Friday, September 16, 2011

Old Town On The Clouds

At Civita Bagnoregio is a town in the province of Viterbo in central Italy, a Frazione of the Comune of Bagnoregio, 2 km (about 1 mile). It is about 145 km (90 miles) north Roma.Ini founded by the Etruscans more than two thousand five hundred years ago, but has seen its population reduced to just fifteen residents during the 20th century. Civita is the birthplace of St. Bonaventure, was born in 1274. Location of his boyhood home has long since fallen from the cliff edge. In the 16th century Civita began to decline, become eclipsed by the original Bagnoregio periphery.

At the end of the 17th century, the bishop and the city government was forced to move to a big earthquake Bagnoregio, accelerate the decline in the old town. At that time the region was part of the Papal States. In the 19th century Civita is turned into an island and the rate of accelerated erosion as a layer of clay beneath the stone reached the area where the bridge is currently located. Bagnoregio continue as a small but prosperous town, while Civita known as il Paese che muore (in Italian: "Old Town"). Civita recently has undergone a revival tour.

The city is famous for its prominent position at the top of the brittle volcanic tuff plateau overlooking the valley of the river Tiber, in constant danger of destruction as the end of fall, leaving the buildings built in the highlands of collapse. In 2004, there were plans to strengthen the plateau with steel rods to prevent further damage to geology. The city is also widely admired for its architecture, some spanning several hundred years. At Civita Bagnoregio owes much to the conditions do not change their relative isolation: the town be able to withstand the intrusion of modernity as well as most of the destruction brought about by two world wars. The population today varies from about 12 people in winter to more than 100 in summer.

The city was established in 2006 by the World Monuments Fund Watch List of Most Endangered Sites 100, because of the threat it faces from erosion and unregulated tourism.
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