Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Everyday a train leaves Stazione Termini at about 8:00 am. First stop: Orte; second stop ...Narni!

You may wish to see a page on Roman and Early Medieval Narni first.

(left to right): bell towers of S. Domenico, the Cathedral and S. Bernardo; tower in Via Garibaldi

Narni suffered from the fall of the Roman Empire, but after the year 1000, due to its position on a main trading route, it profited from the recovery of the Italian and European economy. The town was easy to defend, but its inhabitants had to deal with internal strife and the main families lived inside tower houses; some of them were turned into bell towers later on and they were spared by the XIVth century decrees of the papal government which placed limits on the height of private buildings.

Palazzo Comunale

The palace was built after 1273 by utilizing three adjoining tower houses which belonged to local noble families. During the following centuries it was repeatedly modified; in particular the Latin cross windows were designed in the second half of the XVth century, most likely in imitation of those of Palazzo Venezia in Rome. Narni took advantage of the absence of the popes from Rome to increase its autonomy, but failed to gain the de facto independence acquired by the Tuscan Comuni (town states), which benefited from the fact that their region was claimed both by the pope and the emperor.

Oratorio di S. Salvato

The palace incorporates a small chapel which was built with materials from a previous church which stood nearby. The XIIIth century reliefs which decorate the entrance do not depict religious symbols or events, exception made for a small one portraying Judith and Holofernes.

Palazzo dei Priori and the adjoining Torre Civica

The wealth enjoyed by Narni in the early XIVth century led to building a palace which had a large loggia where the merchants met in case of bad weather, in particular those dealing in silk and luxury goods. The design of the Loggia is attributed to Matteo Gattapone, an architect who worked at Spoleto and Gubbio.

Casa Sacripanti - medieval reliefs

The symbol of Narni is a griffin and similar mythical creatures are portrayed in medieval reliefs which the Sacripante family placed on the walls of their house in the centre of the town. Giuseppe and Carlo Maria Sacripante were two cardinals of the XVIIIth century from Narni who are regarded as great benefactors of their hometown.

Fountain near Palazzo Comunale (the original basin is now at the Museum of Narni)

There are two or three fine brazen fountains in the city, whose water is brought 12 or 15 miles hither by an aqueduct.
Thomas Nugent - The Grand Tour - 1749
Narni has two very peculiar medieval fountains; peculiar because of their shape and for the use of bronze at a time (the inscription on the fountain makes reference to the year 1303) when it was mainly used for bells. The fountains were decorated with the symbol of the town (Perugia too is symbolized by a griffin).

La Rocca (left) exterior; (right) courtyard

On the top of the hill on which it is built, there is a castle, in which the governor resides. Nugent
The castle is now used as a prison for criminals. According to the last government returns they will hold 200 prisoners, but the number actually confined was only 80: of these more than half were cases of theft.
John Murray - Handbook for travellers in central Italy - 1843
Narni and Umbria were an uncontested possession of the pope and his authority was restored in 1353-1367 by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz. He built on a commanding position a fortress which was not meant to protect Narni from external enemies, but to allow a small garrison to impose the will of the papal government. La Rocca as the fortress is called, was strengthened in the XVth century by several popes including Pope Pius II, whose coat of arms appears in the image used as a background for this page. Other images and data on the fortress can be seen in a page on the fortresses of the popes and in the historical section of this website.

Museum of Narni: Coronation of the Virgin by Domenico del Ghirlandaio from a Franciscan convent in the environs of Narni

Domenico di Tommaso del Ghirlandaio, who, from his talent and from the greatness and the vast number of his works, may be called one of the most important and most excellent masters of his age, was made by nature to be a painter; and for this reason, in spite of the opposition of those who had charge of him, (..) he followed his natural instinct, secured very great honour for himself and profit for his art and for his kindred, and became the great delight of his age.
Giorgio Vasari - Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects - transl. by G. Du C. De Vere
Ghirlandaio, a Florentine painter, was a pupil of il Perugino; in this altarpiece he was most likely influenced by the fresco by Filippino Lippi in the apse of the Cathedral of Spoleto (you may wish to see his Last Supper in the Museum of S. Marco in Florence).

(left) Inscription "PATRI PATRIAE CIVI B(ONO) ET BENEMERENTI PO(SUERUNT) NAR(NIENSES) EX PUB(LICO CONSULTO) celebrating Erolo Eroli, Bishop of Narni in 1578-1600 (according to Marquis Giovanni Eroli); (centre) Palazzo Eroli and S. Francesco where the Eroli had a private chapel which they could access from their palace; (right) interior (today the Museum of Narni)

Another well-known man was born here - Cardinal Bernardino Eroli, who died in 1479, and lies entombed in the crypt of St. Peter's in Rome. The Eroli are the sole surviving patrician family now left at Narni, where they live in the old family Palazzo. The present Marchese Giovanni Eroli is a man of some renown as an antiquary, an authority on historical subjects, as well as a living chronicle of the monuments in his native district, and a describer of them in his "Collection for Collectors" in the Miscellanea Narnese.
Ferdinand Gregorovius - An excursion through Sabina and Umbria in 1861 - Transl. by Dorothea Roberts
The Eroli are also known for three members of their family having been Bishops of Spoleto in a row.

S. Francesco: (left) Cappella Eroli: Pope Innocent III approves the Franciscan Rule by Pierantonio Mezzastris (ca 1470); (right) Cappella di S. Giuseppe: The Adoration of the Kings and the Flight to Egypt (in the background) by Alessandro Torresani (1570)

Cappella di S. Giuseppe became the sacristy of the church and its walls were whitewashed. The frescoes are currently being restored to bring them back to their brilliant colours.

(left) Cathedral: lateral view;

Medieval Narni expanded beyond the boundaries of the ancient Roman town: its cathedral had two accesses: one from the old town and one from its medieval expansion, the main square of which had a fountain almost identical to that in the old town.

Cathedral: façade towards the old town and detail of the frieze which decorates it.

The main entrance to the cathedral was embellished in 1497 by an elegant Renaissance portal decorated by a fine frieze which was inspired by typical ancient Roman reliefs (see a sarcophagus) or paintings (e.g. at the House of Augustus).

Renaissance portals: (left) Via Mazzini 18 with a 1938 plaque celebrating Galeotto Marzio; (right) Via Garibaldi 22 with the inscription "Thomas Lambardus I.U.D." (see similar ones at Magliano and Terni)

Galeotto Marzio (1427-1490), from a local noble family fell into trouble with the Inquisition because of his philosophical writings. He sought refuge at the court of Matthias Corvinus (aka the Just), King of Hungary and his book De egregie, sapienter, iocose dictis ac factis regis Mathiae (1485) is regarded as a reliable description of the king's deeds and of his court. Thanks to it Matthias the Just became a popular hero of Hungarian folk tales.
I.U.D. stands for iuris utriusque doctor, i.e. a scholar who has acquired a doctorate in both civil and church law. The degree was common among Roman Catholic scholars of the Middle Ages and early modern times. It was composed of canon (church) law and Roman (civil) law.

(left) Porta della Fiera; (right) Porta Nuova

Leander Albertus (Leandro Alberti, an Italian historian 1479-1552) saith Narni was ruined and left almost quite desolate by the Souldiers who were quartered there in the time that the Emperour Charles V besieged Pope Clement VII in the Castle Sant'Angelo.
John Ray - Observations made in a journey through part of (..) Italy, and France - 1673
The bus which links the railway station to Narni reaches the town by a modern road: the old road was much steeper and by walking up it, one is made aware of an episode of the town's history. Porta della Fiera is a medieval gate on the ancient Via Flaminia; once you have crossed it you find no evidence of the town; after two or three turns of the road you reach Porta Nuova, an imposing Renaissance gate, behind which you eventually see houses and other streets: this is because in 1527 the Landsknechts, the mercenary troops of Emperor Charles V who sacked Rome, did the same at Narni, on their way back to Germany. They set fire to an entire quarter of the town, which was never rebuilt: some thirty years later the design of the wall was modified and a new gate was built.

(left) Porta Romana; (right) Porta Ternana

Porta Romana was erected in ca 1570 at the southern entrance to the town of Via Flaminia. It stood at an angle to the road and it actually faced a ravine. In 1857, on the occasion of a visit to Narni by Pope Pius IX it was relocated to its current position.
Porta Ternana, the other gate crossed by Via Flaminia, was built in 1471-1492 and it was part of a fortification system which reached the castle at the top of the hill.

Palazzo Scotti: loggia (very similar to that of Palazzo Baldassini in Rome)

Narni did not recover from the 1527 sack and Palazzo Scotti is one of the few palaces which were built after the event. Today its design is attributed to Ippolito Scalza, an architect who spent most of his life (1532-1617) at Orvieto.

Funerary monuments: (left) Gabriele Massei (1494) in S. Domenico; (right) Domenico Alberti seniore (1713) in S. Francesco

The monument to Gabriele Massei was erected by his mother; Gabriele (ADOLESCENTIAE FIORE RAPTO) had been taken away in the flower of his youth when he was eighteen years old.
Domenico Alberti, Patritio Narniensi, was a benefactor who founded a charity to support poor children.
Both monuments reflect the prevailing styles of their time (see a 1500 funerary monument at Tarquinia and a page on Baroque funerary monuments portraying the dead in a medallion).

XVIIIth century orphanage

According to President de Brosses who lived in Rome in 1739, a quarter of its inhabitants lived off charitable institutions; this most likely was true also for Narni because the only new buildings completed in the XVIIIth century were orphanages and hospices. This orphanage was built by Cardinal Giuseppe Sacripante in 1712 and it included a wool factory where the boys above 12 years were taught a trade, similar to what was being done in Rome at Ospizio di S. Michele. Its design is attributed to Nicola Michetti, a Roman architect who redesigned Palazzo Colonna.

S. Agostino: (left) cloister which was redecorated in the XVIIIth century; (right) fresco portraying St. Augustine and the first sentence of his rule: "ANTE OMNIA FRATRES CARISSIMI DILIGATUR DEUS DEINDE PROXIMUS" (Before all else dearest brothers let God be loved and then your neighbour)

Return to page one or move on to Terni.