Assisi [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONASSISI (Asisium to the Romans, Ascesi in the Middle Ages) lies in central Umbria, bordered by Perugia, Gualdo Tadino, Nocera, Foligno, Spello, Bettona, Bastia Umbra; through it run the rivers Chiascio and Topi-no. The township covers about 18,000 hectares, and contains some 25,000 inhabitants, of which some 6,000 live inside the town walls.The town is built on the western flank of majestic Mount Subasio, bounded on the north by the deep gorge dug by the torrent Tescio, and on the south by the splendid Umbrian plain.What were its origins? In prehistory it was a village of one of the most ancient of the Italic peoples, the Umbro, who lived about the time of the so-called Vlllanovian civilization. From that epoch very little has come down to us: simple terracotta, or pottery, urns, stone and bronze arrowheads. Later it underwent the civilizing influence of the more highly developed Etruscans, after they established themselves on the right side of the Tiber, constituting the nearby Lucumonia (an EtrUscan designation of a territory controlled by a chief called "Lucumo") of Perugia.This is the historical reality, though a legend (one common to many other cities in search of noble origins), would have Assisl founded by the Trojan prince Asio (from which would come the name Sub-Asio, i.e., under Asio's rule ).After the Battle of Sentino (295 B. C.), which marked the final defeat of the Etruscan and Umbrian coalition against Rome, Asslsi fell under Roman rule, and was made a municipium , with the duty of providing soldiers for the legions, but benefitting from the economic and civil rights of Roman citizens. Its flourishing economic position and the efficiency of its autonomous civil structure, are attested to by the Forum (under the present Town Hall Square), by the Temple of Minerva, by the remains of an amphitheatre and of Public Baths.Christianity spread quickly there, and found its martyr in the Bishop Rufino, who preached the Gospel in the first half of the third century. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Assisi, too, underwent the violence of barbarian invasions, and was partially destoyed by Totila's Goths In 505 A. D. After a brief subjection to the Eastern Roman Empire, it went to the Longobards of the nearby duchy of Spoleto.In the eleventh century Asslsi entered the avant-garde of the movement against feudalism, in quest of the liberties of the city-state: in this connection there is a famous edict of this town whereby freedom was given to land serfs who, in fleeing the rule of the feudal lord, would take refuge within its walls.In the twelfth century It became fiercely Ghibelline and it housed an Imperial garrison, which was driven out by a popular uprising in reaction to the abuse of power by the Duke Conrad of Uslingen, Lieutenant of the Emperor Frederic I, called Barbarossa [Redbeard) around 1198.In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it fought Guelph Perugia: in one of the many battles in 1202, at Collestrada, the Perugians took young Francis prisoner.During those two centuries, notwithstanding so much internal and external strife, Assisi built its stupendous churches, its austere public buildings, its towers and walls, bringing in the most famous architects and painters for the purpose.Great shrewdness was shown in the administration of the public goods. The town became rich through profitable commerce; art and trades were regulated through powerful guilds. With the terrible sacking by Piccinino (1442), a ferocious soldier of fortune, the decline of Assisi begins. After long and bitter family feuds between the Nepis and the Flumi, the city at the beginning of the sixteenth century becomes part of the temporal domain of the Church. Under the Popes it finds peace, but the atmosphere is dull and tired, very far from the creative fervor generated by the municipal liberties.in 1860, in a unanimous plebiscite, crowning the Italian Risorgimento, to which great citizens contri-