Civita di Bagnoregio

The Etruscans founded Civita more than 2,500 years ago on a plateau of tuff and lava above a base of soft marine clay, and laid out its streets on an orthogonal plan that still survives. Its position near the routes linking the Tiber valley with Lake Bolsena made it prosperous. Chamber tombs were cut into its cliffs, and a deep tunnel, the Bucaione, gave access from the town to the valley below. The Etruscans already struggled with earthquakes and landslides, and the Romans, who arrived in 265 BC, continued their drainage and stream-control works.

In the Middle Ages Civita was the main town and Bagnoregio its suburb. Giovanni Fidanza, who became Saint Bonaventure and died in 1274, was born here. By the 16th century the town was declining in favour of Bagnoregio, and a major earthquake at the end of the 17th century drove the bishop and the municipal government to move there; the area was then part of the Papal States.

Erosion worsened in the 19th century as a layer of clay beneath the tuff was exposed, cutting the village off. It became known as la città che muore, "the dying town", a phrase coined by the writer Bonaventura Tecchi, who spent his youth here. The present footbridge was built in 1965. In 2006 Civita was placed on the World Monuments Fund's watch list, and in 2021 the mayor of Bagnoregio proposed it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Civita has become a symbol of fragile beauty, and its isolation preserved a townscape that escaped both modern building and the destruction of the two World Wars. It is listed among the most beautiful villages of Italy and has long attracted film-makers: scenes from The Two Colonels (1962) and from Tarkovsky's Nostalghia (1983) were shot here, Hayao Miyazaki took it as inspiration for Castle in the Sky (1986), and in 2026 it appeared in the opening scene of the Netflix series Can This Love Be Translated?.

Religious tradition centres on the wooden crucifix in the church of San Donato. According to legend, during a plague in the 15th century the cross spoke to a woman who prayed before it every day, promising that the epidemic would end. On Good Friday the crucifix is carried in Bagnoregio's procession, and the village's two feast days, in June and September, are marked by the Palio della Tonna, a donkey race between Civita's districts in the main square.

Saint Bonaventure, the Franciscan theologian born here, remains the area's great figure, and Bagnoregio has several churches in his memory. The late-summer jazz festival and a living nativity at Christmas bring music and crowds into the old streets.

About ten people lived in Civita in 2025. The village is part of the municipality of Bagnoregio, the town across the bridge, and many of its buildings have been bought as holiday homes.

Tourism is the whole economy. Civita had about 40,000 visitors in 2010 and an estimated 850,000 in 2017, after the entry fee brought it wide publicity. The toll income allowed local municipal taxes to be abolished. The flow of visitors has brought worries about overcrowding, and in 2006 the World Monuments Fund named unregulated tourism, along with erosion, as a threat.

The ground itself is the constant concern. The edges of the plateau keep eroding, and buildings have collapsed as their foundations gave way; plans have been made to reinforce the rock with steel rods. Residents and authorised workers may cross the bridge on two wheels at set hours, and in the evening, once the day visitors have gone, the square returns to the people who live here.

Civita's cooking is that of the Tuscia, the hill country of northern Lazio. Acquacotta, "cooked water", is the traditional soup of the Maremma and northern Lazio, made to soften stale bread in a broth of vegetables, and it appears on menus across the area.

The valley below Bagnoregio grows its own chestnut, the marrona bagnorese, whose particular flavour is credited to the clay and volcanic soil and the local microclimate, and Bagnoregio celebrates it each October with the Profumo d'Autunno festival. On Lake Bolsena, to the west, fishermen still work the lake from their boats.

The best-known local wine is the white Est! Est!! Est!!! from Montefiascone above Lake Bolsena, whose name comes from a tale about a travelling bishop's wine scout. Most visitors eat in Bagnoregio, where trattorias, bars and food shops line the main street, or take a simple lunch in the village before the climb back across the bridge.