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Bagnoregio and Civita: the town of Saint Bonaventure overlooking the Valle dei Calanchi
Bagnoregio sits on a tufa terrace in the province of Viterbo, on the border with Umbria. The settlement is of Etruscan origin. Today it is best known for Civita, the hamlet accessible only on foot across a 300-metre bridge. Yet the main town has a history of its own that makes a visit very much worthwhile. It was in Civita, between 1217 and 1221, that St Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian and Doctor of the Church, was born. Reminders of the saint are everywhere: in the place names, in the July celebrations, in the small museum dedicated to him. The historic center overlooks the Valle dei Calanchi, one of the most remarkable geological landscapes in Lazio. Ridges of clay sculpted by erosion, shifting colours - grey at dawn, ochre at dusk. They can be seen from Bagnoregio without the crowds of Civita. It is a quieter and equally spectacular vantage point.
Places of worship and memory
In Civita, the birthplace of Saint Bonaventure - partly converted into a church in the 16th century - now lies in ruins on the edge of the cliff. The Grotto of Saint Bonaventure, an ancient Etruscan tomb near the Belvedere of San Francesco Vecchio, is the site where tradition places the miraculous healing of the young Giovanni Fidanza. The Gate of Santa Maria, the sole entrance to Civita, was built in 1558: the bas-reliefs on either side commemorate the revolt of 1457 against the Monaldeschi. In Bagnoregio, the Co-Cathedral of Saints Nicholas, Donatus and Bonaventure houses the "Holy Arm" (Santo Braccio), the only surviving relic of the Doctor of the Church. Outside the town centre stands the Pyramid, a memorial to the Garibaldian soldiers who fell in 1867 - a small monument overlooked by most visitors.
The Feast of St Bonaventure
On 15 July the village comes to a standstill to celebrate its patron saint. The Grotto becomes a place of pilgrimage, and the streets fill with processions. It is a celebration that has endured for eight centuries, and is renewed each year.
