Between the Tevere stream and Bolsena lake, in the green latium countryside, on the top of a clay hill, rises the little city’Civita di Bagnoregio’.
Civita appears isolated on a cliff spur to rule the around valley and, thanks to this isolation, the city shows intact its medieval architectonical structure.
Joined to Bagnoregio, and to the world, through only 1 bridge, Civita appears in an unreal isolation due to landslip series and downfall of argillaceous ground on which the entire town is built and that is still in danger.
The History of Civita and Bagnoregio links each to other and the legend wants that Longobardi’s king Desiderio named the city Bagnoregium after he was there to heal serious illness with local thermal water ( Bagnoregio is a word composed by bagno ( means : bath ) and regio ( regal, king ) ).
The urban planning of the city is of Etruscan origin, constituted from ortogonal alleys as Etruscan and later roman use, while the entire architectonic has medioeval and rinascimentale styles. Several sculptures of medieval age, relating to buildings destroyed for continuous landslips are inglobated on the arc and in the wall to the sides of the town access gate.
the guts of the village of Civita is constituted from San Donato square, on which the cathedral dome rises. The cathedral was built in centuries VII – VIII, over a more ancient pagan church. The building was dilated in the XI XII when a bell tower was built too. In origin the cathedral had to be faced from a porch, today wrecked, like us testifies the rests of 2 columns placed the cover. Inside, the building, has three naves splitted by columns of medieval origin.
Always in San Donato square, on the left of the bell tower, there’s a passage that leads to the building of medieval jails, while on the southern side of the square we have’Via della Maest’ where we can see pieces of everyday longobard sculptures. At the end of this road there were the gate of the Maest, fell down with the church of’Santa Maria della Maest’ after a landslip in 1695. From there, a narrow lane came down to the water sources of Civita, particularly to source of the Columns and in the zone called’dell’Uncino’ ( hook ), where, for the legend, was found the thermal source from which Bagnoregium name derived.
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