Bassano in Teverina and its stories
In Tuscia Viterbese, a tiny village overlooking the Tiberina Valley.
Where is
Where is Bassano in Teverina
Between Orte and Bomarzo, on the border between Lazio and Umbria, here is Bassano in Teverina, one of the smallest towns in the Viterbo area, overlooking the wide Tiber valley. It greets us from afar with its lookout, the 25-meter-high Clock Tower, which towers above the low rooftops. The light and the silence give a special charm to this village: this is probably why it became the favorite retreat of the American abstractionist painter Cy Twombly for a good thirty years, who bought an important historic building here, now home to the Iris Foundation.
Why it's special: the Matryoshka Tower
For five centuries, the 16th-century Clock Tower has guarded an incredible secret, discovered only in the 1970s: inside the Tower hides... a Romanesque bell tower! It was the Madruzzo family who decided to incorporate the bell tower into a mighty defensive tower, but they did so more out of vanity than military necessity.
Don't miss
At Christmas, the whole village gets active for the Living Nativity, with workshops of ancient crafts. A celebration for the whole community. But in any season it is nice to walk among the stone houses to discover the many small treasures of the village: the old wash house, the 16th-century fountain, the large checkerboard drawn on the square, the two churches... And in the immediate vicinity await an art park, the "Valley of Presences," and the small Vadimone lake, which, perhaps because of its sulfurous waters, was said in ancient times to be the work of the devil himself.
A history of resilience
It has an ancient history, Bassano. It was inhabited as early as Etruscan times and suffered many abandonments, mainly due to the landslides of the tuffaceous terrain. The last one, however, was different: it was in 1943, when during an aerial bombardment a load of explosives was hit hard. The explosion was tremendous. The village suffered very serious damage and many of the inhabitants were forced to leave forever. Today, however, Bassano is reborn thanks to a thorough restoration project, which will bring new life to its ancient streets and stairways.
Fun fact: The legend of Lake Vadimone.
The historian Polybius tells of a battle between the Etruscans and Romans that took place in 283 B.C. right near Lake Vadimone, so bloody that the waters of the Tiber were dyed red by the blood spilled by the Etruscans, bringing news of their defeat all the way to Rome.
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