Narni

Discovering the city of Narni, an ancient landscape born to the shade of its Fortress

The city of Narni is without doubt one of the most fascinating and suggestive of whole Umbria. In its urban structure are integrated and melt wonderful Roman, medieval and Renaissance buildings, witnesses of the important role that Narni had during the centuries. The apex of its glory was had in the Middle Ages, when, with the pope sheltered in Avignone, it succeeded in extending its dominion up to the doors of Rieti, controlling and dominating a vast territory. The beauty of its buildings and its churches, testifies still today its ancient shine, confirming to the eyes of the tourist the wonder of a radiant present. There are many places to visit, each of them full of history and his past to be told, a lot of personalities and the artists that lived in Narni, leaving notable traces of their work.

Its position is that typical of the medieval city, castled on a hold throat ploughed by the river Nera, protected from the imposing Rocca (fortress), the mighty defensive structure wanted by the cardinal Egidio Albornoz, completed in 1378. It's a classical and admirable example of fortitude of the epoch, almost certainly built on a project of Matteo Gattapone, known architect known in Umbria and particularly active in Gubbio, Spoleto and Perugia. Realised in the typical quadrangular form, provided by elevated towers, ditches and one double surrounded of boundaries, the Fortress symbolically reassumes the meaning of the city, marking clearly the profile of the landscape. Finally freed by the native push that determined its creation, that expression of the wish of control and strong limit to the local autonomies, the Fortress become during the time integral part of the panorama of Narni and tutelary of its whole territory.

Today Narni is touristically a place rich in art, history and culture, in its buildings, in the streets and in the museums, in the typical alleys and in the ancient plazas. There is nothing of banal or discounted in Narni, but every thing finds one precise position in a context in which the various urban levels and architectural styles cohabit without contrasts exalting the colossal monument of supreme harmony.

The other Narni - At the end of the '70s the Spelaeologic Group UTEC of Narni discovered a net of underground places during a recognition in the Convent of San Domenico...
Formina, the Roman aqueduct of Narni - The Formina is a wide network of burrows and corridors realized in Roman epoch to the purpose to furnish constant water provisioning to the city of Narni. Th...
Narni: the Abbazia di San Cassiano  - Some of its peculiarities make it a really unique example in its kind. The plant of the Church of San Cassiano is a Greek cross, and the dominant style is Byzantine...