Bevagna 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 ...

'' in the central part of the Italian

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 ...

(

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

), in the flood plain of the

Topino The Topino is a river in Umbria, central Italy. It was known in ancient times as ''Supunna'' by Umbri and later in Latin as ''Tinia'' and is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the ''Canto'' XI of the ''Paradise''. It is the main tributary of the Ch ...

river. Bevagna is south-east of

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 ...

, west of Foligno, north-north-west of Montefalco, south of

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and '' comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born arou ...

and north-west of Trevi. It has a population of c. 5,000, with the town of Bevagna proper accounting for about half of that.

History

The city was originally an Etrusco-

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including t ...

settlement. Around 80-90 BC it became a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

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 priv ...

'', called Mevania, in the Augustan Regio VI. It lay on the western branch of the Via Flaminia, west-north-west of Forum Flaminii, where the branches rejoin. It is mentioned on several ancient itineraries, following the Vicus Martis Tudertium on the way out of Rome. In 310 BC the consul Fabius broke the Umbrian forces here; but otherwise it is not mentioned until the 1st century AD. In 69 the army of Vitellius awaited here the advance of

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Emp ...

. Pastures near the Tinia river and the white oxen of the

Clitumnus River The Clitunno, in Antiquity the Clitumnus, is a river in Umbria, Italy. The name is of uncertain origin, but it was also borne by the river god. The Clitunno rises from a spring within a dozen metres of the ancient Via Flaminia near the town o ...

(the modern Clitunno) are mentioned by Propertius, whose family was from the area (from

um,

Hispellum Hispellum (modern Spello) was an ancient town of Umbria, Italy, north of Fulginiae, on the road between it and Perusia. History Hispellum is mentioned in Pliny StraboV.2.10, and Ptolemy's ''Geography'', but apparently by no earlier author. ...

, or Mevania itself): they may refer to Mevania. Mevania is specifically mentioned by the later writers Silius Italicus, Lucan and Statius. There are important remains of a temple near the north gate, of a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

built into modern houses in the (misnamed) via dell'Anfiteatro, lesser remains of a second temple in the church of San Vincenzo near the east gate, mosaics belonging to midsized baths in the via Porta Guelfa, and very scanty remains of an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

at some distance from the modern town. The original walls, which have disappeared, were, according to Pliny
Hist. Nat. xxxv.173
, built of unbaked bricks. The town now has a complete circuit of medieval stone walls that are said to be very near, if not identical with, the Roman walls. After the Lombard conquest, it became the seat of a gastald in the

Duchy of Spoleto The Duchy of Spoleto (, ) was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard '' dux'' Faroald. Its capital was the city of Spoleto. Lombards The Lombards had invaded Italy in 568 AD and conquered much of it, establishi ...

, and after the year 1000 it was a free ''comune''. In 1152

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt ...

set it on fire. In 1249 it was again destroyed by the Count of Aquino. The Trinci family ruled it from 1371 to 1439. Later it was part of 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 ...

until the unification of Italy.

Francis of Assisi and the birds

The legendary account of

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

preaching to the birds took place in a field outside Bevagna. The stone on which he allegedly stood when preaching to the birds is now in the Ciccoli Chapel of the Church of San Francesco.Key to Umbria: Bevagna: San Francesco
retrieved 4 December 2019.

Main sights

*''Palazzo dei Consoli'', known from 1187, with Teatro F. Torti (1886) * Romanesque church of ''S. Michele Arcangelo'' (12th-13th centuries) *Romanesque church of ''S. Silvestro'' (1195). *Church of ''Sant'Agostino'' (1316). *Church of ''San Francesco'' (after 1275) *Church of ''San Nicolò''. *Church of ''Santa Maria in Laurenzia'', built in the 13th century and later enlarged. *Church of ''San Vincenzo'' (known from the 12th century). *The medieval walls. *Ruins of a Roman temple. *Ruins of a Roman theatre. *Roman thermae with mosaics of marine life. *Castle of Cantalupo. * Castle of Castelbuono. * Church of Limigiano. *Castle of Torre del Colle.

Culture

The main events held in Bevagna include: *''Primavera medievale'' (April): exposition of local culinary and artistic products held by the Associazione Mercato delle Gaitte. *''Arte in Tavola'' (end of April): Spring festival with exhibitions by local artists, concerts, exhibitions of local products and dishes with tastings. *''Mercato delle Gaite'' (June): big summer festival with medieval banquets, processions, challenges between the four ''gaite'' (quarters – those of San Giorgio, San Giovanni, San Pietro, and Santa Maria) and taverns.

Notable residents

* The painter

Andrea Camassei Andrea Camassei (November 1602 – 1649) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver mainly active in Rome under the patronage of the Barberini. Biography He was born in Bevagna in Umbria to parents of modest means, Angelina d' Anton Maria Ange ...

(1602–1649) was born in Bevagna. * The singer and composer Odoardo Ceccarelli (c. 1600–1668) was born in Bevagna.

References

External links

Official websitePro Loco BevagnaBevagna.NetMercato del Gaite
- all about the festivals (in Italian)
Mercato del Gaite English Video
*

at LacusCurtius {{Authority control Roman sites of Umbria Roman towns and cities in Italy