V never did lay siege to the city and the water from the great well never slaked the thirst of the in habitants of Orvieto.
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