Through the Gate

The bridge ends at the gate, the tunnel-like entry into Civita. Arriving at this threshold to the town, we have returned to the height of the original peninsula and look back at the belvedere or look out point, at a similar height across the deep ravine we have just crossed. A low stone wall interrupts the remains of the ancient roadway that once provided the connection between Civita and the world beyond. To the side of the gate stand several house facades, roofless ruins giving the impression that we are about to enter an abandoned town. 

Medieval towns were usually fortified with tall walls and imposing gates. Civita, like many other cities of this region, used the natural cliff faces to form its city walls and built monumental city gates with heavily reinforced doors to seal off the city from the outside at night and in times of siege. Civita's city doors have long since vanished but one gateway still remains as a testimonial to medieval ways of life. Fragments of medieval sculpture and ancient columns have been embedded into the wall surrounding the large stone Gothic arch of the town gate.

Passage through the stone vaulted tunnel of the city gate refocuses our attention upon the world within Civita. The sense of entering an earlier time is heightened as we notice that the ancient roadway through the gate is deeply carved into the tufo stone of the hill. Medieval fragments support stone benches for those wishing to rest within the cool shade of the passageway on a hot summer day. Upon entering the gate, the access road to Civita transforms into the main street with the rough gray paving stones continuing in a straight and gentle ascent into the middle of town. From the deeply shaded covered gateway a brightly-lit corner of a church attracts our attention directly ahead.

Before reaching the church, we pass along one side of a small piazza just inside the gate. The postcard display of a souvenir shop and tables outside a bar now cry out for attention as it becomes clear that we are not entering an abandoned town and are certainly not the first visitors. Sounds of laughter, the echo of a soccer ball bouncing off a stone wall and various conversations now attract our attention ahead as we arrive in a few short steps at the heart of the town, the main piazza.

Starting with the corner of the church visible from the town gate, the Renaissance church front progressively unfolds with each approaching step, climaxed by the sight of its soaring bell tower, the medieval campanile. Each approaching step also reveals the surprising size of this piazza and of the church, which after all was once a cathedral, the seat of a bishop. Once the largest and most important of a number of churches in town, many associated with convents and monasteries, today only this church, dedicated to San Donato, is still standing and in use. A short but wide flight of stairs leads up to the platform on which the church rests. This platform occupies the highest as well as the most central piece of ground in the town and reflects the common tradition of an ancient temple site being replaced by a church in Christian times. Several stubs of granite columns stand in front of the steps, reminders of the ancient temple. They were used to build a portico in front of the church, in turn replaced in the sixteenth century by the Renaissance facade we see today. The column remnants now provide perches for children and serve as home base for games of hide and seek on summer evenings. The church, the piazza, and the church steps serve as the center of Civita's social life, particularly for local holidays.

The church dominates the space of the piazza, but another imposing building forms the south wall, flanking the main street that continues along the side of the space. In Renaissance times the most influential family of the town constructed this imposing three-story house, still known as the Palazzo Alemanni. Today it is owned by the local government, and the upper floor houses an excellent museum that explains the geological history of Civita. During all the years that we have been coming to Civita  there has been a snack bar conveniently located on the ground floor just inside the palazzo's main door. There are now three restaurants by the piazza.

Today a wide variety of people share the piazza. Besides serving as the social center for the inhabitants of Civita, an international assortment of new residents and visitors also use the space. The population of Civita varies from about twelve in the coldest part of the winter to perhaps a hundred in August, when many of the vacation houses are in use. The main piazza occupies the site of the Roman equivalent, a forum. Remnants of the ancient city grid of streets can still be observed, but centuries of steady erosion of the edges of the town and medieval encroachments into the streets have resulted in a more irregular plan. Only one thoroughfare traverses the entire length of the city (about 1000 feet). This main street forms the backbone of the city plan with numerous narrow side streets leading abruptly to barriers at the point where they have been sheared off by the eroding cliff face. The main street and the piazza are enclosed, urban spaces, but the side streets allow unexpected glimpses of the surrounding landscape.