Orvieto, from the Latin urbs vetus ("old city"), is an Italian town of 20 039 inhabitants in the province of Terni in Umbria. The municipality of Orvieto is located in the south-western sector of Umbria, in the province of Terni, about 45 km from Viterbo, bordering to the east with the province of Perugia and to the south with the province of Viterbo in Lazio.
1. Duomo di Orvieto (Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta)
The
undisputed star of Orvieto and one of Italy’s most spectacular Gothic
cathedrals dominates Piazza del Duomo. Construction began in 1290 under
Pope Nicholas IV to replace two smaller churches and commemorate the
1263 Miracle of Bolsena (a Eucharistic miracle involving a bleeding
host). Work spanned nearly three centuries (until around 1591), evolving
from Romanesque to full Italian Gothic with Sienese influences.
The
façade is a dazzling, “prickly” masterpiece often compared to a giant
medieval altarpiece. Designed primarily by Lorenzo Maitani (from 1310
onward), it features:
Four massive pillars divided by soaring
pinnacles.
Golden mosaics (restored in the 19th century) depicting
biblical scenes, including the Coronation of the Virgin at the top.
Intricate bas-reliefs by Maitani and his workshop on the four piers:
Genesis, the Tree of Jesse, scenes from the New Testament, and the Last
Judgment.
A grand rose window, three bronze doors (the central one by
Emilio Greco in the 1960s), and alabaster windows that flood the
interior with soft, glowing light.
Inside, the nave feels vast
and luminous thanks to the black-and-white striped marble and alabaster.
Highlights include:
The Chapel of the Corporal (left transept),
housing the relic of the Bolsena miracle and frescoes by Ugolino di
Prete Ilario (1357–1364) telling the miracle’s story.
The Chapel of
San Brizio (right transept, also called Cappella Nuova), one of the
Renaissance’s greatest fresco cycles. Started by Fra Angelico and
Benozzo Gozzoli, it was completed by Luca Signorelli (1499–1504).
Signorelli’s vivid, muscular figures depict the Last Judgment,
Resurrection of the Flesh, Damned in Hell, Antichrist, and Paradise with
dramatic energy that influenced Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
The ceiling vaults show prophets and angels.
2. Pozzo di San
Patrizio (St. Patrick’s Well)
This Renaissance engineering marvel,
commissioned by Pope Clement VII (who fled to Orvieto after the 1527
Sack of Rome), was designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and built
1527–1537. The 54-meter-deep (about 62 meters including the water level)
cylindrical well ensured water supply during sieges.
Its genius lies
in the double-helix staircase: two independent spiral ramps (one for
descending, one for ascending) wrapped around the shaft, allowing mules
and people to move without crossing paths. Staggered windows light the
interior dramatically. Legend links the name to St. Patrick’s Purgatory
cave in Ireland due to its depth.
3. Orvieto Underground (Orvieto
Sotterranea)
Beneath the historic center lies a labyrinth of over
1,200 man-made caves, tunnels, wells, cisterns, and chambers carved into
the tuff over nearly three millennia. Etruscans began the network around
the 6th–5th centuries BC for cisterns, olive-oil presses, dovecotes
(pigeon coops), and quarries. Medieval and later inhabitants expanded it
for cellars, mills, kilns, refuse pits, and even WWII air-raid shelters.
Guided tours (about 1 hour, offered by the official Orvieto Underground
association) reveal a fascinating slice: Etruscan-era wells, a medieval
olive-oil mill with original grindstones and presses, dovecotes, and
tunnels once used for escape or storage. The soft tuff was easy to carve
but stable enough for multi-level use. Separate sites like Pozzo della
Cava offer private tours of additional caves with pottery kilns and more
recent history.
4. Necropoli Etrusca del Crocifisso del Tufo
(Etruscan Necropolis)
Just below the northern cliff face, this
extraordinary 6th–5th century BC “city of the dead” features over 200
chamber tombs arranged in an orthogonal grid of streets—like a miniature
Etruscan town. Tombs are built from massive tuff blocks, typically
rectangular with lintels often bearing family names in Etruscan script.
Some retain traces of a carved crucifix (hence the name).
Artifacts
from here (pottery, jewelry, weapons) fill the local Museo Archeologico
Nazionale and Museo Claudio Faina. It’s a peaceful, green park site
offering a rare glimpse into Etruscan burial customs and urban planning.
Other Notable Landmarks
Torre del Moro (47m medieval clock tower
in the heart of town): Climb for 360° views over rooftops and
countryside.
Rocca Albornoz (Albornoz Fortress): 14th–15th-century
papal fortress with ramparts and parkland; great for sunset views.
Temple of Belvedere ruins: Traces of an Etruscan temple near the
necropolis.
Piazza del Popolo and medieval palaces (e.g., Palazzo del
Capitano del Popolo): Atmospheric squares lined with noble buildings.
Topography and Physical Features
Orvieto’s most striking
geographic feature is its near-vertical tuff cliffs, which create a
naturally fortified, mesa-like plateau emerging like an island from the
fertile plains below. The butte measures roughly 1.3–1.5 km long and up
to 700 m wide at its widest point, with a relatively flat top that the
medieval town fully occupies—its perimeter aligning almost exactly with
the edges of the rock formation.
Access to the summit is limited and
steep (historically just one main path, now supplemented by a funicular
from the base station in Orvieto Scalo). Defensive walls of the same
tuff stone reinforce the cliffs in places, but the position made
extensive fortifications largely unnecessary. The surrounding terrain
within the comune (total area 281.27 km²) features significant elevation
variations: the broader topographic map of the area shows an average
elevation of around 356 m, with the minimum around 70–230 m in the
valley floors and maximums reaching up to 835 m in the nearby hills
toward the Apennine foothills.
The plateau itself is part of a series
of erosional remnants (mesas and buttes) carved from the larger Alfina
volcanic plateau.
Geology and Formation
Geologically, Orvieto
rests on a Pliocene marine clay base (low-permeability sediments from an
ancient seabed) overlain by a layer of Quaternary volcanic tuff (tufa)
deposited around 315,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene. This
tuff originated from pyroclastic flows and magma from the Vulsini
volcanic complex (centered near what is now Lake Bolsena in northern
Lazio). Tectonic activity, including a NW-SE normal fault, created a
raised block against which the volcanic material accumulated, forming
the broader Alfina plateau. Subsequent selective erosion by the Paglia
River and its tributaries isolated the Orvieto butte as an erosional
relict.
The tuff layer is 40–70 m thick and consists of
trachyte-phonolite pyroclastics with two main facies: a harder, more
lithified “sillar” (reddish-yellow, with vertical cooling fissures) and
a looser “pozzolana” (ashy and more erodible). Tuff is porous and
relatively soft when first exposed but hardens on contact with air,
making it ideal for carving yet vulnerable to long-term weathering. The
rock is honeycombed with over 1,200 man-made caves, tunnels, wells, and
chambers dug since Etruscan times for water storage, wine cellars, grain
silos, workshops, and defense—there is no natural surface water on the
plateau due to the rock’s permeability.
This geology also poses
ongoing challenges: the edges are prone to landslides and gradual
erosion, which have reduced the plateau’s area over centuries and
continue to threaten the historic center.
Hydrology and Rivers
Orvieto lies on the right bank of the fertile Paglia River valley, near
the confluence with the Chiani (Chiana) River. The Paglia, a major
tributary of the Tiber River, flows at the base of the cliffs and has
played a central role in shaping the landscape through erosion. The
valley is broad, irrigated, and highly productive.
The plateau’s
porous tuff means rainwater percolates downward into the underlying
clays, which act as an aquitard; ancient inhabitants relied on cisterns
and underground collection systems.
Surrounding Landscape and
Broader Comune
Beyond the dramatic butte, the comune encompasses
rolling hills, alluvial plains, vineyards, olive groves, and
cypress-dotted countryside characteristic of central Italy. The
territory includes dispersed rural hamlets (such as Ciconia, Orvieto
Scalo, and Prodo) and transitions from the volcanic plateau remnants
toward the Apennine foothills to the east. Soils are fertile—volcanic
minerals enrich the tuff-derived earth, supporting agriculture and the
renowned Orvieto white wines. The landscape is a mix of cultivated
fields, woodlands, and gentle valleys, with the Paglia providing
irrigation and drainage.
Climate
Orvieto has a Mediterranean
climate (Köppen Csa/Cfa transition—humid subtropical with Mediterranean
influences), moderated slightly by its elevation. Annual average
temperature is about 13.9°C (57°F). Temperatures typically range from
2–3°C (36–37°F) in winter lows to 29–30°C (84–86°F) in summer highs,
with extremes rarely below –3°C (26°F) or above 35°C (96°F). Summers
(June–August) are hot and relatively dry; winters (December–February)
are mild and cooler, with occasional frost but rarely prolonged
freezing. Precipitation averages 900–1,000 mm (35–39 inches) annually,
distributed across 10–15 rainy days per month. The wettest period is
autumn (peak in November at ~120–133 mm), while July and August are the
driest (~44–50 mm). The elevated position provides breezier conditions
and panoramic views but can experience more exposure to winds.
In the municipal area there are
archaeological remains that attest to the presence of human groups
since the Paleolithic. As for the plateau on which the ancient
nucleus of the city stands, the finds, for the most part fragments
collected at the foot of the ridge (excavations in the locality of
Cannicella and systematic explorations) and coming from the
settlement systems and activities that took place on the plateau
itself, a small part dates back to the Bronze Age and mostly to the
Early Iron Age.
For the most ancient phases, a fragment of a
vase with decoration in the "Apennine" style (XV-XIV century BC) and
others from the final Bronze Age (XII-X century BC) should be
mentioned, but it remains uncertain whether the groups allocated had
identified the strategic potential of the Orvieto mesa already in
times when they were unable to occupy and control it in its
entirety.
It is at the end of the 10th century BC. that,
concomitantly with the birth of the other large Etruscan urban
centers, also on the vast and suitable cliff of Orvieto there is a
community that structures a vast and active unitary settlement; the
demographic consistency of the resident community immediately had to
make it possible to defend the perimeter, of about 4 km and already
in itself equipped with natural defenses, but it is certain that the
demographic increase, also due to the new organizational situation,
meant that already in the course of the early Iron Age on the
plateau of Orvieto (about 85 hectares) a proto-urban community of
several thousand individuals was established, also here, as in all
the great cities of Etruria, characterized by the archaeological
aspect called Villanovan.
Etruscan period
The
archaeological evidence of the Etruscan era, provided by excavation
campaigns and studies conducted up to recent years, offer a fairly
reliable, although still incomplete, picture of the ancient city,
identified after many uncertainties and controversies among
archaeologists, in the city of of the twelve Etruscan city-states.
Called by the Romans "Volsinii", it stood near a famous Etruscan
sanctuary, Fanum Voltumnae, visited every year by the inhabitants of
Etruria who came to celebrate religious rites, games and events. The
city had, from the eighth to the sixth century BC, a notable
economic development, which mainly benefited wealthy families in a
strongly oligarchic regime, and a demographic increase which, in the
composition of the population, shows the opening to a multiethnic
city; all this is reflected in the remains of the city on the cliff
and mainly in the nearby necropolis. The city reached its maximum
splendor between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, becoming a
thriving commercial and artistic center, with a military supremacy
guaranteed by its strategic position that gave it the appearance of
a natural fortress.
Roman period
Between the end of the
4th and the beginning of the 3rd century BC. the social order that
had allowed the growth of the city cracked. The previously excluded
classes conquered the government of public affairs and the
dissension between the classes became violent, until the nobles
asked the Romans for help. These, in 264 BC, took the opportunity to
send the army to Volsinii and, instead of subduing it, they
destroyed it and deported the inhabitants who had escaped the
slaughter on the shores of the nearby lake of Bolsena, where
Volsinii Novi (Bolsena) was built. We do not know the reason for
this fury towards the city by the Romans who, according to literary
news, transported to Rome over two thousand statues looted from
Orvieto sanctuaries, and evoked in the city the god Vertumnus, the
main divinity of the Etruscans. The translation of the physical city
of ancient Orvieto from one site to another will be repeated in the
opposite direction, still caused by other invasions. The early
medieval citadel of Ourbibentos was then re-founded on the Orvieto
cliff which, in the space of a few centuries, will become a new city
with the name of Urbs Vetus (old city).
After the collapse of the Western Roman
Empire, Orvieto became the domain of the Goths until 553 when, after
a bloody battle and a siege, it was conquered by the Byzantines of
Belisario. Subsequently, after the establishment of the Duchy of
Spoleto, he became Lombard. Shortly before the year 1000, the city,
located on the border line of Byzantine Italy, of which it
constituted an important strategic node, flourished again, expanding
its urban fabric with the construction of fortifications, palaces,
towers and churches.
Free Municipality
Orvieto, the
residential seat of the pontifical courts on repeated occasions, is
the City of Corpus Domini: from here, on 11 August 1264, Pope Urban
IV instituted the universal Christian solemnity of Corpus et Sanguis
Domini, celebrated throughout the Catholic world. The office of the
mass was drawn up by St. Thomas Aquinas, a professor in the Studium
of Orvieto. It became a municipality, but even if it was not
officially part of the patrimony of San Pietro, it was under his
control; to be recognized as a municipal government it needed a
declaration of consent from Pope Adrian IV in 1157.
In the
twelfth century Orvieto, strong with a fierce army, began to expand
its borders which, after victorious battles against Siena, Viterbo,
Perugia and Todi, saw it dominate over a vast territory that went
from the Val di Chiana to the lands of Orbetello and of Talamone on
the Tyrrhenian Sea. In its expansion, Orvieto had made a powerful
ally: Florence (Siena's rival) which had supported its rise. The
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the period of maximum
splendor for Orvieto which, with a population of about thirty
thousand inhabitants (even higher than that of Rome), became an
undisputed military power, and saw the birth of splendid palaces and
monuments in its urban territory.
The internal struggles
But paradoxically this era also saw the birth of furious internal
struggles in the city. Two patrician families, the Guelph
Monaldeschi and the Ghibelline Filippeschi, tortured the city with
bloody battles which, together with the subsequent religious fights
between the Malcorini, pro-imperial, and the Muffatti, papal,
weakened the municipal power favoring, in 1354, the conquest by of
Cardinal Egidio Albornoz. In this lapse of time, other noteworthy
events were recorded in Orvieto: Pope Innocent III, from the pulpits
of the church of Sant'Andrea, had proclaimed the Fourth Crusade; in
1281, in the same church, in the presence of Charles I of Anjou,
Pope Martin IV was elevated to the papacy and, in 1297, in the
church of San Francesco, the canonization of Louis IX of France,
present Pope Boniface VIII, took place.
After Cardinal
Albornoz, Orvieto was subjected to various lordships: Rinaldo
Orsini, Biordo Michelotti, Giovanni Tomacello and Braccio
Fortebraccio to return then, in 1450, definitively to be part of the
State of the Church, becoming one of the most important provinces
and constituting the alternative in Rome for many popes, bishops and
cardinals who came to stay there. The seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were periods of tranquility for the city. Under the
Napoleonic Empire it rose to a canton inserted in the arrondissement
of Todi passing a short decline and recovering later, in 1831, under
the Church, it was elevated to apostolic delegation.
During the Italian Risorgimento, Orvieto remained part of the Papal State until the Piedmontese campaign in central Italy in September 1860; even before the arrival of the regular Piedmontese troops committed to defeating the papal army, the volunteers of the so-called "hunters of the Tiber", led by Luigi Masi, on 12 September 1860 freed Orvieto and forced the weak papal garrison of the city to surrender. After the end of hostilities, the final fate of Orvieto initially remained in doubt; there was talk of the restoration of the papal dominion and the arrival of the French troops of the Roman occupation corps who had already arrived in Viterbo to safeguard the temporal power of the Church in Lazio. On October 15, 1860 Cavour himself intervened directly with the French foreign minister Édouard Thouvenel and with Prince Jerome Napoleon, underlining how the emperor Napoleon III himself had previously ensured that Orvieto would no longer be part of the dominion of the Church. On 18 October 1860, the French authorities ensured that the city would not be occupied and would remain included in the territory of Umbria to be submitted to a plebiscite for admission to the new Kingdom of Italy.
On 4-5 November 1860 the plebiscite in Umbria decreed with an
overwhelming majority the annexation of the region, including the
city of Orvieto, to the new unified Italian state.
In the
second world war
During the Second World War the city and the
territory of Orvieto assumed considerable strategic importance;
during the Achse operation the German troops of the 3.
Panzergrenadier-Division, deployed in a large area between Umbria,
northern Lazio and southern Tuscany, acted quickly and occupied the
city, together with Viterbo from the first hours after 8 September ,
Montefiascone and Orte, before advancing towards Rome. During the
months of the occupation, the Germans used the airfields in the
area.
In the phase of the Italian campaign following the
liberation of Rome, on 5 June 1944, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
had his forces retreated to the Albert line which connected the area
of Lake Trasimeno with Orvieto. The German troops of the 29th
Panzergrenadier-Division tenaciously defended the access roads to
the city until 14 June when they evacuated Orvieto and retreated
towards Siena. The city was liberated by British units of the 78th
Infantry Division while South African mechanized forces of the 6th
Armored Division were also employed in the area.
According to a decree of 1928, the coat of arms of the Municipality
of Orvieto consists of a shield divided into four surmounted by a
crown. Four symbols are represented in the four divisions: the
Cross, the Eagle, the Lion and the Goose.
The red cross on a
white field symbolizes the loyalty of the Municipality to the Guelph
faction and was recognized to the Municipality of Orvieto by Pope
Adrian IV in 1157.
The black eagle with a golden crown on a
red background refers to the domination of the Romans. The golden
lambello with five pendants was placed around the eagle's neck when
Charles of Anjou granted Orvieto the title of "city", after being
crowned king of the Kingdom of Sicily by Pope Clement IV in the
cathedral of Orvieto. The lambello recalls the red one of the house
of Anjou.
The lion on a red background holds a silver sword
in the right paw and the keys of St. Peter in the left. It recalls
the Florentine lion, in memory of the historic alliance between the
two cities. The keys, with the motto fortis et fidelis, are a
concession of Pope Adrian IV in recognition of Orvieto's long
loyalty to the papacy.
The goose, with one leg raised above a
stone, refers to the legendary geese of the Capitol which, with
their cackle, saved Rome from the attack of enemies.