Blera is a small 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 northern
Lazio
it, Laziale
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region of
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 ...
. It was known during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
as Bieda, an evolved form of its ancient name, which was restored in the twentieth century. It is the birthplace of
Pope Sabinian
Pope Sabinian ( la, Sabinianus, died 22 February 606) was the bishop of Rome from 13 September 604 to his death. His pontificate occurred during the Eastern Roman domination of the papacy. He was the fourth former '' apocrisiarius'' to Constant ...
;
Pope Paschal II was also originally thought to be from here.
It is situated on a long, narrow tongue of rock at the junction of two deep glens.
[ This cites ]
History
In ancient times, Blera was an
Etruscan town on the
Via Clodia. It was of little importance, and is known to be mentioned only by geographers and in inscriptions.
[
In 772, it was destroyed by 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 an ...
of King Desiderius
Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius (born – died ), was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Des ...
. In the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries, it belonged to the Di Vico
Di or DI may refer to:
Arts and media Music
* Di, a tone in the solfège ascending chromatic scale existing between Do and Re
* dizi (instrument) or di, a Chinese transverse flute
* ''D.I.'' (band), a punk band from Southern California
** ''D. ...
family. In 1247 the army of Frederick II ravaged it. In the fifteenth century, Pope Boniface IX gave Blera to the Anguillara family, who owned it until 1572, apart from a short period from 1465 under direct Papal control. Later it followed the history 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 ...
.
Main sights
Some remains of the town walls still exist, and also two ancient bridges, both belonging to the Via Clodia, and many tombs hewn in the rock with small chambers imitating the architectural forms of houses, and beams and rafters represented in relief.[
]
Selvasecca di Blera
Eric Berggren and the Swedish Institute in Rome
The Swedish Institute in Rome ( sv, Svenska institutet i Rom, it, Istituto Svedese di studi classici a Roma) is a research institution that serves as the base for archaeological excavations and other scientific research in Italy. It also pursues ...
excavated a Republican period rural structure or villa at the site of Selvasecca di Blera between 1965 and 1967, with preliminary results published in 1969.
References
External links
Official website
(Chapter 17 of ''Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria'')
Etruscan sites
Hilltowns in Lazio
{{Lazio-geo-stub