Civitavecchia is an Italian town of 52,711 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital in Lazio. Overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, its history is linked to the navy and trade, so much so that today the port of Civitavecchia is among the most important in Italy, the second European port for the number of annual passengers in transit.
The historic center of the city is well preserved and very popular
with tourists, although many of the historic monuments were destroyed by
bombing during World War II.
Religious architecture
Cathedral
of San Francesco d'Assisi, in the historic center of the city;
Church
of Death (dell'Orazione e Morte), the oldest in the city;
Sanctuary
of the Madonnina delle Lacrime, in the parish of Sant'Agostino, near
Borgo Pantano, where the Madonnina di Civitavecchia is located, a small
Marian statue which from 2 February to 15 March 1995 would have dripped
tears of blood fourteen times. The Catholic Church has not yet
officially expressed itself directly on the supernatural nature of
tears;
Santissima Concezione Sanctuary, originally the church of
Sant'Antonio Abate, since 1856 the church of the Santissima Concezione
al Ghetto, took on its current name from 8 December 2019. From 20 April
1854, for three months, an image of the Madonna della Pietà, painted by
Margherita Vannucci Piry and kept in the church, moved its eyes in the
presence of the faithful, even before the bishop Gaetano Brinciotti and
the commissioners of the official investigation. When in 1796 similar
phenomena occurred in numerous Italian localities, involving about one
hundred and twenty sacred images in front of over six hundred thousand
witnesses, in Civitavecchia six Marian images were involved, and some
Muslim convicts at the port and a Greek of Orthodox faith, witnesses
ocular, they converted to Catholicism;
Church of Jesus Divine Worker;
Church of the Holy Family;
Church of the Sacred Heart;
Church of
San Felice da Cantalice;
Church of San Francesco di Paola;
Church
of San Giuseppe Campo Oro.
Medieval walls, which surround the city center, and on which the passage of the Archetto opens, the upstream gate of the ancient wall dating back to the 9th century.
Historical port
The ancient port of the city, despite the changes
made over the centuries and the bombings of 1943, represents an
important architectural work, as evidenced by some works contained in
it:
the barricade;
the Michelangelo Fort;
the fortress;
the Vanvitelli Fountain;
the wall of Urban VIII;
Livorno gate;
the Lazzaretto tower.
Monumental cemetery
Also known as the old
cemetery, it is one of the two current cemeteries of the city, located
on the northern Via Aurelia.
Seafront
The historic seafront is
represented by the central section of Viale Garibaldi, where there are
hotels, restaurants and numerous bars. Another very popular stretch,
especially in the summer season, is the stretch of the Pirgo, located
towards the south. In recent years, the seafront has been affected by
redevelopment works that have expanded the pedestrian area available,
giving birth to the area called La Marina.
Terme Taurine
The ancient complex of thermal buildings of
Civitavecchia, thanks also to the excellent state of conservation, is
one of the most interesting in all the Etruscan territory.
Terme della Ficoncella or Bagni della Ficoncella
Spas much
appreciated by the citizens of Civitavecchia and the Romans, they take
the name of Ficoncella, the fig tree located between the pools.
The Baths have preserved their ancient structure, made of stone pools in
the open from which you can admire the panorama of the valleys below and
of the sea on one side, of the Monti della Tolfa on the other. The
waters of the Ficoncella are sulphate-calcium waters that exceed 40º,
useful for finding relief from arthropathies, dermatitis and allergies.
Other
In the same area there is the Aquafelix water park, the
largest in central Italy, which during the summer attracts many people
from neighboring towns.
The village, which later became Civitavecchia,
developed along the Tyrrhenian coast in the Etruscan era. The city
is located in an area between the Mignone River to the north and the
Marangone River to the south. Although it does not enjoy great
reliefs, the suburbs are slightly raised compared to the rest of the
neighborhoods. There are also numerous ditches and small canyons
that start from the nearby Tolfa mountains and flow into the sea.
The coast has numerous inlets and gulfs (cellae) with rocky bottoms,
while the sandy beaches are present only towards the north.
North of Civitavecchia flows the last stretch of the Mignone river
which then passes through the province of Viterbo to finally flow
into the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Origins of the name
Centum Cellae
(this is the Latin name meaning One Hundred [numerous] Cells) was at
the time referred, as Pliny the Younger wrote for the first time in
a letter in 107 AD, to a place where major construction works were
underway of the port, near the villa of the emperor Trajan. It can
therefore be assumed that the city was completed around 110 AD.
There are numerous hypotheses put forward to explain the origin of
the toponym Centumcellae; it is believed it may refer to the number
of natural inlets that were present on the coast, or to the numerous
rooms built in the dock for the collection of goods, or to the
hundred rooms of the Imperial Villa. In 828, following the
destructive invasion of the Saracens, the population left the
center, taking refuge first in the mountains, then in a new site
called "Cencelle" (to distinguish it from the primitive), until it
finally returned in 889 in the city of origin, changing its name to
Civitas Vetula (Old Town) to distinguish it from Cencelle.
Another name then attributed to Civitavecchia to that of Monte
Claire (or Monte-Claire) referring to the ancient city district
facing the sea Monte Clarisso.
The name was taken from the
Visit MonteClaire project created by the municipality in
collaboration with Monte-Claire SBM
The village, which later became Civitavecchia, developed along the
Tyrrhenian coast in the Etruscan era. The city is located in an area
between the Mignone river to the north and the Marangone river to the
south. Even if it doesn't enjoy great relief, the suburb is slightly
raised compared to the rest of the neighborhoods. There are also
numerous ditches and small canyons that start from the nearby Tolfa
mountains and flow into the sea. The coast has numerous inlets and gulfs
(cellae) with rocky bottoms, while sandy beaches are only present
towards the north.
North of Civitavecchia flows the last stretch
of the Mignone river which then passes into the province of Viterbo to
finally flow into the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Centum Cellae (this is the Latin name meaning One Hundred [many]
Cells) was at the time referred, according to what Pliny the Younger
wrote for the first time in a letter in 107 AD, to a place where major
construction works were underway of the port, near the villa of the
emperor Trajan. It can therefore be hypothesized that the city was
completed around 110 AD.
There are numerous hypotheses put forward to
explain the origin of the toponym Centumcellae; it is believed that it
may refer to the number of natural inlets that were present on the
coast, or to the numerous rooms built in the dock for the collection of
goods, or even to the one hundred rooms of the Imperial Villa.
In
828, following the destructive invasion of the Saracens, the population
left the centre, taking refuge first in the mountains, then in a new
site called "Cencelle" (to distinguish it from the original), until they
finally returned in 889 in the city of origin, changing its name to
Civitas Vetula (Old City) to distinguish it from Cencelle.
The city was certainly created from an Etruscan settlement. The Civitavecchia area did not really become a city, nor is it present in Roman documents, until after the return of Trajan in 103 AD.
The territory of Civitavecchia was certainly inhabited since ancient times. Arrowheads and flint scrapers from the Neolithic era were found near the Fiumaretta stream. In the localities of Mattonara, Malpasso and Torre Chiaruccia, the erosion of the coast has brought to light numerous wastes of huts from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. These are populations that certainly derived their means of subsistence from the sea.
Pliny the Elder in the Naturalis Historia, in book III dedicated to
the geography of the western Mediterranean, in listing the peoples of
ancient Etruria names the Aquenses Taurini and the Castronovani. The
location of the two settlements has been ascertained, the first at the
Ficoncella hill near the remains of the Baths of Trajan, the second at
the Marangone torrent. The whole territory of Civitavecchia is dotted
with the remains of Etruscan tombs and it can be assumed that even in
pre-Roman times, in correspondence with the current center of the city,
a small Etruscan settlement thrived.
The Etruscan necropolis of
Mattonara, not far from the Molinari factory, was discovered in 2002 and
can almost certainly be dated to the 7th - 6th century BC: It was most
likely connected to the nearby necropolis of Scaglia. Historians and
archaeologists agree on the existence of a very ancient mobile port,
i.e. formed by small parallel basins capable of accommodating a single
vessel. The remains of these docks were still visible at the end of the
19th century near Fort Michelangelo.
The first time the name Centumcellae appears is in a letter in which
Pliny the Younger informs Cornelian that he was summoned by the emperor
to the "Consilium Principis" at his villa, located in the place called
Centum Cellae, in 107. «Villa pulcherrima cingitur viridissimis agris»,
wrote the historian to his friend when, as a guest of the emperor
Trajan, he was able to admire the great works, destined to give rise to
the port which would keep forever, he said, the name of its founder. The
emperor had wanted to establish his residence in this locality in order
to speed up the construction works of the port.
Centumcellae is
then mentioned in the Itinerarium Maritimum, among the ports and landing
places of the maritime route that led from Rome to Provence.
The
meaning of Centum Cellae has been a subject of discussion for years,
some believe that it refers to the inlets of the coast, but it was
considered more probable that centum, which in Latin is an adjective
that indicates a number yet to be defined, refers to the rooms of the
Villa of Trajan, which is still to be placed. Therefore it can be
deduced that the birth date of Civitavecchia is around 107, during which
the work for the construction of the port should have begun, and that
the work was completed in 110. During the building of the city it took
on the Roman style and the cardo maximus was built, that is the current
Corso Marconi.
At the end of the empire, when many already
flourishing inhabited places declined rapidly, Civitavecchia still
retained its importance. The poet Rutilio Namaziano gives news of this
who at the beginning of the 5th century, returning by sea to Gaul,
stopped at Centocelle and described both the vitality of the port and
the Baths of Trajan which, although three miles away, were easily
accessible to the traveler .
The Byzantine Empire took control of Civitavecchia between 537 and
538, wresting it from the Goths. The Byzantine historian Procopius of
Caesarea, in narrating the events of the war against the Goths,
underlines the strategic importance of the occupation of Civitavecchia
by the Byzantine forces, in consideration of the size and the high
number of inhabitants of the city, endowed with a I still carry in full
working order. During the domination of the Eastern Roman Empire, the
city depended on the Duke based in Rome, but the real command depended
on the Count at the head of the military garrison stationed in the city.
One of them, a certain Theophanius, who lived towards the end of the
sixth century, is mentioned in the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great,
due to his virtues of meekness in government. Byzantium maintained
control of Civitavecchia until the eighth century. The city passed under
the dominion of the Papal State in 728. Pope Gregory III in 740 had the
walls restored which allowed the city to resist the attempted occupation
of the Lombard militias led by Duke Grimoaldo in 749. The Gregorian
walls were not enough a few decades later against the assaults of the
Saracens.
The imminent danger of Saracen raids seems to have
already occurred in the year 776, when there is news of pirate ships
being taken to Centumcellae and set on fire. There is news of a first
devastating incursion and the sacking of Centumcellae between the end of
813 and the beginning of 814 (from Einhard, the court historian of
Charlemagne in his work Vita Karoli), which was followed by repeated
incursions, up to the destruction of the city in 828. The inhabitants
had to find refuge among the surrounding wooded forests, but already in
854 Pope Leo IV, to give them a stable and secure home, consecrated not
far away, among the hills of the Monti della Tolfa, on the left of the
Mignone river, on the ruins of a pre-existing Etruscan pagus, a new
city, which according to the biographer of this pontiff should have been
called Lviv, but which in reality, as the documents attest, perpetuated
the name of Centumcellae, also because the bishop of the original Roman
city had moved there, bringing with it the title of the ancient
homonymous diocese. This new city equipped with ten towers and three
gates prospered for a long time as a free municipality, gradually
changing its name to Centocelle and then Cencelle.
A narration
exalted by Vincenzo Annovazzi, fueled by incorrect historical
interpretations, narrates that 60 years after the Saracen invasion of
828, the population of the new city of Lviv was very uncertain whether
to return to the ruins of the old Centumcellae or to remain in the new
town, away from the sea but certainly more protected from other possible
invasions. The totally renewed population and young people fond of their
native place would have gathered in the open countryside in the shade of
a large oak tree, to decide whether to return to the ancient places near
the sea. When those against the return were about to obtain the
majority, an old sailor named Leander, one of the survivors of the
ancient city, would intervene. His speech would have been so convincing
that he managed to change the outcome of the vote by convincing the
assembly to vote, unanimously, for the return to the old city, which
would have been renamed Civitas Vetula. According to legend, this would
be at the origin of the symbol of the city, the oak with the letters
O.C., due to the excellent advice provided by the old sailor, to whom
the main square of the new seafaring city would have been named, still
today called piazza Leandra . In reality, the name dates back to
Oleandro (Leandro) according to a medieval custom of attributing the
name of plants to streets and squares: in fact, near this square there
are vicolo dell'Olmo, via Colle dell'Olivo, via di Laura (Laurel =
Laurel).
The figure of Leandro, born from the romantic
imagination of Father Alberto Guglielmotti, has rooted a strong legend
historically accepted by Carlo Calisse and uncritically believed up to
the present day, however it is contradicted by the historical research
conducted by Odoardo Toti starting from 1958 and confirmed by the
investigations carried out on the site of the Leonian city by Prof
Letizia Pani Ermini of the University of Rome La Sapienza starting from
1998. The Centumcellae (Leopoli-Cencelle) founded by Leo IV only died
out definitively in the second half of the 15th century, in conjunction
with the discovery of alum in the Tolfa mountains and the consequent
commercial development of the Roman Centumcellae, which around the year
1072 appears for the first time as a fortress on the ruins of the port,
with the name of Civita Vetula or Civita Veccla, whence the name
definitive of Civitavecchia. The letters OC that stand out in the
heraldic emblem of Civitavecchia are believed not to be the initials of
the motto "Ottimo Consiglio" referable to the fable of the legendary
Leander who would have "advised" the inhabitants to return to the
seafaring city, but rather the initials of the motto ORDO
CENTUMCELLENSIS in memory and in honor of the Roman origins of
Civitavecchia.
There is very little information about the first centuries of the reborn city. In the 11th century, Count Ranieri of Civitacastellana and the Monastery of Farfa had dominion over Civita Vetula. The Pope Innocent II granted Civita Vetula as a fief to Pietro Latro belonging to the Roman family of the Corsi. The feudal lords who had possession of the city for the longest time were the Prefects of Vico, to whom sovereignty was initially granted by Federico Barbarossa, later confirmed also by Pope Urban IV. The noble Roman family contested sovereignty over the feud from the Prefects of Vico, exercising power over the Rocca before returning it to Giovanni di Vico in 1347 (source: Carlo Calisse, Storia di Civitavecchia). The last feudal lord of Civitavecchia was Giacomo Di Vico who joined the Colonna against Pope Eugene IV. In 1431 the pope sent an army commanded by Cardinal Giovanni Maria Vitelleschi and made up of the best captains of fortune of the time: Fortebraccio, Ranuccio Farnese and Menicuccio dell'Aquila against Giacomo. Despite the overwhelming number of faithful to the Pope, the fortress of Civita Vecchia or Civita Vetula proved impregnable and Giacomo Di Vico managed to negotiate the surrender, ceding the city to the Pope's forces for 4,000 gold florins.
In parallel with the internal struggles of the Roman nobility for
control of the Civitavecchia feud, the people of the city began to
develop their own municipal statutes of which we have the first known
vernacular translation dating back to 1451 and is the work of Bartolomeo
di Ser Giovanni da Toscanella, vicar of Civitavecchia. At the head of
the municipal judiciary was a Viscount who remained in office for 4
years and was assisted by a Camerlengo who performed the functions of
treasurer, as well as by two "assessors" called councilors or officers.
With the victory of Pope Eugene IV over Giacomo Di Vico, the power of
the popes over Civitavecchia was definitively consolidated, starting a
period of rebirth of the city within the framework of the contextual
Italian Renaissance. Pope Nicholas V restored the walls in 1455, and his
successor Sixtus IV endowed the city with an efficient aqueduct. As for
the rest of the Papal State, it was Pope Julius II who gave the greatest
impetus to the development and rebirth of Civitavecchia. It was under
his pontificate that work began on the fortress, designed by Bramante,
but which took the name of Michelangelo, although the latter,
commissioned by Pope Paul III, limited himself to creating the upper
part of the hexagonal keep, completing the operates in 1535.
In
1522 the Order of the Knights Hospitaller with their Grand Master Philip
Villiers, following their expulsion from the island of Rhodes by the
Turks, settled in Civitavecchia and remained there until 1530, the year
in which Charles V granted the Knights the Island of Malta, of which
they later assumed the name.
Pope Paul III blessed the ships of the
Venetian, Genoese and Spanish fleets in Civitavecchia, which in 1535
left the city's port to fight the pirates of Tunis, whose leader was the
famous corsair Aruj Barbarossa.
Throughout the 16th century the
city was fortified and equipped with new infrastructure. The walls of
Sangallo, begun in 1515 and completed in 1555 under the pontificate of
Julius III, are noteworthy for their value and importance, as well as
defense works that were lost in the bombing of the last war such as the
bastion of the old dock and the four watchtowers ( Chiaruccia,
Marangone, Valdaliga and Bertalda). Pope Sixtus V established the
permanent papal fleet stationed in Civitavecchia in the year 1588,
supplying the city with water from the San Liborio spring. Popes Clement
VIII, Paul V and above all Urban VIII contributed to bringing the port
to full efficiency lost with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
In the seventeenth century Civitavecchia was equipped by Pope
Alexander VII with an imposing arsenal, [8] which was destroyed during
the Allied bombings suffered by the city in the Second World War and its
port became a nerve center for the supply of cereals, on which the
capital depended . In less than a century the population increased from
one thousand to three thousand inhabitants. The arsenal was an
indispensable support for the papal fleet engaged at the time in the
fight against piracy and the expansionist policy of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1693 Civitavecchia obtained the status of city.
The previous
year (1692) Pope Innocent XII had promoted the restoration of the
ancient aqueduct of Trajan, increased by the captation of new springs.
As its inauguration approached, on 6 May 1696 the pontiff went
personally to Civitavecchia to encourage the conclusion of the 35 km
long work.
It was at the beginning of the eighteenth century that,
given the increased importance of the city, Civitavecchia became the
seat of the governor and the capital of the province, which included the
territories of Tolfa, Allumiere and Tarquinia. Still in this period,
however, the city authorities were those of the Renaissance era, i.e.
the viscount and the chamberlain.
The golden century,
characterized by peace and stability, was about to end. With the
occupation of the Papal State, the French also took possession of the
city of Civitavecchia in 1798 and its port. Here in the same year a
French division of 6,000 men was concentrated and embarked, led by
General Desaix, destined by Napoleon Bonaparte for the campaign in
Egypt. To this end, the entire papal fleet was requisitioned and used.
The Austrian general Mack, at the head of the army of the Kingdom of
Naples, invaded the Papal State in November 1798. The French troops then
withdrew from the cities to concentrate and resist the invader together.
The city institutions at that point decided to show themselves neutral
to the dispute that was raging between the French on one side and the
Austrians, who, moreover, enjoyed English support from the sea and
Russian support from the land.
When the French attempted to re-enter
the city on February 1, 1799, the city closed its gates, initiating a
long siege that lasted over a month. The French forces in the field
totaled some 3,000 men well equipped with heavy artillery, led by
General Merlin. Despite the overwhelming superiority of forces, the
French failed to breach the walls and, finally, the people of
Civitavecchia were able to negotiate an honorable surrender.
In
1809 the entire Papal State was annexed to the French Empire and great
impetus was given by Napoleon to the development of the city's
infrastructures and institutions. Among other things, the Court, the
Chamber of Commerce and an important Meteorological Station were
created.
With the return of Pius VII to the seat of Peter in 1814, following
the Napoleonic defeat, further impetus was given to the growth of local
institutions, with the creation of a Maritime Health Office, which had
jurisdiction over the entire coast of the State. In this period of
restoration Civitavecchia became the capital of the Delegation and the
viscount and camerlengo were replaced by a standard-bearer, with the
functions of "mayor", assisted by a junta of six people called Elders.
Leo XII restored the episcopal chair of Civitavecchia, suppressed by the
fall of Centumcellae and since then united with that of Tuscania.
Important buildings were built during the papacy of Gregory XVI,
including the Teatro Traiano.
The people of Civitavecchia, of
liberal sentiments, immediately joined the Risorgimento movement. On 9
February 1849, the day the Roman Republic was proclaimed, the first
tricolor flag waved over Fort Michelangelo. The enthusiasm did not last
long and was immediately extinguished on the following 24 March, when
the French troops of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, commanded by General
Oudinot, landed in the city with the ill-concealed intention of
restoring order and putting the Pope back in his place of command. The
people did not resist convinced, wrongly, that the French would play the
role of "liberators" from clerical oppression that had been theirs just
a few years earlier.
The last twenty years of papal dominion over
Civitavecchia was characterized, under the pontificate of Pius IX, by
important public works, including the Civitavecchia Rome railway section
of 1859.
On 16 September 1870, four days before the breach of
Porta Pia, the Italians led by Nino Bixio entered the city amid cheering
crowds. Civitavecchia thus became definitively Italian. It is the end of
the ultra-millennial power of the popes dating back (albeit with some
discontinuity) to the year 728 AD.
Civitavecchia, during the Second World War, was razed to the ground
by Allied bombs during the 76 bombings which lasted from 14 May 1943 to
June 1944.
It was a place of strong partisan movement, even if
Mussolini made frequent visits to this city. It can be said that the
partisan movement has ancient origins that date back to the strong team
of the Arditi del Popolo, founded in 1921 by Argo Secondari, a highly
decorated ex Ardito assaltatore. This formation mainly united
anarchists, but also communists, socialists and other idealists of the
left, the support of the working masses for this formation was very
relevant precisely in Civitavecchia, for which the flag of the Arditi
del Popolo of Civitavecchia assumed national value as a pennant of the
teams of anti-fascist defense. On 10 June 1940 Mussolini's Italy enters
the war against France and Great Britain. Obviously the first resource
of Civitavecchia, the port, was the first to feel the effects of the
war, port traffic was reduced to the extreme and there was a collapse in
port traffic, going from 1,000,215 tons worked in 1938 to 39,000 tons
worked in 1944. The result on the population, as in all of Italy, was
devastating, the first problem was certainly the grocery stores, food
was starting to run short and what little there was at a very high
price, a police notice in 1941 announced that the fish was almost
totally disappeared and what was bought was bought by Roman traders. The
real terror began on May 14, 1943 at 15:20 for 15 minutes 48 American
flying fortresses sowed panic destruction over all of Civitavecchia. A
default calculation of the dead has been made and it amounts to about
400, the wounded over 300; the port becomes unusable and even the
railway lines are interrupted. For the people of Civitavecchia it was a
hard blow as there was no food, there was no accommodation, the only
solution was to take refuge in neighboring villages. Here we recall some
very important dates that lead back to deadly bombings such as: 30
August 1943, 21 November 1943, 16 December 1943, in the month of May
1944 six followed one another and then there was the last bombing on 22
May 1944 Civitavecchia appears ghostly, 95% devastated in its public and
private buildings, the cathedral, the medieval quarter, the church of
Santa Maria, the ancient fortress are razed to the ground. The city was
totally abandoned in the year between 1943 and 1944, the municipal seat
was transferred to Santa Marinella; with the arrival of the allies an
attempt was made to sort things out, an attempt was made to create an
administration but still life in Civitavecchia was not very simple
indeed the population had no roof, had no food to eat and despite this
there was also the increased ration of bread. To aggravate the problems
of the Civitavecchia inhabitants there were also Sardinian refugees and
soldiers who, in order to return to their island, began to organize
gangs and attack farmers by raiding livestock that was already scarce.
Civitavecchia finally counted its dead and there are over 200 in the
armed forces alone. Civitavecchia slowly recovers even if even today the
reconstruction is not completely completed.
In 1949 he ceded the
fraction of Ladispoli to the municipality of Cerveteri.
On 8
March 1999 Civitavecchia received the Gold Medal for Civil Valor, for
the sacrifices of its populations and for the damage to the city.
On 4 October 1949 Santa Marinella and Santa Severa detached from
Civitavecchia becoming an independent municipality.