Cannara 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 ...

on the Topino River in the floodplain of central

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, in the

province of Perugia The Province of Perugia ( it, Provincia di Perugia) is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia. The province covered al ...

. It is located about 7 km west of

Spello Spello (in Antiquity: Hispellum) is an ancient town and ''comune'' (township) of Italy, in the province of Perugia in eastern-central Umbria, on the lower southern flank of Mt. Subasio. It is 6 km (4 mi) NNW of Foligno and 10 km (6 ...

and 9 km north of

Bevagna Bevagna is a town and ''comune'' in the central part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria), in the flood plain of the Topino river. Bevagna is south-east of Perugia, west of Foligno, north-north-west of Montefalco, south of Assisi and ...

. It is a low-key agricultural village: its main business is the growing of wheat and onions. Its railroad station is used for freight and does not serve passengers. As indicated by the etymology of the name (from ''canna'', rushes), it is a medieval town, recent by the standards of the region, since in earlier times the site was underwater in the

Lacus Clitorius The Latin word ''lacus'' means "opening, hole, pool, lake," and was also the word for a distribution point in the public water supply of ancient Rome. It can refer to: Geography *Lucrinus Lacus, a lake in Campania *Albanus Lake, Lake Albano in La ...

that covered much of the area between

Bastia Umbra Bastia Umbra () is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 15 km southeast of Perugia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 20,523 and an area of 27.6 km2.All demogra ...

and

Foligno Foligno (; Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') 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 so ...

, and was only drained in the Middle Ages. At any rate Cannara is first mentioned in 1170 as ''insula Cannaio'' — "the island of Cannaio"; the lake had not been completely drained yet.

Main sights

Its principal monuments consist in a number of small churches, among which the most important is probably the Church of the ''Buona Morte ''(also known as the Church of the Stigmata of St. Francis), which may be associated with the foundation of the Third Order by St. Francis of Assisi. In the territory of the comune, a shrine at Pian d'Arca commemorates the

Miracle of the Birds A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

of the same St. Francis; and the little hilltop town of

Collemancio Collemancio is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Cannara in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. It stands at an elevation of 507 metres above sea level. At the time of the National Institute of Statistics (Italy), Istat census of 2001 ...

has two old churches and a ruined Roman settlement identified by some with

Urbinum Hortense Urbinum Hortense was an ancient Roman town of central Italy, of uncertain location, mentioned by Pliny the Elder in a roughly alphabetical and contextless listNH 3.114. Until the mid-20th century, it was sometimes assumed to have been the ances ...

Local events

Cannara's main annual celebration is a '' Sagra'' in honor of the onion: the ''Festa della Cipolla''. The week-long festival, featuring onion-based dining al fresco, draws over 10,000 visitors and is one of the best of the Umbrian ''sagre''.

References

External links

Official website
Cities and towns in Umbria {{Umbria-geo-stub