Italy: a visit to Civita di Bagnoregio

Between the Tevere River and Bolsena lake, in the green latium countryside, on the top of a clay hill, rises the tiny town "Civita di Bagnoregio".

Civita seems isolated on a cliff spur to dominate the about valley and, thanks to this isolation, the town shows intact its medieval architectonical structure. For more information sure to visit casa atripalda.

Joined to Bagnoregio, and to the world, through only a single bridge, Civita seems in an unreal isolation due to landslip series and downfall of argillaceous ground on which the entire town is built and that is nevertheless in danger.

The Background of Civita and Bagnoregio links every to other and the legend wants that Longobardi's king Desiderio named the city Bagnoregium immediately after he was there to remedy critical illness with regional thermal water (Bagnoregio is a word composed by bagno (implies: bath) and regio (regal, king)).

The urban organizing of the city is of Etruscan origin, constituted from ortogonal alleys as Etruscan and later roman use, even though the entire architectonic has medioeval and rinascimentale designs. Numerous sculptures of medieval age, pertaining to buildings destroyed for continuous landslips are inglobated on the arc and in the wall to the sides of town access gate.

The heart of the village of Civita is constituted from San Donato square, on which the cathedral dome rises. The cathedral was constructed in centuries VII - VIII, more than a far more ancient pagan temple. The creating was widened in the XI XII when a bell tower was built also. In origin the cathedral had to be faced from a porch, these days destroyed, like us testifies the rests of two columns placed the facade. Inside, the building, has 3 naves splitted by columns of medieval origin.

Often in San Donato square, on the left of the bell tower, there is a passage that leads to the building of medieval jails, even though on the southern side of the square we have "By way of della Maest" exactly where we can see fragments of typical longobard sculptures. Detailed information about the above article is located at vendita casa atripalda.

At the finish of this road there had been the gate of the Maest, collapsed with the church of "Santa Maria della Maest" right after a landslip in 1695. From there, a narrow lane came down to the water sources of Civita, in particular to source of the Columns and in the zone known as "dell'Uncino" (hook), where, for the legend, was situated the thermal source from which Bagnoregium name derived.