Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia, which forked into two roads at Narni and rejoined at Forum Flaminii, near Foligno. An ancient road also ran hence to Nursia. The Ponte Sanguinario of the first century BCE still exists. The Forum lies under today’s marketplace.

Located at the head of a large, broad valley, surrounded by mountains, Spoleto has long occupied a strategic geographical position. It appears to have been an important town to the original Umbri tribes, who built walls around their settlement in the 5th century BC, some of which are visible today.

The first historical mention of Spoletium is the notice of the foundation of a colony there in 241 BC. Liv. Epit. xx Vell. Pat. i.14), and it was still, according to Cicero (Pro Balbocolonia latina in primis firma et illustris: a Latin colony in 95 BC. After the Battle of Lake Trasimene(217 BC) Spoletium was attacked by Hannibal, who was repulsed by the inhabitants During the Second Punic War the city was a useful ally to Rome. It suffered greatly during the civil wars of Gaius Marius and Sulla. The latter, after his victory over Crassus, confiscated the territory of Spoletium (82 BC). From this time forth it was a municipium.

Under the empire it seems to have flourished once again, but is not often mentioned in history. Martial speaks of its wine. Aemilianus, who had been proclaimed emperor by his soldiers in Moesia, was slain by them here on his way from Rome (253), after a reign of three or four months. Rescripts of Constantine (326) and Julian (362) are dated from Spoleto. The foundation of the episcopal see dates from the 4th century: early martyrs of Spoleto are legends, but a letter to the bishop Caecilianus, from Pope Liberius in 354 constitutes its first historical mention. Owing to its elevated position Spoleto was an important stronghold during the Vandal and Gothic wars; its walls were dismantled by Totila (Procopius, de Bello Gothico iii. 12).

See main entry Duchy of Spoleto.

Under the Lombards, Spoleto became the capital of an independent duchy, the Duchy of Spoleto (from 570), and its dukes ruled a considerable part of central Italy. In 774 it became part of Holy Roman Empire. Together with other fiefs, it was bequeathed to Pope Gregory VII by the powerful countess Matilda of Tuscany, but for some time struggled to maintain its independence. In 1155 it was destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa. In 1213 it was definitively occupied by Pope Gregory IX. During the absence of the papal court in Avignon, it was prey to the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, until in 1354 Cardinal Albornoz brought it once more under the authority of the Papal States.

After Napoleon’s conquest of Italy, in 1809 Spoleto became capital of the short-lived French department of Trasimène, returning to the Papal States after Napoleon’s defeat, within five years. In 1860, after a gallant defence, Spoleto was taken by the troops fighting for the unification of Italy. Giovanni Pontano, founder of the Accademia Pontaniana of Naples, was born here. Another child of Spoleto was Francis Possenti who was educated in the Jesuit school and whose father was the Papal assesor, Francis later entered the Passionists and became Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Culture
The Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) was founded in 1958. Because Spoleto was a small town, where real estate and other goods and services were at the time relatively inexpensive, and also because there are two indoor theatres, a Roman theatre and many other spaces, it was chosen by Gian-Carlo Menotti as the venue for an arts festival. It is also fairly close to Rome, with good rail connections. It is an important cultural event, held annually in late June-early July.

The festival has developed into one of the most important cultural manifestations in Italy, with a three-week schedule of music, theater and dance performances. For some time it became a reference point for modern sculpture exhibits, and works of art left to the city by Alexander Calder and others are a testimony to this.

In the United States, a parallel festival — Spoleto Festival USA — held in Charleston, South Carolina was founded in 1977 with Menotti’s involvement. However, after disputes with the Menotti family, the American Spoleto Festival became independent. For a short period of time, a third parallel festival was also held in Australia.

In 1992, the Spoleto Arts Symposium was started to bring talented people from all around the world to study in Spoleto, Italy. Now in its 15th season, programs exist for studying opera, cooking, jazz, writing, and a kids camp.

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Casa del Poggio

This appartment is on the ground floor under anhoter

Accommodation type: Appartment - 65m2
Beds: 1 double bedroom, 2 beds in the livingroom
Bathrooms: 1
Place: Poggio Lavarino
Distance from the sea: 104 km, about 01h29
Public transportation available (Bus 6 times a day and return)
Accessible for disabled people	Pets allowed
Fire Place (wood furnished)	View on the valley
Charming surroundings	Garden
Swimming pool	Sun deck
Terrace/Balcony	Television
Dish washer	Washing machine
Air conditioning (here not needed)	Winter Heating
Parking	Broadband Internet/Wi-Fi

Price p/week: 200€

ValSerra (named by the river Serra that crosses the valley) is situated between the cities Terni and Spoleto. The valley shows signs of the middle Ages everywhere.

In the past the ValSerra was a very secure place, were privileged people of the late Roman Empire went to spend some of their time.
Some castles and villages have been positioned on the slopes of the mountains as Appecano and Polenaco. Some others have been positioned near the guard towers or defence structures as Acquapalombo, Battiferro and Poggio Lavarino. Others were built near religious buildings as Appecano and Polenaco. Porzano is an exception because it pre-existed before the roman age.

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The ‘administrative division’ made in the XIV century, included
the ValSerra territory and villages like Rivosecco, Perocchio and Castiglione (now abandoned) in an immense feud called Terre Arnolfe (Arnolfe Lands). Today many of these territories are still part of the Spoleto’s diocesi.

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When the ValSerra park was created there have been built 2 picnic areas.

One is situated in the provincial street sp67. Coming from Terni, it is a bit before the village Collegiacone, on your left.

The other one is above the village called Pracchia on the way to Macerino.

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L’Isola di CRETA

Internal and external architectures

di

Sergio Valeri

Cell phone: 0039 347 24 32 736

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- The Camping in Valserra starts the 22nd June to the 29th July, for boys and girls from 7 till 17 years old.-

Camping turns for boys and girls from 7 till 12 years old:
1° turn: 22nd June - 1st July
2° turn: 20th July – 29th July
Price: 250,00 €

Camping turns for boys and girls from 13 till 17 years old:
1 turn : 6th – 15th July
Price: 250,00 €

You can contact the Demetra Association of the Centro Palmetta, at the following number 0039 328 1729628

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La Locanda del Poggio

di Chillo Carmelo

strada di Poggio Lavarino, Terni

Only with reservation: 0744 /47 08 64 - 333 / 22 78 278

Specialized in  fish and traditional dishes

“La qualità nasce dalla mano leggera dello chef e dalla bontà degli ingredienti usati. Il rispetto delle stagioni e l’amore per i prodotti del territorio sono tutto quello che vogliamo offrirvi come base del nostro lavoro.”

Closed on Monday

We are here!

POGGIO LAVARINO

Poggio Lavarino has the classic disposition of a middle age “villa” for this reason there aren’t defensive structures. Only a guard tower is collocated on the top of the hill and it characterizes Poggio Lavarino’s shape. Near the tower has been built Saint Bernardino Church that is the most representative structures of the village.

Poggio Lavarino urban development had two different stages, the older one was around the guard tower, and the last one (around the 18th century) when all the villages of ValSerra had a prosperous age, the village disposition changed and the newest inhabited part of Poggio Lavarino developed along the actual street.

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PORZANO

The small village is situated at the Nord of ValSerra. This village conserves the structure of the “medieval roman castrum” with habitations build in two rows along the main street.

The walls are limitedly conserved in the side north, west and part of the side south, where the roman southern door and some other fragments of roman age are very well conserved as the bell tower of the church of Saint Fortunato.

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APPECANO

Another village with Romans origins is Appecano. This inhabitant does not have traces of defensive structures or town-walls, but its disposition is like a Roman “villa”. Probably the inhabitant has been developed around the public square of the village.

In the centre of Appecano is situated Saint Martino’s Church, built around the 1000 AD. This church has been through a series of modifications, caused also from the strong earthquake that has hit Appecano in the 1917.

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ACQUAPALOMBO

The name of this nice village of Valserra has origins in a legend where a dove discovered a water source. Just in this place was built Acquapalombo. A nice characteristic of the village is the typical guard tower on the top of the village and it was integrating part of the system of fortification towers in Valserra. Thanks at these towers the people could cross safe the valley. Perhaps earlier there was another Middle Age defence structures. Acquapalombo has been an important place when the Sala family transferred their residence and their activities in this village. Just many years ago unfortunately the palace was destroyed. The only sign of the dominion of the family on the territory is the marble arch near the church.

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GIUNCANO Scalo (290 s.l.m. lowest place)

In this village is the newest is spread on the lowest land of the valley. In Giuncano Scalo there is the train station, the pharmacy, the doctor and some public offices.

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COLLEGIACONE - PRACCHIA - POLENACO - TITURANO

There are villages of the old feud of the Arnolfe lands. All these small villages constituted a series of fortifications to defence the Valserra. The time unfortunately has destroyed all the defensive structures like walls and towers.

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PEROCCHIO CASTLE

The castle of Perocchio is one of the first villages with defence structures. That was an important strategic base till XIII century and around the XIV and XV centuries has fell, now is completely abandoned. Currently in locality “Le mura” near “Birochio”, there are part of walls of the defence structures.

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I EDITION CORRIDA della ValSerra - Summer 2007

Piece of a video of the show. Presentered by Riccardo Fucili, music by Pedro. It was one of the moust nice evenings of the Arnolfe Lands Celebration.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Carsulae probably originated as a rest stop and watering place for travelers, traders and soldiers, but most historians fix the town’s official founding to about 300 BC. Carsulae’s growth into a major town only took place, however, with the building of the ancient Roman road, the via Flaminia, in 220-219-BC.

When the via Flaminia was built, its western branch proceeded north from Terni, sparking the development not only of Carsulae, but also of Acquasparta and Bevagna. This branch of the road courses through a gently rolling upland plain at the foot of the Martani mountain range, an area that had been heavily populated since the middle of the Bronze Age. The eastern branch proceeded from Terni, north to Spoleto, then past Trevi and finally to Foligno, where it merged with the western branch.

In due course, during the age of Emperor Augustus, Carsulae became a Roman municipium. It was during his reign that a number of major works, including the amphitheatre, most of the forum, and the marble-clad Arco di Traiano (now called the Arch of San Damiano) at the north entrance were built.

During its “golden age” Carsulae, supported by agricultural activity in the surrounding area, was prosperous and wealthy. It bucolic setting, its large complex of mineralized thermal baths, theatres, temples and other public amenities, attracted wealthy and even middle class “tourists” from Rome.

However, while all the other mentioned towns and cities on the two branches of the old Roman road continue to exist, nothing but ruins remains of Carsulae, which was abandoned, and once abandoned, never resettled. The only subsequent building that took place occurred in paleo-Christian times, say about the 4th or 5th century, at the southerly entrance to Carsulae, where the church of San Damiano, still standing today, was built for a small community of nuns on the foundations of an earlier Roman building. For centuries after it was deserted, Carsulae was used as a quarry for building materials that were used elsewhere, such as in Spoleto or Cesi, where Roman tombstones may be seen built into the church of S. Andrea, but otherwise, it was left alone. Consequently, archaeologists have been able to map the city with considerable detail.

No one knows the precise reasons why Carsulae was abandoned, but two that seem most plausible are first, that it was almost destroyed and the site made inhospitable by an earthquake, and second that it lost its importance and as a result became increasingly impoverished because most of the important north-south traffic used the faster east branch of the via Flaminia. J.B. Ward-Perkins suggested another effect of increasingly unsettled times from the third century, when the very trunk roads that had been economic lifelines became access roads for hordes of unpaid fighters: “Henceforth the tendency must have been to move away from the roads, until by the Middle Ages the roads themselves were as bare of settlement as they had been when they were first built.”^[1]

Haphazard excavations took place in the 16th century under the direction of Duke Federico Cesi, whose palazzi are in Cesi Acquasparta, and in the 17th century under the direction of Pope Pius VI, but not until 1951 were the ruins subjected to methodical archeological exploration and documentation. Significant additional work was also done in 1972, but little or no work has been done since.

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“If Umbria is the green heart of Italy, then Valserra is the green heart of Umbria”

We would like to remember you that in Valserra you can find and enjoy the following: Caravan areas, trekking and mountain-bike trials, bed and breakfast, restaurants etc…

All these are situated in one of the most beautiful spots of the centre of Italy. It has affordable costs where tourism has not been developed yet.

Many of these activities are not yet on the website, but don’t hesitate to visit us. Thank you to visit our website. For further information visit our contact page.