« Meandering about | Main | Bologna »
September 18, 2006
Assisi - a short history
The city of Assisi has a very chequered history. The brief version runs as follows:
The area of has relics dating back to 1900 BC, though it wasn't really permanently settled until long after that. It became part of the roman empire if 89 BC, though by that time the inhabitants had assembled a 2.5km (1 2/3 mile) defensive stone wall around the town two centuries prior to that - interhilltop relations with the Perugians (four hills and a plain over) and Gubbians (three hills back) were never good (bloody skirmishes being a regular feature until quite recently). It became a christian city around the 3rd century AD after a slow start (its first bishop was apparently not popular, and was drowned in the Chiascio river in 238). After the fall of the Empire, there was incursions by Barbarians until Charlemagne waltzed through and razed the city walls (which were subsequently rebuilt) and declared it part of the Byzantine empire, which it remained until 568 when the Lombards took over. There is very little recorded from there until the 11th century, however somewhere between the 6th and 8th century, a mudslide from the Subasio mountains buried the city (some locations were dug out, others partially excavated and some simply built over. Under the main piazza, there is the previous roman town square, which is accessible through a tunnel from one of the shops).
The city's most famous inhabitant was born shortly after 1280 to a cloth and spice trader, who is reputed to have named him Francis in honour of the excellent living he made from french clothing. In 1202, Francis signed up with the military for a bit of crusading. After becoming ill and having visions of peace whilst on a tour of duty, he returned and became a doer of good deeds and founder of the order that bears his name.
The next six centuries are largely interchangeable and best summed up as: The upper and lower parts of the town beat the bejesus out of each other, occasionally interposed with someone from out of town conquering the lot of them. The foreign conquerors and rulers include the Papacy, Perugia (several times each) and Caesar Borgia. Napoleon also sacked the city in 1808 as part of his conquest of Italy, removing many treasures and artworks from the Bascillica. Assisi was finally annexed by Italy in 1860 (odd, but true - Italy became a country after forcefully dissolving the city-states and finally assembling them under one banner in 1861).
Being an old, old city, there are many a quaint and curious volume of local law. There are no lights allowed for several miles below the Bascillica (causing some consternation when building traffic islands on the road below). If you are a foreigner and purchase a house (a foreigner being someone who's family moved there anytime after the 10th century), you must plaster and paint the outer walls of your house. There are no new dwellings allowed for an even greater distance - unless you can find an ancient foundation. And even then, you must find, in the area, cut stones of the same antiquity and build only on the old foundations - and with a design suited to whatever period the foundation is from. One of the other results of these restrictive policies are the covered bridges between buildings. These are the arches above with windows connecting two edifices. Not being allowed to put any more bricks on the ground, and wanting to sell further dwellings, the medieval Assisians got creative and created and sold these houses in the air. This law was not always upheld, and there was some remodelling done by overkeen overlords, in 1860s, demolishing ancient buildings and temples to rework the streets and again in the 20s, with the construction of a neo-gothic post office (now the tourism information centre) in the Piazza. The most recent building is the institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, built in 1940 in the lower part of town.
For all that, it remains largely a medieval city, where, walking around, you can spot the occasional Giotto fresco on the outer wall of a house. And the roman aqueduct is still used for the water supply.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at September 18, 2006 02:03 PM
Comments