Amelia (Italy)

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Comune di Amelia
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Umbria
Province	Terni (TR)
Mayor	Fabrizio Bellini

Elevation	370 m
Area	132 km²
Population
- Total	10,813
- Density	82/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	42°33′N, 12°25′E
Gentilic	Amerini
Dialing code	0744
Postal code	05022
Frazioni	Collicello, Foce, Fornole, Macchie, Montecampano, Sambucetole, Porchiano del Monte
Patron	St. Fermina
- Day	November 24
Location of Amelia in Italy
Website: www.comune.amelia.tr.it

Amelia is a city and commune in the province of Terni (southeast Umbria, in central Italy), near the Tiber river, and the capital of the province of Terni.

The city is approximately 93 kilometers from Perugia, 8 km north of Narni and approx 15.2 km from Orte. It is about 100 km from Rome.

1 History
2 Main sights
- 2.1 Around Amelia
3 Festivals and events
4 External links

[edit] History

Sitting on a hill in the south western corner of Umbria, and overlooking the Tiber River to the east and the Nera River to the west, Amelia is, according to some scholars, the oldest city in Umbria. Cato the Elder reported that the first settlements appeared on the site as long ago as 1134 BC.

Amelia was purportedly founded by a legendary Umbrian king, King Ameroe, who gave the city the name Ameria. The city was later occupied by the Etruscans, and later still by the Romans, who gave it the status of a "Municipium", maybe as early as 338 BC, but certainly by the middle of the 1st century BC. During the so called "Latin War", during which Rome conquered much of central Italy, Amelia was strategically located on the Via Amerina, connecting it to Tuder (Todi), Perusia (Perugia), Clusium (Chiusi) and Nepet (Nepi).

During the barbarian invasions, the city was besieged and badly damaged by the Goths, but was rebuilt by the time the Lombards descended from the north and asserted control over most of what is now Umbria. The Lombards, in turn, were forced out by the Byzantines, and thereafter, throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the time of Italian unification in 1860, Amelia stayed more or less under the domination of the Roman Catholic Church within the Papal States.

During the period the Lombards remained in control of the Via Flaminia, Amelia was an important stop on a vital alternative route, the so-called Byzantine Way, which connected Rome to the exarchate in Ravenna.

In the Middle Ages, Amelia went through the political convulsions common to other Umbrian cities: struggles that saw it emerge as an independent-minded comune, then as a city under the control of a succession of powerful families, sometimes ecclesiastical, and subject to internecine warfare between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

[edit] Main sights

Amelia is especially known for its walls, parts of which may date to Amelia's earliest days. Large segments of the wall are known for the polygonal-shaped stones of which they are constructed — most likely an Etruscan work (a 30-meter segment of this wall collapsed in 2006 and is under repair). The walls were further fortified and enlarged during Roman times and at various times during the Middle Ages. The walls run about 720 meters and are about 3.5 meters thick, and have four main gates: the very imposing Porta Romana to the south, the main access to the town; Posterola to the north; Porta Leone to the east; and Porta della Valle to the west.

The Romans left other traces of their occupation, including a complex of ten underground "cisterns", built in the 1st century AD, which collected thermal waters to feed a luxurious bath. There are also snatches of Roman roads within the city, some of them only recently uncovered. One part sits in the midst of a local restaurant, so you can dine hearing the echoing footsteps of the Amerini from the Roman period. Roman emperors, nobles and other notables used "cool" and quiet Amelia as a getaway spa. This may account for the presence of the large bronze statue of Germanicus, housed in the Archaeological Museum in Amelia, which was unearthed near the town in 1963.

Today, old Amelia inside the walls, which is most accessible through the Porta Romana, is a well preserved medieval city with much to see and admire. The upper part also offers a stunning view of the Tiber Valley. The "center" of the city is the Piazza del Duomo where the Cathedral and the 30-meter-high Torre Civica (Civic Tower) are located. The Cathedral is the most important religious building of the city, and was built originally in 872. The church was rebuilt in Baroque style after a fire in 1629 with façade, in pink cotto, completed only in the 19th century. The interior has works by Federico Zuccari, Lavinia Fontana, Agostino di Duccio, and an organ from 1600.

Nearby are the Archaeological Museum and the Pinacoteca Comunale (Civic Gallery), housed in the old Boccarini college.

San Francesco, started in 1287, is in Piazza Vera, with a cloister and a convent, which was added in the 14th century, and renovated with some Renaissance influences in the 16th. The church is capped with an impressive dome that dates to the 11th century, and was modified in the 17th century. There is also a bell tower, rebuilt in 1932, while the Romanesque-Gothic façade was finished in 1401-1406. Inside are housed sculptures by Agostino di Duccio, and some Baroque stylings from the 17th and 18th century; the noteworthy Geraldini Chapel is from the 15th century.

The church of Sant'Agostino, in via Cavour, consecrated in 1288, has a façade that is a good example of Romanesque architecture with a Gothic overlay. The Marotti pipe organ was only installed in 1841. The annexed cloister, designed by the Lombard master Martino Tartaglia in 1492, has a portico surmounted by a loggia with small Corinthian columns. The church of San Pancrazio features a main door that is a decorative tour-de-force. Of note also is the church of the Madonna delle Cinque Fonti. The now deconsecrated church of San Giovanni Decollato, also called the Ospedaletto, can be viewed outside.

Along via Posterola is San Magno, the Benedictine Monastery for cloistered nuns. Inside its little church is a perfectly restored and utterly unique (none other exists) double keyboard organ from 1680.

Among the non-religious buildings there are palaces built during the 14th and 15th century by the overlords of the city: Palazzo Farrattini and Palazzo Petrignani. The Teatro Operino is an opera house built in the 17th century and features frescos by 19th-century artist Domenico Bruschi.

Panorama of Amelia.

[edit] Around Amelia

The hilly countryside around Amelia is eat of several points of interest. The Convent of the Santissima Annunziata, founded by St. Francis' Friars Minor, has a planetarium. The Cistercians established a convent at Foce, the Sanctuary of the Virgin.

The small fraction of Porchiano del Monte has Medieval walls featuring a number of guard towers, and a beautiful little Romanesque church, San Simeone. The Church of St. Timothy, also Romanesque, has 14th and 15th Century frescoes.

Fornole is home to the Romanesque church of St. Sylvester, with an interesting fresco cycle showing the saint freeing the town from the bewitching grasp of a dragon.

Near the town is the Lago Vecchio ("Old Lake") formed by a dam on a small river, the Rio Grande. Row boats and toodles can be rented to come around in the shade of alder, poplar and willow trees, looking for sometimes surprised ducks and herons. There is a small park called "La Cavallerizza", a former horse racing track, with a walking — or jogging — path around the track, now used for weekend dancing and social gatherings.

[edit] Festivals and events

The main festival of Amelia is the Palio dei Colombi, which stretches over 2 weeks in late July and early August. The central event of this palio is a contest during which riders on horseback representing the city's five medieval neighborhoods (contrade) compete against one another in a game of quintain. The winner fires a bolt from a crossbow, hits the target and releases a caged pigeon.