Civita di Bagnoregio is an outlying village of the comune of Bagnoregio in the Province of Viterbo in central Italy. It lies 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) east of the town of Bagnoregio and about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Rome. The only access is a footbridge from the nearby town, with a toll introduced in 2013. Because of the toll, communal taxes were abolished in Civita and nearby Bagnoregio. And because of its unstable foundation that often erodes, Civita is famously known as “the dying city”. It is one of I Borghi più belli d’Italia (“The most beautiful villages of Italy”).
Civita is situated in the valley of the badlands (Valle dei Calanchi), a region east of Lake Bolsena and west of the Tiber Valley, in the municipality of Bagnoregio. It consists of two main valleys: the Fossato del Rio Torbido and the Fossato del Rio Chiaro. Originally these places might have been easier to reach and were crossed by an ancient road that linked the Tiber Valley to Lake Bolsena.
Civita, which is inhabited by only 16 people, is situated in a solitary area and it is reachable only by a reinforced concrete pedestrian bridge built in 1995. The bridge is generally restricted to pedestrians, but to meet the requirements of residents and workers the Municipality of Bagnoregio issued a statement that these people may cross the bridge by bike or by motorcycle at certain times. The reason for its isolation is the progressive erosion of the hill and the nearby valley which creates the badlands; this process is still ongoing and there is the danger that the village could disappear. This is why Civita is also known as “The Dying Town”.
The city is also much admired for its architecture spanning several hundred years. Civita di Bagnoregio owes much of its unaltered condition to its relative isolation; the town was able to withstand most intrusions of modernity as well as the destruction brought by two world wars. The population today is 11 people, but due to several bed-and-breakfasts the village gets busy in the summer months. The town was placed on the World Monuments Fund‘s 2006 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites, because of threats it faces from erosion and unregulated tourism.
Inside the village there are several medieval houses; the church of San Donato, which overlooks the main square and inside which the holy wooden crucifix is kept; Alemanni Palace, home of the Geological and Landslides Museum; the Bishop’s Palace, a mill of the 16th century; the remains of the house where St. Bonaventure was born and the door of Santa Maria, with two lions holding a human head between their paws, in memory of a popular revolt of the inhabitants of Civita against the Orvieto family of Monaldeschi. In 2005 there was a proposal for the gullies of Civita to become a site of community interest.
Thanks to its evocative geographical position and its medieval buildings, the town attracts many tourists, and several times it has been used as a movie set.
