Orvieto

The magic of the underground city

The city of remarkable historical-artistic interest and great tourist attraction very close to the B&B the Hamlet of the Mulberries, at almost 10 kilometers, is the Etruscan Orvieto, that you should absolutely visit, it is situated in the province of Terni (Umbria) and in the border with Lazio. It is developed on a cliff of tuff in the beautiful valley of Paglia , a tall hill that also gives the name to the Paglia River, one of the most important tributariy of the Tevere on the right bank. The name of Orvieto derives from the Latin Urbs vetus and means “old city.” It was occupied from the Lombards after being been conquered a lot of times and lost by the Goths and the Byzantines. After the Commune period it belongs to the State of the Church up to the unity of Italy.

Orvieto is famous, for her good white wine and for the Umbria Jazz Winter Celebration.

Lubriano, Montecchio, Porano, St. Venanzo, Bagnoregio, Bolsena, Castiglione in Teverina, Civitella d’Agliano, Todi, Allerona, Basque, Castel Giorgio, Castel Viscardo, Ficulle are very closet to Orvieto.

You should see: Orvieto is famous for her Cathedral, monument-symbol of the city, maximum representation of the Gothic architecture, (1290 and continued by Lorenzo Maitani, where it is synthesized the best of the art from Orvieto. The Cathedral, baptized the Giglio of the Cathedrals, was built for entertaining the relic of the Bodily miracle of the Eucarestia happened in 1264 in Bolsena. The façade is stupendous, it brings, besides the mariano cycle represented by mosaics with gold background, the sculptures of Maitani, Andrew Pisano, Orcagna and Petruccio di Benedetto. The inside is majestic- trhree aisles on cylindrical pillars and with trusses of discoveries roof- embellished by frescos of Beato Angelico that paints the vault, fanlights and clog in new Chapel New, Gentile da Fabriano that painted the Madonna in the left aisle and Luca Signorelli that left a cycle of frescos. The Building of the Popes is situated in the plaza of the Cathedral the, it has been built from Bonifacio VIII, it holds the Museum of the Opera of the Cathedral. The heart of the city is plaza of the Republic where it is the church of S. Andrea (XI sec.). The City Hall rises on the other side O (made again in the 500 by Ippolito Scalza). Other civil building are: the Building of the People, (1157), the Building Monaldeschi della Cervara (XVI century) and the Sette Building (XIII century). It is also necessary to visit Besides visit the famous Pozzo San Patrizio Well of St. Patrician, imposing work of hydraulic engineering built by Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane on the request of of Clemente VII. . The original structure of Antonio da Sangallo is to double helix and reaches around 60 meters of depth with an illuminated downhill by 76 windows. The >Albornoz Fortress from 1364 is adjacent, it has been built on the request of the homonym cardinal, it was the one and only true military building of the city. You should visit the thick building in tuff: Building Soliano that entertains the Museum Emilio Greco. The memories of the cities and the Greek and Etruscan finds can be observed in the Building Faina, center of the Museum “Claudio Faina” (Cathedral Plaza). The churches of S.Francesco (XIII sec.), S.Giovenale, S.Domenico are also very interesting.

Pozzo di San Patrizio –The structure of the well, one of the legs of the 3 days tour proposed by the Farm of the Mulberries (itinerary St. Casciano-Orvieto-Civita di Bagnoregio): the well, planned by Sangallo il Giovane (1527 -37), is composed by a cylindrical room of 13 meters of diameter that goes down to the depth of 62 meters and around which are untied into spiral overlapped two ample staircases into snail of 248 steps each one (they never meet together), illuminated by 72 . The well, that reaches to touch the waters of the sources of S. Zeno, was built on the request of Clemente VII the to guarantee to Orvieto the provisionings of water in case of siege. The name of the well recalls the figure of the evangelist saint of Ireland, san Patrizio, that usually prayed into a deep cavern, in an islet of the island of Derg, to keep in contact with the spiritual universe. At the end of the path he meets the source of the life: the water.

Orvieto underground – Imperdibile the fantastic and unreal tour at the discovery of the underground Orvieto (all the info on the site: www.orvietounderground.it). Under the city we can see a magic labyrinth made of caves, burrows, staircases and unexpected rooms. Thanks to the special orografic conformation, the ancient inhabitants, during 2.500 years, have dug an unbelievable number of hollow that represent an assembled of historical-archaeological information to reconstruct the origins of the city. Angles of the etruscan Velznas seem to relive in these intact structure, together with the echo of the middle Ages and Renaissance periode that originates from this second city. Surely an exciting trip.

Around – we recommend you the walk on the Etruscan necropolis (VI. Century B.C. – III A. C.) to admire the graves room built in tuff bricks blocks, the visit at the abbey of the SS. Severo and Martirio and to the picturesque center of Bagnoregio, country of San Bonaventura (at 20 km), famous for the unusual fraction of Civita, “the city that dies.””

Casale dei Gelsi → Orvieto 17.5km

Photogallery Orvieto

Antonio da Sangallo the young

His name is tied up to these earths and his international fame resounds thanks to the works that embellish Orvieto, Rome, Montefiascone, Florence and the interventions of restructuring in a lot of zones of the Tuscia region, from Umbria and Lazio. We are speaking of the architect Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane, alias Anthony Cordini (Florence 1484-Rome 1546), that overcame the fame of his uncles Giuliano and Antonio il Vecchio. He met Donato Bramante in Rome and became his student. The style and the techniques of Anthony da Sangallo are moulded from the art of the teacher. He was architect and military engineer to popes Leone X, Clemente VII and Paolo III: he applied his talent to the military architecture and the civil and religious architecture.

Concerning the examples of military architecture, Sangallo can be considered as the creator of the modern system modern of bastion, with polygonal ramparts: he built the Pozzo di Orvieto, known as San Patrizio one, with double staircase with a spiral form, it looks like a snail (the two staircases never meet together…), besides the pontiff Fortresses of Ancona and Civita Castellana, the bastions in Rome, the Fortress Paolina of Perugia (destroyed by a popular revolt in the 1848). In these places attainable umbro-laziali-Tuscans easily attainable from the B&B Farm of the Mulberries, other works boast the hand of the Florentine architect: for Paolo III, first Cardinal Farnese, Antonio realized the restructuring of the Fortress of Montefiascone (1519), two temples on the island of Bisentina of the lake of Bolsena, works in Nepi for the fortitude (1540 and following) and therefore the work for the capital of the Ducato di Castro. The works of excavation of the quarry of Paolina in the place of Marmore on the river called Velino, work of hydraulic engineering initiated in 1545 and completed in 1547 after the death of Sangallo (Terni 1546) always bring his signature.

A real center of documentation and study on the Florentine architect can bes found in the Fortress of the Popes in Montefiascone where the museum is devoted to the artist: the plastic of some finished works in the tall Lazio and in the territory of farnese can observe. The inside of the museum is divided in different rooms from the terrestrial plan of the Rocca. The visit beginns with a thematic section, the presentation of the greatest Roman creations of the architect. It continues then with the illustration of the techniques and the typologies that countersign the works. Every room proposes a rich photographic documentation of the original sketches, the plastic of the most meaningful works and the tread in chalk of the constructive details.

Antonio da Sangallo gave light to his principal works in Rome: the solemn church in bricks of Saint Maria di Loreto, near the Column Traiana, the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, left incomplete by Jacopo Sansovino; the Chapel Paolina and the Regal Room of the Vatican Buildings and the additions to the boundaries and the fortifications of the Civitas Leonina (Bastione Sangallo); the inferior part of the splendid courtyard of Building Farnese, sober and elegant, inspired by the external structure of the Colosseum and subsequently completed by Michelangelo. A little far, inVia Giulia, the architect built his own house, today note as Building Sacchetti, radically rehandled during the following centuries. After the sack in Rome, Antonio devoted his work outside of the city of Rome, especially on the military area (pozzo di San Patrizio in Orvieto and the fortifications of Ancona).

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