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Orvieto - Well of San Patrizio
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Orvieto: the "narrante" city
The city of Orvieto exists in symbiosis with the tuff cliff on which
it stands, an extraordinary example of the integration of nature by the
work of man.
An example of the fact that our ancestors were aware of this
relationship between architecture and nature is the inscription on the
famous well of San Patrizio which reads: quod natura munimento
inviderat industria adiecit (What nature denied for defence - in
this case water - was added by the work of man).
Visiting this town means journeying through history, for traces of each
and every period of the almost three thousand years of its existence
crop up everywhere in this preconstituted physical entity.
The two statues of Boniface Vlll set in the city gates at the opposite
ends of the town suggest an ideal itinerary for the tourist of today,
for the Pope entered the town through the Porta Soliana, known
later, after the "Rocca" or Fortezza dell'Albornoz was built, as
Porta Rocca, and he left through the Porta Maggiore.
Boniface Vlll was anything but a tourist and had even been Capitano del
Popolo in Orvieto, yet somehow these two statues, which earned him no
less than a charge of idolatry, can serve as symbols both of the
attention the city of Orvieto so truly merits, and the traditional
hospitality of its inhabitants.
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Nowadays one no longer has to reach the top of the cliff on a mule, for
a modern system of "alternative mobility" provides an access to the town
that is both easy to use and fascinating with the funicular (run
by water in the nineteenth century and now completely modernised) at one
end and a lift and an escalator are at the other, signs that the old
historical center, built on a human scale, has been returned to citizens
and tourists alike and is once more the realm of the pedestrian.
Orvieto: the etruscan city
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Orvieto played a leading role in the Etruscan confederation from the
sixth to the middle of the third century B.C. when it fell victim to the
inexorable advance of Roman power.
Orvieto was the seat of Fanum Voltumnae, the most important
shrine of the Etruscan federation, and various elements are still extant
which tell us something about the structure of the ancient city, whose
name seems to have been Velzna.
What remains of the Temple of Belvedere, near the well of San
Patrizio, comes closer than any other to the canonic Tuscan temple as
described by Vitruvius.
The podium of another building has recently come to light under
the Palazzo del Popolo. It is comprised of large blocks of tuff and was
probably of a religious nature. The base of the altar in the
church of S Lorenzo was once a circular Etruscan altar. The Pozzo
della Cava, an ingenious well, is the work of Etruscan engineers.
The most important collections of Etruscan finds from the city as well
as the surrounding territory are on view in the museums.
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Necropolis
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The Duomo
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Of particular
interest are the architectural temple terracotta's The Sanctuary of
Cannicella (excavation is still in progress) and the Necropolis
of Crocefisso del Tufo, both at the base of the cliff of Orvieto,
complete our picture of the last of the Etruscan cities to be destroyed
by the Romans.
Orvieto: the medieval city
In the early Middle Ages the rock of Orvieto was once more seen as an
ideal natural bulwark and the new urban center took shape around the
year thousand. It reached its zenith in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries and its unique urban layout is still to all extents what it
was then.
The most representative public buildings - the Town Hall or Palazzo
Comunale, the Palazzo del Popolo, the Duomo or
Cathedral, and the Palazzo dei Sette rose side by side with the
older churches such as San Giovenale, Sant'Andrea, - and
the convents of San Domenico, San Francesco,
Sant'Agostino and Santa Maria dei Servi, the complex of the
Papal Palace - and the private palaces and tower houses of the
aristocracy.
The medieval city-state, with Orvieto at the center of an extensive
territory, achieved its highest civic and political expression in the
free commune: the Guilds and Trades developed, providing the population
with a wealth of finely made objects, while life in the city continued
on its busy way, through periods of peace and turmoil, with the passing
of time marked by the strokes of the Clock of Maurizio, the first
automaton of its kind to regulate the working hours.
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Orvieto: the modern city
Doomsday or the End of the World which Signorelli frescoed
in the Chapel of San Brizio in the Cathedral between 1499 and 1503
marked the end of an epoch, the end of the Middle Ages, and the
beginning of the modern age.
The fact that one of the figures in the
scene of the Anti-Christ has been identified as Christopher Columbus is
highly indicative.
Throughout the sixteenth century the city was renewed
and the medieval fabric integrated with new palaces and churches
designed by famous architects including Michele Sammicheli, Antonio da
Sangallo the Younger, Simone Mosca, and Raffaello da Montelupo.
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End of the World
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The
dominant figure in the second half of the century was Ippolito Scalza, a
native son, who, more than anyone else, helped transform the aspect of
the city.
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Artificial cavities
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The nineteenth century also witnessed a similar renewal of the city with
the qualified contributions of architects such as Giuseppe Valadier and
Virginio Vespignani, who added both public and private structures in the
neoclassic style.
The classic facades and elegant buildings from different periods to be
discovered as one strolls along narrow streets which still mirror their
original medieval layout hint at the history of a city which, despite
continuous modification, has lost none of its charm of old.
Orvieto: the underground city
The cliff on which the city of Orvieto stands is riddled with an
unbelievable number of artificial cavities - an intricate labyrinth of
tunnels, galleries, cisterns, wells, quarries and cellars. It is in the
bowels of the city that the memory of the succession of inhabitants who
once lived on top of the "Rock" still lingers on.
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A guided visit, that winds its way easily through the caves, enables the
tourist to fully appreciate this unique underground world. It is in a
sense a journey in a timeless dimension, which narrates the story. of
the geology of the rock and the specific aspects of Orvieto's history:
the colombari, the pozzolana quarries, the underground oil-press.
The solution to the problems inherent in settling on the Rock have
always been sought for underground: the search for water and the
preservation of food. The micro climate to be found in the caves made it
possible to preserve both solid and liquid provisions, including wine.
The fact that one of the names by which Orvieto was known in antiquity
was Oinarea, "where wine flows", gives us an idea of the great
importance of wine at the time, and still today "Orvieto" is a wine
well-known to connoisseurs throughout the world.
Courtesy of
argoweb.it.
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Artificial cavities
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(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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