Bevagna

Bevagna,

Bevagna, city of Valle Umbra, in the province of Perugia, rises up to 225 mt above sea level.

Decentralized from Via Flaminia, it offers the visitor attentive to the search for peculiar details and intact environment, the richness of historical evidence, the presence of a splendid square, the genuineness of wines and food, the beauty of the environment and an appreciated craft production.

The presence of Clitunno Teverone and Timia rivers and of other watercourses such as the Attone torrent has always contributed to make fertile the land.

The city is surrounded by walls and is rich in Roman and medieval monuments. Numerous remains attest to the human presence since the Iron Age. Roman town hall (90 b.C.), ascribed to the Aemilia tribe, is at the center of the great viability set by the Romans with Via Flaminia that determines the prosperity of Mevania up to the III century after Christ. The spread of Christianity causes numerous martyrs among whom St. Vincent, the first bishop and patron of the country.

In the course of the centuries, the city witnesses alternate vicissitudes under the subjection to the Church and the Empire, but it remains substantially faithful to the former until the advent of the Unification of Italy, even though many human lives were sacrificed.

The name. According to some historians, it derives from the Etruscan noble Mefana, an indication of an Etruscan presence before the arrival of Umbrian people. Then Mevania for the Romans. For others “the city was the probable capital of the Umbrian league: the name Mevania (the root medh-, which is the same as the latin word Medius) is perhaps to be interpreted as “(the city) that stands in the middle “, to indicate its geographical and political centrality”. (S.Sisani, Umbria Marche, Laterza 2006).

The emblem. In 1360 Pope Innocent IV granted the new coat of arms with the cross, the church’s deciphered keys and the initials OSF (ob servatam fidem) which replaced the oldest one consisting of three or four honey pots.

HOW TO REACH BEVAGNA: By car. From the North, A1 Highway exit Valdichiana, then SS 75 towards Perugia-Foligno. From the South, A1 exit Orte, then SS Flaminia direction Terni-Spoleto- Foligno. From Todi, direction Foligno, SR 316 of Monti Martani. By train: Foligno train station, Florence-Terontola-Perugia lines; Roma-Orte; Ancona-Foligno