Otricoli is an Italian town of 1 829 inhabitants in the province of Terni in Umbria. Noteworthy is the collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta.
Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, main church in the town center
from the 7th century. The high altar dates from the 12th century and the
marble ciborium dates from 1500. The right side of the church has the
chapels of San Fulgenzio and San Domenico (with the fresco of San
Fulgenzio vescovo che distribuisce il pane ai poveri di Otricoli) and
the baptistery with a 16th century baptismal font. On the left are the
chapels of Sant'Antonio Abate and that of the Madonna Addolorata.
Chiesa di San Salvatore, a church in the town center that was already
mentioned in 1235 as Cappella S. Salvatoris. Contains the fresco Madonna
del Latte.
Chiesa di San Giuseppe da Leonessa (also called Oratorio
di San Giuseppe da Leonessa), church and oratory in the town center were
built in 1761.
City walls: The first city walls were built in the 4th
century BC. After that, the city walls were built in the 7th century AD.
The parts of the city wall visible today date from the 12th century. The
older and vanished city gates were in the same place as today's city
gates:
Porta Maggiore, eastern city gate to the Borgo.
Porta San
Severino, western city gate, facing the Via Flaminia and the Tiber.
Ocriculum, historical place of the sixth district (Umbria, or Umbria
complexa agrumque Gallicam citra Ariminium) of the Roman Empire. Here
the temple of Jupiter had place, which also brought forth the Zeus of
Otricoli. The thermal baths (c. 2nd century BC) and the theater (c. 1st
century) were discovered in the 18th century. Today the name of the
titular diocese of Otriculum still reminds of the place.
Castello
delle Formiche, today's castle ruins on the Aia river just before it
flows into the Tiber, which was built in the 12th century and is about 2
km south-west of Otricoli. The castle was a multiple trigger for
conflicts between Otricoli and Amelia in disputes in the Middle Ages.
Porto dell'Olio, former port (oil port) on the Tiber, used until the
18th century.
Chiesa di San Vittore, already mentioned in 1227 near
the Porto dell'Olio on the Tiber, as a Benedictine monastery. It was
destroyed by a Tiber flood at the end of the 16th century and rebuilt in
1579. The part visible today was built in 1714 next to the ruins of the
old monastery.
Chiesa di San Fulgenzio, a church attached to the
Antica Via Flaminia. It contained the remains of San Fulgenzio until
1316, when the relics were placed in the Collegiata. Contains the Museum
Antiquarium Casale San Fulgenzio.
Chiesa di San Nicola, the main
church in the district of Poggio, was built in the 15th century.
Chiesa di San Vittore near the district of Poggio, a church from the
14th century.
Archaeological area of Ocriculum
Archaic necropolis of Cerqua Cupa
and Crepafico
The river terraces of the Tiber, in today's municipality of Otricoli,
were inhabited since archaic prehistoric times, along the riverways and
the roadways linked to transhumance, between the Apennine and Tyrrhenian
cultures. Archaeological studies have found the presence of an archaic
necropolis in the locality of Cerqua Cupa and Crepafico, with a culture
similar to the peoples of central Italy in the Tiber valley
(Umbrian-Samnite, Faliscan-Etruscan). The toponym of Otricoli would
derive from ocris- in Greek, okri- in Umbrian which identifies that
«sacred mountain» to which an entire community referred among the
Umbrian people. During the social war he sided with the Italians, which
decreed his ruin.
The town hall of Ocriculum was built on a
plateau, along the Via Flaminia which immediately afterwards crossed the
Tiber, with the bridge called "Pile di Augusto" in the direction of
Gallese, of the Roman town hall there are several archaeological
testimonies dating back to between the 1st century BC. and the 2nd
century. Also on the latter date, the Doctor of Otricoli, martyr and
saint of the Catholic Church, was born and then died in 172. In 357 the
emperor Constantius II stopped there on his way to Rome. According to
the historian Hydatius who lived in the 5th century, the most relevant
event that took place in its territory would be the bloody battle
(50,000 dead) which took place in Utriculo between the end of 412 and
the beginning of 413 and fought between the army of the usurper and
comes of Africa Heraclianus (who came from Carthage on 3700 ships) and
the army loyal to the emperor Honorius led by comes Marino, with the
latter's victory.
The Romanesque church in the historic center of
Otricoli was built on the foundations of a previous pagan cult building,
discovered during recent renovations. Tombs from the Bronze Age were
also found within the stratigraphy of the land.
In the Middle
Ages during the fortification phase, the population moved for defense to
the highest part of the river terrace, where today is the current
historic center of Otricoli, always located along the Via Flaminia,
which will follow the historical and political events of the Free
municipalities of nearby Narni, Umbria and the monarchy of the Papal
State.
In the last two decades of the eighteenth century the
excavations of the Roman city began which brought to light numerous and
important finds, the most important of which is the Jupiter of Otricoli,
now preserved in the Vatican Museums.
Since 2012 a Roman
historical re-enactment has been held annually which takes the name of
Ocriculum AD 168.
The municipality extends over around 28 km². It is about 90 km south
of the regional capital of Perugia and about 25 km southwest of the
provincial capital of Terni on a hill next to the Tiber and just
southeast of its confluence with the Nera in the climatic classification
of Italian communities in zone D, 1745 GR/G.
The place is on the
SS 3 state road and is accessed from here through the Porta Maggiore.
The second city gate is Porta San Severino, which is connected to the
main gate by today's Via Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Cavour streets.
The only part of the community is Poggio, about 9 km north-east.
The neighboring municipalities are Calvi dell'Umbria, Gallese (VT),
Magliano Sabina (RI), Narni, Orte (VT) and Stroncone.