Umbria

Regione Umbria —  Link to Cities and Towns in Umbria — Bella Umbria

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Umbria is a region of Central Italy, bordered by Tuscany to the west, the Marche to the east and Lazio to the south. This region is mostly hilly or mountainous. Its topography is dominated by the Apennines to the east, with the highest point in the region at Monte Vettore on the border of the Marche 2,476 m (8,123.36 ft), and the Tiber valley basin, with the lowest point at Attigliano 96 m (314.96 ft). It is the only Italian region having neither coastline nor common border with other countries.

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The Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum (Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley. Today the same route, still called by the same name for much of its distance, is paralleled or overlain by Strada Statale (SS) 3, also called Strada Regionale (SR) 3 in Lazio and Umbria, and Strada Provinciale (SP) 3 in Marche. It leaves Rome, does up the Val Tevere (“Valley of the Tiber River“), strikes into the mountains at Castello delle Formische, ascends to Gualdo Tadino, goes over the divide at Scheggia Pass, 575 m (1,886 ft), to Cagli. From there it descends the eastern slope waterways between the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Umbrian Apennines to Fano on the coast and goes north parallel to Highway A1 to Rimini.

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Narni is an ancient hilltown and comune of Umbria, in central Italy, with 20,100 inhabitants, according to the 2003 census. At an altitude of 240 m (787 ft), it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni. The area around Narni was already inhabited in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, as attested by finds in some of the caves. Around the start of the first millennium the Osco-Umbrian (Ombrikoì in Greek), a people with a language of Indo-European origin that dominated the left bank of the Tiber that vertically cuts the region to the Adriatic sea, settled in the area and called the town Nequinum. Records mention Nequinum as early as 600 BC. The Romans conquered Nequinum in the 4th century BC and made it a position of force in this key point of the Via Flaminia the famous road which connected the city of Rome to the Adriatic Sea (at that time the road passed through the town descending to the right bank of the Nera to then carrying on to Carsulae, Acquasparta, Massa Martana and Spoleto). It supported the Gauls with the hope of freeing itself from Rome. The attempt failed and the victorious Romans changed its name to Narnia after the nearby Nar River; as in the case of Benevento, the former name was considered of ill augury: in Latin, nequeo means “I am unable”, and nequitia means “worthlessness”. In 299BC it became a Roman Municipality, and took the name Narnia. In 209 BC, it was destroyed by the Romans, for refusing to help pay for the war against Carthage. It was later rebuilt, and during the Roman times it was an outpost for the Roman army. It is very close to the Geographic center of Italy. There is a stone on the exact spot with a sign in multiple languages.

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Terni listen is an ancient town of Italy, capital of Terni province in southern Umbria, in the plain of the Nera river. It is 104 km (65 mi) N of Rome, 36 km (23 mi) NW of Rieti, and 29 km (18 mi) S of Spoleto. The city was probably founded in the 7th century BC by the Sabini. In the 3rd century BC it was conquered by the Romans and soon become an important municipium lying on the Via Flaminia. The Roman name was Interamna, meaning “in between two rivers”. During the Roman Empire the city was enriched with several buildings, including aqueducts, walls, amphitheaters, temples and bridges. After the Lombard conquest (755) Terni lost any role of prominence, reducing to a secondary town in the Duchy of Spoleto. In 1174 it was again destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa‘s general, Archbishop Christian of Mainz. In the following century Terni was one of the favourite seat of St. Francis‘ prayings.

The name “Valentine” (Priest Valentio) does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as: A priest in Rome, A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), or A martyr in the Roman province of Africa. Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The name “Valentine”, derived from valens (worthy, strong, powerful), was popular in Late Antiquity.^[2] Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969. But “Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome” remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics.

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San Gemini is a comune (municipality) of c. 4,500 inhabitants in the province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 60 km south of Perugia and about 10 km northwest of Terni. San Gemini borders the municipalities of Montecastrilli, Narni and Terni. The town is a well-preserved medieval burgh with two lines of walls, built over the remains of a small Roman center along the old Via Flaminia. It is especially known for its mineral waters. The twelfth-century duomo dedicated to the commune’s patron, the locally venerated Saint Gemine, whose relics were recovered in 1775, was rebuilt in 1817. Brother Gemine was a monk of Syrian origins who died in 815. The burial urn and original stone are conserved in the sacristy; the saint has been reburied under the high altar. The saint’s day is 9 October. Important sites are: Archeological site of Carsulae, Church of San Nicolò, one of the most importante Romanesque architectures in Umbria. Medieval church of San Francesco, with 15th century frescoes. Geolab, a permanentt exhibition devoted to geological sciences.

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Montefalco St. Clare of Montefalco, sometimes known as St. Clare of the Cross, was born in Montefalco and died there in 1308. The town has been actively settled since the times of the Umbri. It has been under the successive domination of the Romans, Lombards, being called Coccorone in the Middle Ages. In 1249 it was sacked by Frederick II, but was soon rebuilt with the modern name. from the 13th century it had been a free comune under the domination of local nobles and merchants, but later, as with many other Umbrian locales, the comune gave way to government by a Signoria — in this case, that of the Trinci from the nearby Foligno (1383-1439). In 1446 it fell under the rule of the Papal States where it remained until the unification of Italy in 1861. Montefalco today has several churches, some in the Romanesque, some in the Gothic and some in the Renaissance style. Historically, the most important is the church of San Francesco, which is now the town’s museum, and, given its collection of art and artifacts, one of the most important museums in Umbria. The church is notable for its fresco cycle on the life of St. Francis, from the Florentine artist Benozzo Gozzoli (1450-1452). Other artists represented in the museum include Perugino, Melanzio, Pier Antonio Mezzastris, Antoniazzo Romano and Tiberio d’Assisi. Among the other churches found inside and outside the town walls are Sant’Agostino, Santa Clara, Santa Illuminata and San Fortunato, the latter, built in the 4th century over the tomb of Fortunatus of Spoleto and renovated in 15th century, had frescoes by Gozzoli and Tiberio d’Assisi.

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Tuoro sul Trasimeno is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 25 km northwest of Perugia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,725 and an area of 55.6 km². The municipality of Tuoro sul Trasimeno contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Borghetto, Isola Maggiore, Piazzano, and Vernazzano.

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Perugia listen is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber River, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city. Perugia is a notable artistic center of Italy. The famous painter Pietro Vannucci, nicknamed Perugino, was a native of Città della Pieve near Perugia. He decorated the local Sala del Cambio with a beautiful series of frescoes; eight of his pictures can also be admired in the National Gallery of Umbria. Perugino was the teacher of Raphael, the great Renaissance artist who produced five paintings in Perugia (today no longer in the city) and one fresco. Another famous painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia. Galeazzo Alessi is the most famous architect from Perugia. Perugia was an Umbrian settlement but first appears in written history as Perusia, one of the twelve confederate cities of Etruria; it was first mentioned in Q. Fabius Pictor’s account, utilized by Livy, of the expedition carried out against the Etruscan league by Fabius Maximus Rullianus in 310 or 309 BC. At that time a thirty-year indutiae (truce) was agreed upon; however, in 295 Perusia took part in the Third Samnite War and was reduced, with Volsinii and Arretium (Arezzo), to seek for peace in the following year.

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Gubbio is a town and comune in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria) It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. See also Mount Ingino Christmas Tree.  The city’s origins are very ancient. The hills above the town were already occupied in the Bronze Age (Malone and Stoddart 1994). As Ikuvium, it was an important town of the ancient Umbrian people in pre-Roman times, made famous for the discovery there of the Eugubine (or Iguvine) Tables, a set of bronze tablets that together constitute the largest surviving text in ancient Umbrian. After the Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC — it kept its name as Iguvium — the city remained important, as attested by its Roman theater, the second-largest surviving in the world. Gubbio became very powerful in the beginning of the Middle Ages. The town sent 1000 knights to fight in the First Crusade under the lead of count Girolamo Gabrielli, and according to an undocumented local tradition, they were the first to penetrate into the Holy Sepulchre when the city was seized (1099).

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Assisi from the Latin: Asisium) is a town and comune of Italy in province of Perugia, in the Umbria region and on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It was the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208, and St. Clare (Chiara d’Offreducci), the founder of the order of Poor Clares. Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows of the 19th century was also born in Assisi.  SEE FOR INFORMATION:  Assisi on Line

In 1776, the Spanish established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi on the site.

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Spello (in Antiquity: Hispellum) is an ancient town and comune (township) of Italy, in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the lower southern flank of Mt. Subasio. It is 6 km (4 mi) NNW of Foligno and 10 km (6 mi) SSE of Assisi. The old walled town lies on a regularly NW-SE sloping ridge that eventually meets the plain. From the top of the ridge, Spello commands a good view of the Umbrian plain towards Perugia; at the bottom of the ridge, the town spills out of its walls into a small modern section (or Borgo) served by the rail line from Rome to Florence via Perugia. The densely-inhabited town, built of stone, is of decidedly medieval aspect, and is enclosed in a circuit of medieval walls on Roman foundations, including three Roman Late Antique gates (Porta Consolare, Porta di Venere and the “Arch of Augustus”) and traces of three more, remains of an amphitheater, as well several medieval gates. Spello boasts about two dozen small churches, most of them medieval: the most important are: Santa Maria Maggiore (known from 1159), probably built over an ancient temple dedicated to Juno and Vesta. The façade has a Romanesque portal and a 13th century bell tower, while the pilasters next to the apse have frescoes by Perugino (1512). The most striking feature is however a very fine chapel (Cappella Bella) frescoed by Pinturicchio. The Umbrian artist was called to paint it in 1500 by Troilo Baglioni, after he had just finished the Borgia Apartment‘s decoration. The cycle include the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Dispute with the Doctors, plus four Sibyls in the vault. The Palazzo dei Canonici, annexed to the church, houses the Town’s Art Gallery.

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Spoleto (Latin Spoletium) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is 20 km (12 mi) S. of Trevi, 29 km (18 mi) N. of Terni, 63 km (39 miles) SE of Perugia; 212 km (131 miles) SE of Florence; and 126 km (78 miles) N of Rome.

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Foligno is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located 40 km (25 mi) south-east of Perugia, 10 km (6 mi) north-north-west of Trevi and 6 km (4 mi) south of Spello. Foligno is a station on the main line from Rome to Ancona, and is the junction for Perugia; it is thus an important rail center, with repair and maintenance yards for the trains of central Italy, and was therefore subjected to severe Allied aerial bombing in World War II, responsible for its relatively modern aspect, although it retains some medieval monuments. Of its Roman past no significant trace remains, with the exception of the regular street plan of the centre. Other resources include sugar refineries and metallurgical, textile, building materials and paper and timber industries. After the war, the city’s position in the plain and again its railroad connections have led to a considerable suburban spread with the attendant problems of traffic and air pollution, as well as a severe encroachment on the Umbrian wetlands. Foligno is on an important interchange road junction in central Italy and 2 km far from the centre of the city there is the Foligno Airport

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Norcia is a town and comune in the province of Perugia (Italy) in southeastern Umbria, located in a wide plain abutting the Monti Sibillini, a subrange of the Apennines with some of its highest peaks, near the Sordo River, a small stream that eventually flows into the Nera. The town is thus popularly associated with the Valnerina (the valley of that river). The area is known for its air and scenery, and is a base for mountaineering and hiking. It is also widely known for hunting, especially of the wild boar, and for sausages and ham made from wild boar and pork, to the point that Norcia has given its name to such products: in Italian, norcineria. St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine monastic system, and his twin sister St. Scholastica, were born here in 480. In the following century the city was conquered by the Lombards, becoming part of the Duchy of Spoleto. In the 9th century it suffered from Saracen attacks, which started a period of deep decadence. In the 11th century, it was part of the domain of St. Henry, Holy Roman Emperor.In the 12th century Norcia became an independent commune within the Papal territories, with an increasing political and economical prestige. The collaboration with the Benedictine abbey in Preci led to the creation of the Schola Chirurgica: the latter’s studies allowed Norcia’s to improve their swine breeding capacities. However, the vicinity of the powerful Spoleto and the 1324 earthquake thwarted the city’s ambitions, and in 1354 it returned definitively under the Papal authority.

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Castelluccio is a village in Umbria in the Apennine Mountains, central Italy. Administratively, it is a frazione of the ca. 28 km distant town Norcia. According to the 2001 census, it had c. 150 inhabitants. The best lentils in the world and the greatest scenery of:  PHOTOS OF APPENNINI

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SOME HELPFUL LINKS TO WEBSITES ___________________________________________________________________

Gazetteer of Italy — currently a few hundred mostly non-Roman pages of churches, frescoes, etc. — is my own favorite part of the site.  Churches of Italy section, which currently (12/21/09) covers 652 churches in 385 pages and 1457 photos; plus, quite separately, three entire books on the churches of Rome, covering about 900 of them, past and present, in great detail. (The merest drop in a bucket, by the way: Italy’s churches present and past must number at least 500,000.)

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Virgilio Viaggi

OSPITALITA’ CONVENTUALE – ABBAZIE, CONVENTI, MONASTERI IN ITALIA

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