Narni

Narni (Narnia) is an ancient hilltown and comune (municipality) of Umbria, in central Italy, with 19,252 inhabitants (2017). At an altitude of 240 m, it overhangs a narrow gorge of the River Nera in the province of Terni. It is very close to the geographical centre of Italy. There is a stone on the exact spot with a sign in multiple languages.

History
The area around Narni was already inhabited in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, as attested by finds in some of the caves. Around the start of the first millennium the Osco-Umbrians, a people with a language of Indo-European origin that dominated the left bank of the Tiber that vertically cuts the region to the Adriatic sea, settled in the area and called the town Nequinum. Records mention Nequinum as early as 600BC.

The Romans conquered Nequinum in the 4th century BC and made it a position of force at a key point of the Via Flaminia, the famous road which connected the city of Rome to the Adriatic Sea (at that time the road passed through the town descending to the right bank of the Nera to then carrying on to Carsulae, Acquasparta, Massa Martana and Spoleto). It supported the Gauls with the hope of freeing itself from Rome. The attempt failed and the victorious Romans changed its name to Narnia after the nearby Nar River; as in the case of Benevento, the former name was considered of ill augury— in nequeo means 'I am unable', and nequitia means 'worthlessness'.

During Roman times the town was a strategic outpost for the Roman army. In 299BC it became a Roman Municipality and took the name Narnia. The rediscovery, in the late 20th – early 21st century, of an ancient Roman shipyard within its territory has made researchers hypothesise its particular importance during the Punic Wars. In 209BC, however, Narnia refused to help the Romans financially with their aim of continuing the war against Carthage.

The Roman Emperor Nerva was born at Narni in 30AD.

Narnia is mentioned in an Early Christian list of "false gods" in the second century Church father Tertullian's Apologeticus, midway into Chapter 21: "Not even a human being would care to have unwilling homage rendered him and so the very Egyptians have been permitted the legal use of their ridiculous superstition, liberty to make gods of birds and beasts, nay, to condemn to death any One who kills a god of their sort. Every province even, and every city, has its god. Syria has Astarte, Arabia has Dusares, the Norici have Belenus, Africa has its Caelestis, Mauritania has its own princes. I have spoken, I think, of Roman provinces, and yet I have not said their gods are Roman for they are not worshipped at Rome any more than others who are ranked as deities over Italy itself by municipal consecration, such as Delventinus of Casinum, Visidianus of Narnia, Ancharia of Asculum, Nortia of Volsinii, Valentia of Ocriculum, Hostia of Satrium, Father Curls of Falisci, in honour of whom, too, Juno got her surname."

In Late Antiquity it suffered the events of the Greek-Gothic War (535–554) and was plundered by Totila. Narni was contested by the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto in the late sixth century as the city controlled the southern reaches of the Via Flaminia, an essential route between Rome and Ravenna. Seat of a Lombard gastald, Narnia embraced the cause of Otho I of Saxony thanks to the mediation of its bishop, by then Pope John XVII. Narni was part of the possessions of the Countess Matilde, once more part of the Dominions of the Church in 726. In 755 Fulrad went to "Rome carrying the keys of these towns, which he handed to the Pope... : Ravenna, Ariminum, Pisaurum, Conca, Fanus, Caesenae, Senogalliae, Esium, Forum Pompilii, Forum Livii, Narnia and others". During the late 9th to early 10th century, Narni was, along with much of central Italy, a stronghold of—or threatened by—the Saracens.

From the 11th century it began to increase in wealth and power, was opposed to Pope Paschal II in 1112 and rose against Barbarossa in 1167. This insubordination cost Narni a ferocious repression imposed by the archbishop Christian of Mainz, Barbarossa's chancellor. In 1242 Narni, prevalently tied to the Guelph party, entered into an alliance with Perugia and Rome against the Empire.

In the following century it was included in the reconquest of the papal patrimony by Cardinal Albornoz, who also had the mighty Rocca built. It was the work of Ugolino di Montemarte, known as il Gattapone. He was also author of the plans for the Loggia dei Priori and the Colonnade that faces out onto the Piazza dei Priori together with the 13th-century Palazzo del Podestà and the 14th-century fountain.

In 1373 Narni was given as fief to the Orsini to whom it returned in 1409. Occupied by King Ladislaus of Naples, in the 15th century, to be soon again reabsorbed by the church, thanks to Braccio da Montone. A decisive turning-point in Narni's history was reached on July15, 1527 The troops of Charles V, mostly in fact German mercenaries (Landsknechts), put the city to fire and sword; it lost its ancient prosperity. Even the inhabitants of Terni took advantage of the situation to deliver their blame to give vent to their long-repressed hatred of Narni. Its reconstruction gives it a physiognomy characteristic of the cities in Papal territory. It became part of the Roman Republic in 1789. In 1831 it joined the revolt against Gregory XVI and was annexed to the Italian Kingdom in 1860.

Monuments and sites of interest
Like many of the smaller towns of Umbria, Narni is still of strikingly medieval appearance today, with stone buildings, and narrow cobblestone streets. The town is famous for one of the largest Roman bridges (Ponte d'Augusto ) ever built, by which the Via Flaminia crossed the Nera. One arch of the bridge still stands; it is some 30 m high.

Religious
There are a number of historical churches in the town:
 * Il duomo, Co-cathedral of Saint Juvenal
 * Church of Sant'Agostino – decorated with 18th-century trompe-l'œil frescoes
 * ; a former Benedictine abbey located on Monte Santa Croce
 * San Domenico – 12th-century church
 * San Francesco – church located near the Palazzo dei Priori, built in late-Romanesque and Gothic styles
 * Santa Margherita – late 16th-century Renaissance-style church
 * Santa Maria Impensole – 12th-century Romanesque church in the town's centre
 * Church of Santa Pudenziana – Romanesque church just outside the town
 * Santa Restituta – small church that was historically part of a Clarissan convent

Secular and civic

 * Communal Palace (13th century)
 * Palazzo dei Priori, located in the ancient Roman forum's site
 * Rocca Albornoziana (or, Albornoz' Castle), overlooking the town, now hosting temporary exhibitions
 * Eroli Museum with a Domenico Ghirlandaio's altarpiece

Narnia and C. S. Lewis
The imaginary land of Narnia, described in the works of C. S. Lewis, was named after Narni after he came across the name in an atlas as a child.

Concerning Narnia and Narni Roger Lancelyn Green writes about C.S. Lewis and Walter Hooper: "When Walter Hooper asked [C.S. Lewis] where he found the word 'Narnia', Lewis showed him Murray's Small Classical Atlas, ed.G.B. Grundy (1904), which he acquired when he was reading the classics with Mr Kirkpatrick at Great Bookham [1914–1917]. On plate 8 of the Atlas is a map of ancient Italy. Lewis had underscored the name of a little town called Narnia, simply because he liked the sound of it. Narnia — or 'Narni' in Italian — is in Umbria, halfway between Rome and Assisi. Narnia, a small medieval town, is situated at the top of an olive-covered hill. It was already ancient when the Romans defeated it in 299 BC. Its thirteenth-century fortress dominates a deep, narrow gorge of the Nera river which runs below. One of its most important archaeological features is a Romanesque cathedral, which contains the relics of a number of Umbrian saints."

People

 * Marcus Cocceius Nerva (30–98), Roman emperor from AD 96 to 98
 * Juvenal of Narni (San Giovenale di Narni, died in 369 or 377), first bishop of Narni and saint
 * Erasmo of Narni (1370–1443), best known as "Gattamelata", a famous condottiere
 * Rino Gaetano (1950–1981), singer-songwriter. He studied at the Piccola Opera del Sacro Cuore from 1961 to 1967.
 * Berardo Eroli (1409–1479), cardinal
 * Lucia Brocadelli of Narni (1476–1544), Blessed Lucy of Narni