Civita di Bagnoregio

Luca Profili

Hi, I am Luca Profili, the mayor of Civita di Bagnoregio. Welcome to our hamlet.

Ilaria Rossi Doria

It means a lot. It's a it's a family place. My grandfather bought this building in the beginning of the seventies, with the idea to get to be retired here when he was at the end of his job. But then this never happened and the building was quite ruined. So it was a very long process of refurbishment. So I don't remember to have my, my childhood here, but I remember we were coming on day trips to have picnics here and sausages in the big fireplace downstairs. In time with my sister, we were coming to study during the summer and we got really attached to the place we were walking, especially, we like to walk a lot in the in the valley so we knew all the trees, we were picking fruit. It was good. Very nice time. And then a certain point with my my husband, we have decided to, to leave to stay more here. And then a certain point we were asked from my parents to run Airbnb at the bottom level. We decided it was better to live here, to invert our position, to live here and go to Rome when we needed instead of being there and running here all the time.

Roberto Pomi

It is a one-of-a-kind-land, and it is unique thanks to its naturalistic and geomorphological features, but also thanks to the interaction humans had with them. The mesa on which Civita is built, the entire inhabited area, was created from a continuous relationship between man and nature. This nature, in many ways, is harsh and full of critical issues. One of them can be easily observed in the hamlet: I am talking about erosion which, during the centuries, caused the collapse of sections of the hamlet. But the inhabitants have always fought back and did some interventions to reinforce the cliff, the buildings on it, and managed to find a way to live together with a territory full of critical issues. And their work transformed it in something unique in the world.

Roberto Pomi

The Santa Maria Gate is the only access to the hamlet left and we can say that it possess a clear Etruscan structure and on it we can see images, icons, such as a lion head eating a human head, a representation of the revolt against the Monaldeschi who used to rule these lands. They were a severely oppressive family and the inhabitants revolted and destroyed their castle. On the gate, this historical moment is portrayed, and it could also testify the pride and ability of self-determination of the inhabitants, who have faced not only nature but also many historical events.

Ilaria Rossi Doria

I like the fact that it is a very special place. You wake up, you are in the nature, you are not in the city. It's very quiet, especially-- at least at night. It's interesting that Civita-- although it's so crowded during some days, and during the days in general, at night, after seven, it's very quiet. And it's incredible. Nobody has understood that the best moments is the evening.

Roberto Pomi

Yes, the church of Saint Donato is a key place in the hamlet of Civita, a landmark that tourists must visit, and inside we can find a crucifix that is worth mentioning. It was made by the Donatellian school, but most importantly is the key element of a very strong veneration which has its tangible representation in a four-century old tradition: the Good Friday procession. Every Good Friday, during the Holy Week, the crucified is taken off the cross, and it has a particular feature: his arms are jointed, so they are recomposed and brought closer to the body that is then carried in a procession from Civita to Bagnoregio, where the main event is, that is a procession in old costumes that evoke the Roman period when the crucifixion took place. The procession, also from a folkloristic point of view, is very beautiful and interesting, very appealing, but more importantly for the locals it is a part of their identity. So this crucifix is, in a certain way, a cornerstone of the identity of Civita and the Bagnoregio territory.

Luca Profili

Let us say that the motto of the inhabitants of Civita is definitely resilience. Resiliency against weather events, against natural events such as earthquakes, that have conditioned and basically created Civita as we see it today. They have resisted, as I say, with great love, always. Love for this place that they never wanted to abandon and have always tried to preserve and rebuild. Like the bridge, for example, because the current bridge is a bit of a symbol of the will of the inhabitants of Civita to keep living inside the hamlet. A bridge that has been subjected to weather elements, to World Wars and finally, from 1965, is the one we see today and is the only access to the hamlet. So the inhabitants of Civita have always shown a great resilience in wanting to preserve their life, their habits, in their hometown.

Roberto Pomi

There have been many interventions to protect the hamlet of Civita, which were essential for its survival, because the erosion is a very cumbersome and problematic phenomenon, so there was the necessity for these work of reinforcement, especially in the last decades. The most problematic face is the north one, the one facing Lubriano. There, wells where dug and anchoring systems were put in place to anchor that part of the cliff to the rest of the hamlet. They are very important and made it possible to prevent the collapse and destruction of part of the hamlet, it is an engineering work of the utmost importance. The wells with their anchoring chains are an important work of engineering.