The city of Amelia sits on a defensive rocky spur, and is almost entirely surrounded by ancientCyclopean walls believed to date from the 7th and the 4th centuries BC).
Situated in the southwest portion of Umbria, the city overlooks theTiber River to the east and theNera River to the west.The city is 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north ofNarni, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) fromOrte and approximately 93 kilometres (58 mi) fromPerugia. It is about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north ofRome.
According to some Italian scholars, Amelia is the oldest town in Umbria. In the third book of his"Naturalis Historia",Pliny the Elder reports a statement made by Cato according to which the origins of the city were said to date back to the period of a mythical Umbrian king called Ameroë, the son of Atlas (hence the name of Ameria, by which the city was known in the ancient time).[3]
In this recording, it is said that that Ameria was founded 963 years beforethe war with Perseus (171–168 BC), so 1134 BC, a date which is likely unreliable, though the city shows evidence that the hill that forms the nucleus of modern Amelia had already been settled in the eleventh or tenth century BC.
In its ancient past, the city was subsequently dominated by thePelasgians, by theUmbrians, and finally by theEtruscans, and later still by the Romans, although it is not mentioned by name in the history of the Roman conquest of Umbria. Ameria occupied a strategic location in theSecond Latin War (340–338 BC), lying on a loop of theVia Cassia called theVia Amerina, which started atFalerii and crossed the Tiber at Castellum Amerinum (probablyOrte).
By the late fourth or early third century BC Ameria had likely been granted the status of a municipium as maps of the territory document theVia Amerina extending from Ameria (Amelia) to Perusia (Perugia) at some time in the 3rd century BC. This road is also referred to in theTabula Peutingeriana, a unique map of the road system for the cursus publicus, the public transport system in use in the Roman Empire.[4]
The town gained political status as a self-governingmunicipium, possibly as early as 338 BC, but certainly by the middle of the 1st century BC. Citizens of the town were members of thetribus Clustumina.Cicero's speech in defence ofSextus Roscius Amerinus (thepro Roscio Amerino) describes Ameria as a flourishing place in 80 BC, with a fertile territory extending to the Tiber. Its fruit is often extolled by Roman writers.Augustus divided its lands among his veterans, but did not plant acolony.[5]
The bishopric of Ameria was founded in the middle of the fourth century.
During the barbaric invasions, the city was besieged and badly damaged by theGoths, but was rebuilt by the time theLombards descended from the north and asserted control overmost of what is now Umbria. The Lombards, in turn, were forced out by theByzantines, and thereafter, throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the time ofItalian unification in 1860, Amelia stayed more or less under the domination of theRoman Catholic Church within thePapal States.
During the period when the Lombards remained in control of theVia Flaminia, Amelia was an important stop on a vital alternative route, the so-called Byzantine Way, which connected Rome to theexarchate inRavenna.
During 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 betweenGuelphs andGhibellines.
Thecampanile of the cathedral was erected in 1050 using fragments of Roman buildings.[5]
Amelia is especially known for its almost intact, defensive Pre-Roman walls, built by Italic civilizations (Umbrians and Pelasgians) in the centuries between the 6th and 4th BC. The oldest of these are located inside the historic center between the Teatro Sociale and the Porta della Valle. Large segments of these were constructed usingpolygonal masonry of a type defined as "cyclopean", meaning they are characterized by limestone blocks of considerable size (sometimes exceeding 2 metres), cut with great precision in the shape of irregular polygons and then stacked without using mortar.[5][6]
A thirty-meter segment of this wall collapsed in 2006 and remains under repair. The walls were further fortified and enlarged during Roman times and at various times during the Middle Ages.[7] The walls run about 720 meters and are about 3.5 meters thick, and have four main gates: the imposing Porta Romana to the south, the main access to the city; 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 first century AD, which collected rainwater to feed the city's water supply. There are also snatches of Roman roads within the city, some of them only recently uncovered. A larger-than-life gilt bronze statue ofGermanicus was unearthed just outside the Porta Romana in 1963 and is now a featured object of the city's Museo Civico Archeologico.[8]
Today, old Amelia inside the walls, which is most accessible through the Porta Romana, is a well-preserved medieval city. The upper part also offers a panoramic view of theTiber Valley. The center of the city is the Piazza del Duomo where the cathedral and the thirty-meter-highTorre Civica (Civic Tower) are located.
Nearby are the Archaeological Museum and thePinacoteca Comunale (Municipal Gallery), housed in the old Boccarini college.
San Francesco- construction of the church was begun in 1287, is in Piazza Vera, with a cloister and a convent, which was added in the fourteenth century, and renovated with someRenaissance influences in the sixteenth. The church is capped with an impressive dome that dates to the eleventh century and was modified in the seventeenth century. There is also a bell tower, rebuilt in 1932, while the Romanesque-Gothic façade was finished between 1401 and 1406. Inside are housed sculptures byDuccio, and some Baroque material from the seventeenth and eighteenth century; the noteworthy Geraldini Chapel is from the fifteenth century.
Sant'Agostino, consecrated in 1288, has a façade that is an example ofRomanesque architecture with aGothic 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 aloggia with smallCorinthian columns. The church of S. Pancrazio features a main door that is a decorative tour-de-force. Of note also is the church of theMadonna delle Cinque Fonti. The nowdeconsecrated church of S. Giovanni Decollato, also called the Ospedaletto, can be viewed outside.
S. Magno, a Benedictine monastery along via Posterola is for cloistered nuns. Inside its little church is a perfectly restored and utterly unique (none other exists) double keyboard organ from 1680.
Eighteenth century theater in Amelia.
Among the non-religious buildings there are palaces built during the fourteenth and fifteenth century by the overlords of the city:Palazzo Farrattini andPalazzo Petrignani. TheTeatro Operino is an opera house built in the eighteenth century and features frescos by nineteenth-century artistDomenico Bruschi.
The hilly countryside around Amelia presents several points of interest. The Convent of theSantissima Annunziata, founded by St. Francis'Friars Minor, has aplanetarium. TheCistercians 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 small Romanesque church,San Simeone. The church of S. Timoteo, also Romanesque, has fourteenth- and fifteenth-century frescoes.
Fornole is home to the Romanesque church of San Silvestro, with an interesting fresco cycle showing the saint freeing the town from the grasp of a dragon.
Near the town is theLago Vecchio ("Old Lake") formed by a dam on a small river, the Rio Grande. Rowing boats 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 calledLa Cavallerizza, a former horse racing track, with a walking — or jogging — path around the track, now used for weekend dances and social gatherings.
In addition, since April 2024, the city of Amelia has also been hosting the Amelia International Conservation Studies (AICS) summer field school, organized by the Art Restoration and Conservation International Field School (ARCIFS). The AICS program offers comprehensive education and training in the disciplines of historic preservation, restoration, and conservation. Through a combination of lectures, activities, fieldwork, workshops, and field trips, students gain practical and theoretical knowledge in art restoration and conservation, working on real conservation projects under the guidance of industry professionals.
