Orvieto [antikvár]

,,,,saxuni per nuhila coeli surgit^ et in rupe cornua mira gerit Orvieto began its journey on the long road to civilization in protohistory, w/ih the primitive protovillanovan and Vil-lanovan peoples who settled here between the and gth_yth centuries B.C. It was the Etruscans, though, who established a permanent and important settlement on top of and around the base of this tufa plateau, between 15 and 60 meters high over the valley of the River Paglia. The cliff, like others in the valley, owes its origins to the so-called "Volsinii Volcanoes", four craters which erupted and blocked an inlet of the Tyrhennian Sea that at the time lapped the foothills ofCitta della Pieve and where the Tiber had its outlet. The waters of this gulf or inlet gradually disappeared and the area turned into a fertile plain. After the Etruscans, the conquering Romans wiped out the city in 264 B.C., and carried off an enormous amount of plunder to Rome, while the inhabitants were deported to the Lake ofBolsena. In the early Middle Ages Orvieto was once more subject to barbarian invasions, above all by Totila andAgilulfo, and eventually The Cathedral and the Museums on the Square Once you hove "landed" on top of the cliff, your visit of Orvieto and its art and monuments can begin with the cathedral. A walk through the dork medieval streets and alleys will suddenly and unexpectedly bring you to a light-filled square where a glittering enchanted vision seems to rise up skywards. Before building of this new great church began in 1290, on the foundations of an Etruscan temple, the older cathedral of Santa Maria and the small church of San Costanzo already on this site had to be torn down. As early as 1199, with Santa Maria falling into ruin, the clergy had to hold their services in other churches in the city. It was at this time that the Orvietani and the clergy had broached the idea of building a new cathedral. Ostensibly however, the people of Orvieto and Pope Nicholas IV, who blessed the foundation stone, had this new great church built to house the fragments of the consecrated host and the famous linen altar cloth ^»mMm