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Bagnoregio - Civita di Bagnoregio

Borgo di Civita

Borgo di Civita

Description

Bagnoregio is a municipality in the province of Viterbo, located along the Eastern slope of the volcanic cone of Bolsena. The town's name derives from the Latin words "regis balneum" (the king's bath), with probable reference to the hot springs with therapeutic properties that, according to legend, cured the Lombard King Desiderius.
Being part of the territories of the ancient Volsinii (Orvieto area), Bagnoregio was an Etruscan settlement, conquered by the Romans in 265 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the town submitted the subsequent invasions of Goths, Visigoths, Byzantines, Lombards and Franks. The latter ceded their domain to the Papal States.
In 1695, , the district of Civita found itself separated from the other two by a deep ravine, as a result of a violent earthquake. Currently, the charming village of Civita di Bagnoregio, is accessible only through a pedestrian bridge, recently reinforced by concrete and is also known by the nickname of "Dying City", in the words written by Bonaventure Tecce, due to the inexorable erosion, by the weather and the streams flowing downhill, of the tuff rock, on which it rises. These features give to the small village, with its cluster of medieval houses, an almost twilight ambience, alive and ghostly at the same time.

Sites of Interest:
- the small village of Civita di Bagnoregio, with its gateway entrance Porta Santa Maria - embellished by two lions; the Church of San Donato, built in Romanesque style and remodeled in the XVI century, which houses a fresco of the school of Perugino and a wooden crucifix the school of Donatello and its noble palaces in Renaissance style;
- Porta Albana, whose design is attributed to the architect Ippolito Scalza;
- the Shrine of St. Bonaventure, a small Greek cross shaped building;
- the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, in which is preserved a Holy Bible and a parchment of the XII century and the relics of St. Bonaventura;
- the Romanesque-Gothic Church of the Annunciation;
- the Convent of San Francesco with the Grotto of St. Bonaventure, where according to the local traditions, the Saint recovered from an illness, after seeking the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Map

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