Norcia

Province of Perugia - Tourist Information I.A.T TEI. 0743-71401; Town Phone 0743-828711

USEFUL FACTS

Population: 4,990 (Nursini); square km area: 274,34, height above sea level 604 m, distance from Perugia: 98 km; Tel. Dial/Area Code 0743; Zip/Postal Code 06046; Train Station (FS in Spoleto) to 45 km; Motorway/Highway: Autostrada del Sole (Florence-Rome): from Florence, exit Val di Chiana then continue on Highway direction Perugia-Foligno, coming from Rome, exit Orte then continue on Highway direction Perugia-Foligno; Adriatic Highway A 14: exit Ascoli Piceno, continue along the Ascoli sea and then take the Salaria, direction Rome, at Arquata del Tronto take the fork in the road heading to Norcia and the tunnel Forca Canapine.

Hamlets: Agriano, Aliena, Ancarano, Biselli, Campi, Casali di Serravalle, Castelluccio, Cortigno, Forsivo, Frascaro, Legogne, Nottoria, Occricchio, Ospedaletto, Pescia, Piè di Colle, Piediripa, Popoli, San Marco, San Pellegrino, Sant'Andrea, Savelli, Serravalle, Valcaldara.

HISTORY

Set in the heart of the Valnerina (Nera Valley) and the Sibillini Mountains National Park, and in the highlands of the Plains of Santa Scolastica, crowned by the Apennine Mountains culminating in the spectacular thrashing view of the Sibillini Mountains. Norcia has seen the settlement of its territory as early as the Lower Paleolithic Period and the Middle Neolithic Period, (the discovery of worked flints near the Torbidone Springs, findings of pottery at the city walls) and from the Iron Age (findings from the necropolis in the Plains of Santa Scolastica, from VI B.C. and in February 1999 a huge necropolis of the fifth century B.C. from the immediate vicinity of the town). Norcia emerged at the end of the fifth century B.C., as center of the Etruscan foundation, Norsia (in Etruscan Norcia, that is, Fortuna), which were not strangers to contributions of the ancient people of Umbre and Sabine, and raved by major Latin poets and writers: Livy, Plutarch and Virgil. In The Aeneid, by Virgil, he quoted Ufente, leader of Nursini, ally of Turnus in the struggles against Aeneas. In 290 B.C.. conquered by Rome, Norcia was ascribed to the Quirina Tribe becoming, in the I century B.C., a Roman military fortress and then passed on to a Roman Municipality. In 71 B.C., the Plains of Santa Scolastica was the scene of one of the memorable battles that saw the gladiators of Spartacus opposed to the Roman legionaries. In 41 BC, Nursia, hostile to reform attempts of the Gracchi (Roman senators), they allied with Anthony against Octavian, Caesar's great-grandson. Norcia was ransacked and occupied by the victorious troops of Octavian then followed by the defeat of Anthony. Converted to Christianity by the Bishop of Foligno, San Feliciano in 250 A.D., Norcia became the seat of the diocese in 500 A.D. With the fall of the Roman Empire, in 476, Norcia was invaded and destroyed by the Barbarians: Goths and Lombards. But at that time, precisely in 480 A.D., St. Benedict was born in Norcia, who will become the greatist "architect" of convent and religious activism. With the monasteries founded by him, his contribution have made history in culture and religion, not only in Umbria, but throughout Europe. And as a result of all his work, he became "the patron saint of Europe." In the same period by another great religious figure (always born in Norcia): St. Scolastica, twin sister of Benedict, united with his brother also in the year of his death, 547 A.D. Two parallel lives that with their deeds, illuminated the dark period of the destruction of the Barbarians. Subjected to the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto, Norcia in the ninth century, was invaded and destroyed by the Saracens, during one of their periodic raids in Central Italy. In 962 separated from the Kingdom of Italy by Otto I, it came under the rule of the Church, led by the Guelph faction. Norcia fought fiercely in defense of the papacy against the Cascia and Visso Ghibelline faction, establishing itself in the twelfth century as a free municipality. The thirteenth century saw Norcia put their supremacy over a vast territory including the territories of Tronto and Nera, handing over its statutes in 1275 despite the constant internal struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines and those incurred with neighboring municipalities (Visso, Spoleto, Ascoli Piceno and Camerino) for the control of the territory. In 1354 it was finally subjected to Church rule by Cardinal Albornoz, with the establishment of the Montagna Municipality, commissioned by Pope Pius V in the mid-sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century, expanded its borders even more. In 1554, as a function for the Municipality, to have greater political and administrative clout, at the behest of Pope Julius III, the Fortress of Castellina was built. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw a boom in the arts and construction of buildings in the Norcia territory: churches, convents, oratories, jewelery-making and art schools. An academy and a theater were also established in Norcia. In 1821 Pope Pio VII restored the bishopric in 1860 and Norcia became part of the new Italian State.

HISTORIC FIGURES

There are many famous people to whom the city was the birthplace of: the orator Lucius Plotius (I century B.C.), The Roman commander Quintus Sertorius (I century B.C.), The mother of Emperor Vespasian, Vespasian Polla (I cent. B.C.), S. Benedict of Norcia (480-547), St. Scolastica (480-547), the painters Giovanni and Antonio Sparapane (XV cent.), The poet Giovan Battista Lalli (1572-1637), the painter Michelangelo Carducci (XVI cent.).

WHAT TO SEE

The city is completely surrounded by ancient walls, with gates that open directly onto the countryside, proposing alternative civil and religious monuments, a continuous four hundred years of architecture starting from the thirteenth century. Entering into the city at the gate Porta Romana (near there are a series of large parking lots), walking through the characteristic road Corso Sertorio, you soon come to the Piazza San Benedetto, the heart of the old town which is overlooked by many buildings, including the Basilica of St. Benedict, which began at the end of the thirteenth century, on the site considered the home of the parents of St. Benedict. The Basilica has a facade from the fourteenth century, in Gothic style characterized by a portal topped by a lunette depicting the "Madonna and Child with Angels". Two Gothic niches on the sides, which house the sculptures of St. Benedict and St. Scolastica, by a beautiful rose window. The Basilica also has a tower dating back to 1388. The interior has a Latin cross nave which contains paintings by M. Carducci, V. Manenti and F. Naples. The crypt is striking with fragments of fourteenth century frescos and masonry from the Romanesque period. Next the basilica, outside, on the left side coming out, the Portico of Measurements of the sixteenth century that preserves, murals on the walls, and ancient scales from the Middle Ages for measuring cereals. Also on the same square, the Town Hall, built and rebuilt at different times, today displays the portico on the ground floor of the thirteenth century, (the oldest part), and the top, designed in the nineteenth century, by Perugian Domenico Mallaioli. The adjoining bell tower dates from the eighteenth century. Inside the Council Hall, the Hall of Quaranta, with eighteenth-century tapestries and the Cappella dei Priori with the reliquary of St. Benedict, a true work of goldsmith art of the sixteenth century. In front of the Town Hall stands the imposing mass of the Castellina, a square castle of the sixteenth century, built from a design by Vignola for Pope Julius III. On the inside is located the Diocesan Museum, which houses valuable paintings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a wooden sculpture of the thirteenth century, and a work in terracotta attributed to Della Robbia. Next to Castellina, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Silver, built in the second half of the sixteenth century, with a central portal from the sixteenth century, and a side door from the fifteenth century. Inside the Cathedral a beautiful Baroque altar by Flemish François Duquesnoy and valuable paintings. Not far from the square of St. Benedict is the church of San Francesco (fourteenth century), with a Gothic portal and a central rose window on the facade and inside XV-XVI century frescos, from the Ascolana school. Continuing towards Capolaterra is the church of St. Augustine, a fourteenth-century building which has a beautiful Gothic portal from 1368 with a frescoed lunette depicting "The Virgin and Child with Saints Augustine and Nicholas of Tolentino”. The interior has a single nave, renovated with frescos from the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, attributed to Sparapane of Norcia, Nicola da Siena, Giovan Battista and Giovannofrio of Norcia and others. The church also has wooden altars and an organ with choir from the seventeenth century. Just a bit ahead lies the Collegiate Church of St. John, one of the oldest of Norcia, renovated in the eighteenth century and also recently renovated. The interior has a magnificent wooden coffered ceiling, an altar from 1469, by Giovanni Dalmata, decorated with sculptures, a fresco from 1520 by Sparapane and a painting by Gaspare Celio. Not far away, lies the shrine also called Temple, built in stone in 1354 by Vanni Tuzzi. In the quarters of Capolaterra Square in Palatina, lies the Oratory of Saint Agostinuccio with a remarkable wooden ceiling from the seventeenth century and wooden furniture. Also near the remains of the former Monastery of St. Our Lady of Peace from 1518, and the Benedictine Monastery of St. Antonio with a church from the fifteenth and nineteenth century. Other churches in Norcia are: the church of St. Catherine, with a fresco from the fifteenth century, Umbro-Abruzzese school; the church of San Lorenzo, which was rebuilt in the sixth century, with Roman inscriptions; the former monastery of St. Benedict, which houses sculptures and inscriptions from the Romanesque period. There are also numerous noble palaces, mostly restored in the eighteenth century, including: the Palace of the Knights of Malta; the Palace of the Congregation of Charity, with a collection of vestments and paintings, and the Palace Colizzi with fragments of Roman sculptures and three Roman stones with epigraphs. In the heart of the city, the Civic Theatre, recently restored, annually hosts high quality theater seasons.

WHAT TO SEE NEARBY

The surroundings of the Norcia territory are worthy of a thorough exploration, for its immense natural wealth (the Sibillini Mountains, Plains of Castelluccio, etc..) and for its historical, artistic heritage and even its sports. Detailing each of these categories, the following is an outline of what we propose for tourist exploration around Norcia. Art-historical: the whole town is dotted with the remains of towers, castles, fortresses, shrines, churches, (a bit like all the Valnerina) that formed in the Middle Ages a dense web of communications and allowed this strong structure, made ​​up of numerous defensive nuclei (connected together), to deter invading armies. Living testimonies of this period are found today in the hamlet of Ancarano, at the Castle of Castelfranco of the fourteenth century; in the hamlet of Campi Alto, a typical example of a castle on the hillside and near which, in the hamlet of Campi Bassi (ancient Roman center) stands the church of San Saviour; in Bevels remains of a soaring tower and the small church of S. Martin of Romanesque origin; in Argentigli, the remains of the castle tower and near Montesanto stands the church of St. Scolastica with frescos of the fifteenth century,(recently discovered), depicting the story of the life of St. Benedict. Finally, in Serravalle, at the confluence between the Rivers Corno and Sordo there are well-grouped houses typical in medieval times. As for nature excursions, which can be made by car, on foot or on horseback, it is recommended that, given the wide range of alternatives in the surrounding area, contacting the tourist information office in Piazza S. Benedict in Norcia will give out all the itineraries of the National Park of Monti Sibillini, the Valnerina and Monti della Laga. However, we will give a brief summary of those natural attractions and nearby sports activities: In Nottoria a beautiful specimen of oak, known for its extraordinary size; in Agriano, a true oasis of peace by the valley of Campiano River, where were found thousands of archaeological remains. Forsivo and Legogne, are places renowned for its truffles, beautiful landscapes that open onto the plains of Norcia and the Valley of Corno; in Serravalle with its river full of fish and home of the Hermitage of San Claudio; in the Sibillini Mountains with their unique flora and fauna. In Forca Canapine, a popular ski resort in the Sibillini Mountains, the Plains di Castelluccio, the largest enclosed basin in Italy and then the Fucino, an authentic natural spectacle. Castelluccio is the highest hamlet of Norcia (1452 meters), renowned for its exquisite "lentils", whose ancient village guards the beautiful church of Santa Maria Assunta with a beautiful wooden statue of the "Madonna" from 1499, allegedly by Giovanni Antonio Giordano from Norcia. These beautiful landscapes, medieval ruins and a unique setting makes the privileged Norcia territory a popular destination for international tourists and the flow of visitors is increasing massively each year.

ECONOMY

Agriculture, handcrafts and tourism are the secular strongholds upon which the local economy is based upon. Famous for the production of ricotta cheese, fresh cheeses, aged and hard cheeses. Norcia, however, has been known for centuries for the processing of pork (the very famous butchers “norcini”) and sausages, as well as the delicious truffles and the delicious lentils of Castelluccio. And the craftsman, with his wrought iron work, woodworking, craft textile, leather processing and the goldsmith's art (dating back to the fifteenth century). All describe an economic scenario that has no equal, where tradition and history come together in a perfect union proposing today at the threshold of the twenty-first century, a medieval civilization that does not seem to have been affected by progress. Tourism today is an important area which, thanks to excellent hospitality network, it is becoming a mainstay of the local economy.