Civita di Bagnoregio the dying city

Civita of Bagnoregio

The best definition of Civita of Bagnoregio is his son Bonaventura Tecchi: "the dying city"

Civita of Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio the dying city

Civita of Bagnoregio

The ancient Bagnorea today Bagnoregio, the birthplace of St. Bonaventure, was once connected Civita to a strip of land that despite earthquakes and devastation, still preserves the Romanesque-Gothic church of St. Augustine, St. Nicholas Cathedral with bell tower sixteenth and the interesting town hall.
On the border with Umbria, Civita di Bagnoregio is known as "the city that dies" due to erosion and landslides lenses of tuff rock on which the village was born. Connected to the mainland by a bridge, the village is the Romanesque church of St. Donat, the Renaissance buildings of Colesanti and Alemanni. Excellent tavernas where you can taste bruschetta and another accompanied by a good selection of wines. It is situated along the highway Cassia until Montefiascone to turn in the direction of Orvieto, or the A1 motorway exit at Orvieto. Bagnoregio is situated half way between Orvieto and Lake Bolsena.

Civita di Bagnoregio the dying city

Civita..."the dying city"

is situated on top of a hill, perched on a rocky promontory and around a wide valley rippled by gullies .... thrilling landscape around her and still impressive, are the badlands, big landslide formations that seem to warn about the future of his destiny. The tuff hill on which stands Civita di Bagnoregio is undermined by the continuing erosion of two streams flowing in the valleys below and the action of rain and wind, thus it is crumbling, slowly but surely. In front of the Belvedere, connected to the world by a single, narrow bridge of 300 meters, here is Civita di Bagnoregio, set gently on a hill top, with his tuft of medieval houses.
Civita di Bagnoregio the dying city

Entering the village of civita

the first important monument you meet is the Porta S. Maria, surmounted by a pair of lions clutching two human heads, a symbol of tyrants defeated by Bagnoresi.
Further up the street S. Maria opens into the main square, where you can admire the Romanesque Church of S. Donato remodeled in the sixteenth century.
It holds a beautiful fifteenth century wooden crucifix, of the school of Donatello, and a fresco of the school of Perugino.
Also worth seeing is the Romanesque-Gothic Church of the Annunciation, flanked by a slender bell tower of 1735 and full of paintings.
Remarkable cloister built in 1524 by the architect Michele Sanmicheli and central well of 1604 by Ippolito Scalza
On the eastern edge of the Belvedere, where there was a Franciscan monastery, it is carved into the tuff cave called St. Bonaventure.
Civita di Bagnoregio the dying city
A little history of Civita

° VI sec. earliest records of Bagnorea (this is the most ancient name), mentioned among the Italian episcopal sees. After the Roman Empire fell, Bagnoregio falls under the dominion of the Goths and the Lombards finally Charlemagne gave the Papacy. After the Frankish conquest a series of feudal lords took turns in power, among them the Monaldeschi who later became lords of Orvieto.

° 1348, an epidemic of plague (the one narrated in the Decameron by Boccaccio) reduces the town the shadow of itself: it is said that in one day we counted more than 500 dead

XII sec., Bagnoregio became a free municipality and underwent a period of prosperity and cultural vitality. Even attracted into the neighboring and powerful Orvieto, still he manages to maintain a relative autonomy.

° 1494, the Bagnoresi manage to destroy the fortress of the Monaldeschi, getting rid of the hated tyrants.
That same year they opposed the entry into the city of King Charles VIII of France, bound for Naples with his army. heroic act does not correspond however no recognition on the part of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, who two years later deals a major blow to the proud feeling of communal freedom instituting the Cardinals-governors regime, which would last until 1612, when Bagnoregio passes under the control of the Apostolic Delegation of Viterbo.

° 1695, a first quake, adding erosion destructive work, bears considerable town of Civita damage. ° 1794, a second earthquake destroys the narrow natural bridge connecting Civita to the outside of the township Rhota. At that point most of the inhabitants abandoned the hill and settled at Rhota, the sort district in the thirteenth century. and that today is the historic center of Bagnoregio.

° 1867, the first violent clash between the papal army and Garibaldi's volunteers goes down in history as the "Battle of Bagnorea". In 1870 Bagnoregio becomes part of the Kingdom of Italy.