Amelia is a town and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of the
province of Terni
The Province of Terni ( it, Provincia di Terni) is the smaller of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising one-third of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Terni. The province came into being ...
, in the
Umbria
it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman)
, population_note =
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, ...
region of central
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. It grew up around an ancient hill fort, known to the Romans as Ameria.
Geography
The town lies in the south of Umbria, on a hill overlooking the
Tiber River
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...
to the east and the
Nera River Nera may refer to:
People
* Nera Smajic (born 1984), Bosnian-born Swedish footballer
* Nera Stipičević (born 1983), Croatian actress
* Nera White (1935–2016), American basketball player
* André António Ribeiro Novais (born 1988), Portuguese ...
to the west.
The city is north of
Narni
Narni (in Latin, Narnia) is an ancient hilltown and ''comune'' of Umbria, in central Italy, with 19,252 inhabitants (2017). At an altitude of 240 m (787 ft), it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni. ...
, from
Orte
Orte is a town, ''comune'', former Catholic bishopric and Latin titular see in the province of Viterbo, in the central Italian region of Lazio, located about north of Rome and about east of Viterbo.
Geography
Orte is situated in the Tiber vall ...
and approximately from
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
. It is about north of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
History
According to some scholars, Amelia is the oldest town in Umbria. It was supposedly founded by a legendary
Umbri
The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria.
Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on ...
an king, King Ameroe, who gave the city the name Ameria.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
is reported
as saying that Ameria was founded 963 years before
the war with Perseus (171–168 BC), so 1134 BC. This date cannot be considered accurate.
The city was later occupied by the
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
, and later still by the Romans, although it is not mentioned by name in the history of the Roman conquest of Umbria. Ameria occupied a strategic location in the
Second Latin War
The (Second) Latin War (340–338 BC)The Romans customarily dated events by noting the consuls who held office that year. The Latin War broke out in the year that Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus and Publius Decius Mus were consuls and ended ...
(340–338 BC), lying on a loop of the ''
Via Cassia
The ''Via Cassia'' ("way of Cassius") was an important Roman road striking out of the ''Via Flaminia'' near the Milvian Bridge in the immediate vicinity of Rome and, passing not far from Veii, traversed Etruria. The ''Via Cassia'' passed throug ...
'' called the ''
Via Amerina
The ''Via Cassia'' ("way of Cassius") was an important Roman road striking out of the ''Via Flaminia'' near the Milvian Bridge in the immediate vicinity of Rome and, passing not far from Veii, traversed Etruria. The ''Via Cassia'' passed throug ...
'', which started at
Falerii
Falerii (now Fabrica di Roma) was a city in southern Etruria, 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Rome, 34 km (21 mi) from Veii (a major Etruscan city-state near the River Tiber) and about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) west of the ancient Via Flaminia. It was the main c ...
and crossed the Tiber at Castellum Amerinum (probably
Orte
Orte is a town, ''comune'', former Catholic bishopric and Latin titular see in the province of Viterbo, in the central Italian region of Lazio, located about north of Rome and about east of Viterbo.
Geography
Orte is situated in the Tiber vall ...
).
The town gained political status as a self-governing ''
municipium
In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privi ...
'', maybe as early as 338 BC, but certainly by the middle of the 1st century BC. Citizens of the town were members of the ''
tribus Clustumina''.
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
's speech in defence of
Sextus Roscius Amerinus (the ''
pro Roscio Amerino
''Pro Roscio Amerino'' is a defence speech given by Marcus Tullius Cicero on behalf of Sextus Roscius, a Roman citizen from the municipality of Amelia, Umbria, Amelia accused of murdering his father. Delivered in 80 BC, it was Cicero's first maj ...
'') describes Ameria as a flourishing place in 80 BC, with a fertile territory extending to the Tiber. Its fruit is often extolled by Roman writers.
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
divided its lands among his veterans, but did not plant a
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
.
The bishopric of Ameria was founded in the middle of the fourth century.
During the barbaric invasions, the city was besieged and badly damaged by the
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
, but was rebuilt by the time the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...
descended from the north and asserted control over
most of what is now Umbria. The Lombards, in turn, were forced out by the
Byzantines, and thereafter, throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the time of
Italian unification
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
in 1860, Amelia stayed more or less under the domination of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
within the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
.
During the period the Lombards remained in control of the ''
Via Flaminia
The Via Flaminia or Flaminian Way 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 ...
'', Amelia was an important stop on a vital alternative route, the so-called Byzantine Way, which connected Rome to the
exarchate
An exarchate is any territorial jurisdiction, either secular or ecclesiastical, whose ruler is called an exarch. The term originates from the Greek word ''arkhos'', meaning a leader, ruler, or chief. Byzantine Emperor Justinian I created the firs ...
in
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
.
In the Middle Ages, Amelia went through the political convulsions common to other Umbrian cities: struggles that saw it emerge as an independent-minded comune, then as a city under the control of a succession of powerful families, sometimes ecclesiastical, and subject to internecine warfare between
Guelphs
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalr ...
and
Ghibellines
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalr ...
.
The
campanile
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
of the cathedral was erected in 1050 using fragments of Roman buildings.
Main sights
![Mura2pop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Mura2pop.jpg)
Amelia is especially known for its walls, parts of which may date to Amelia's earliest days. Large segments of the wall are built in
polygonal masonry
Polygonal masonry is a technique of stone wall construction. True polygonal masonry is a technique wherein the visible surfaces of the stones are dressed with straight sides or joints, giving the block the appearance of a polygon.
This techniqu ...
of carefully jointed blocks of limestone.
A thirty-meter segment of this wall collapsed in 2006 and is under repair. The walls were further fortified and enlarged during Roman times and at various times during the Middle Ages.
The walls run about 720 meters and are about 3.5 meters thick, and have four main gates: the imposing Porta Romana to the south, the main access to the town; Posterola to the north; Porta Leone to the east; and Porta della Valle to the west.
The Romans left other traces of their occupation, including a complex of ten underground cisterns, built in the first century AD, which collected rainwater to feed the town's water supply. There are also snatches of Roman roads within the city, some of them only recently uncovered. A larger-than-life gilt bronze statue of
Germanicus
Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was an ancient Roman general, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the Patric ...
was unearthed just outside the Porta Romana in 1963 and is now the linchpin of a new Archaeological Museum.
![Bronze statue of Germanicus at Amelia April 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Bronze_statue_of_Germanicus_at_Amelia_April_2016.jpg)
Today, old Amelia inside the walls, which is most accessible through the Porta Romana, is a well-preserved medieval city. The upper part also offers a view of the Tiber Valley. The center of the city is the Piazza del Duomo where the cathedral and the thirty-meter-high ' (Civic Tower) are located.
Amelia Cathedral
Amelia Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Amelia, ''Cattedrale di Santa Firmina'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Amelia, Italy, Amelia in the province of Terni, Umbria, Italy. It was formerly the seat of the Bishop of Amelia, in existence from not later ...
was built originally in 872, and totally rebuilt in
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style after a fire in 1629: its façade is of pink
cotto
Cotto may refer to:
* Cotto (name), a surname common amongst those of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or Sephardic Jewish ancestry
* Cotto (material), a type of Italian brick tile
* Cotto salami, a cooked variety of salami
* Cotto Laurel, ...
and was completed only in the nineteenth century. The interior has works by
Federico Zuccari
Federico Zuccaro, also known as Federico Zuccari (c. 1540/1541August 6, 1609), was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad.
Biography
Zuccaro was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado, near Urbino (Marche).
His docum ...
,
Lavinia Fontana
Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was a Bologna, Bolognese Mannerism, Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious pai ...
,
Agostino di Duccio
Agostino di Duccio (1418 – ) was an early Renaissance Italians, Italian sculptor.
Born in Florence, he worked in Prato with Donatello and Michelozzo, who influenced him greatly. In 1441, he was accused of stealing precious materials from ...
, an organ from 1600, and a Turkish banner captured at
Lepanto.
Nearby are the Archaeological Museum and the ' (Municipal Gallery), housed in the old Boccarini college.
''
San Francesco''- construction of the church was begun in 1287, is in Piazza Vera, with a cloister and a convent, which was added in the fourteenth century, and renovated with some
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
influences in the sixteenth. The church is capped with an impressive dome that dates to the eleventh century and was modified in the seventeenth century. There is also a bell tower, rebuilt in 1932, while the Romanesque-Gothic façade was finished between 1401 and 1406. Inside are housed sculptures by
Duccio
Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Ducc ...
, and some Baroque material from the seventeenth and eighteenth century; the noteworthy Geraldini Chapel is from the fifteenth century.
The church of ''Sant'Agostino'', consecrated in 1288, has a façade that is an example of
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this lat ...
with a
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
overlay. The Marotti pipe organ was only installed in 1841. The annexed cloister, designed by the Lombard master Martino Tartaglia in 1492, has a portico surmounted by a
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
with small
Corinthian column
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
s. The church of S. Pancrazio features a main door that is a decorative tour-de-force. Of note also is the church of the ''Madonna delle Cinque Fonti''. The now
deconsecrated
Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to b ...
church of S. Giovanni Decollato, also called the Ospedaletto, can be viewed outside.
Along via Posterola is S. Magno, a Benedictine monastery for cloistered nuns. Inside its little church is a perfectly restored and utterly unique (none other exists) double keyboard organ from 1680.
![Teatro amelia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Teatro_amelia.jpg)
Among the non-religious buildings there are palaces built during the fourteenth and fifteenth century by the overlords of the city: ''Palazzo Farrattini'' and ''Palazzo Petrignani''. The ''Teatro Operino'' is an opera house built in the eighteenth century and features frescos by nineteenth-century artist
Domenico Bruschi
Domenico Bruschi (13 June 1840 – 19 October 1910) was an Italian painter and educator. Bruschi also designed tapestries, Renaissance revival wooden furniture, sculptures in stucco and stained glass windows. Bruschi served as the chair of Orname ...
.
Surrounding area
The hilly countryside around Amelia presents several points of interest. The Convent of the ''Santissima Annunziata'', founded by St. Francis'
Friars Minor
The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...
, has a
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
. The
Cistercians
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
established a convent at Foce, the Sanctuary of the Virgin.
The small fraction of Porchiano del Monte has Medieval walls featuring a number of guard towers, and a small Romanesque church, ''San Simeone''. The church of S. Timoteo, also Romanesque, has fourteenth- and fifteenth-century frescoes.
Fornole is home to the Romanesque church of S. Silvestro, with an interesting fresco cycle showing the saint freeing the town from the grasp of a dragon.
Near the town is the ''Lago Vecchio'' ("Old Lake") formed by a dam on a small river, the Rio Grande. Rowing boats can be rented to come around in the shade of alder, poplar and willow trees, looking for sometimes surprised ducks and herons. There is a small park called ', a former horse racing track, with a walking — or jogging — path around the track, now used for weekend dances and social gatherings.
Festivals and events
The main festival of Amelia is the ''Palio dei Colombi'', which stretches over two weeks in late July and early August. The central event of this
palio
Palio is the name given in Italy to an annual athletic contest, very often of a historical character, pitting the neighbourhoods of a town or the hamlets of a ''comune'' against each other. Typically, they are fought in costume and commemorate som ...
is a contest during which riders on horseback representing the city's five medieval neighborhoods (''
contrade
A (plural: ) is a subdivision (of various types) of Italian city, now unofficial. Depending on the case, a will be a ''località'', a ''rione'', a ''quartiere'' (''terziere'', etc.), a '' borgo'', or even a suburb. The best-known are the 1 ...
'') compete against one another in a game of
quintain. The winner fires a bolt from a crossbow, hits the target and releases a caged pigeon.
Education
In 2009, the
Association for Research into Crimes against Art
The Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) is a research and outreach organization that works to promote research and the study of art crime and cultural heritage protection. ARCA aims to bridge the gap between the practical and th ...
(ARCA) first offered its
, which is now held from June to August every year in the historic center of Amelia in collaboration with the city of Amelia.
Twin towns
*
Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia (; meaning "ancient town") is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two pier ...
, Italy, since 1995
*
Joigny
Joigny () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France.
It is located on the banks of the river Yonne (river), Yonne.
History
The current city, originally kno ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, since 2005
*
Stylida
Stylida ( el, Στυλίδα; older Στυλίς, Stylis) is a town and a municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. The population of the municipal unit was 6,126 (2011).
History
First mention of the town of Stylida was during ancient times when the tow ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, since 2002
References
External links
*
Amelia sotterraneaUnderground Amelia)
(Thayer's Gazetteer)
The Association for Research into Crimes Against ArtPostgraduate Certificate ProgramArt Crime Conference*
Franco Della Rosa
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Umbria
Hilltowns in Umbria