Umbria ( ) is a
region of
central
Italy.
Its capital is Perugia
. It
has an area of 8,456 km² and about 900,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Umbria is a region of
Central Italy,
bordered by
Tuscany to the west, the
Marche to the east and
Lazio to the south. This region is mostly hilly or
mountainous.
Its topography is dominated by the Apennines
to the east, with the highest point in the region
at Monte
Vettore
on the border of the Marche (2,476 m =
8,123 ft), and the Tiber valley basin,
with the lowest point at Attigliano
(96 m = 315 ft). It is the only Italian
region which is both landlocked and with no common border with
other countries.
A landscape of Umbria.
The Tiber forms the approximate border with Lazio; although its
course northwards from its source just over the Tuscan border lies
in Umbria, the river course is changeable and thus few towns have
been built on it: the Tiber itself is not a major factor in the
history and human geography of Umbria. The same cannot be said of
the Tiber's three principal tributaries, each flowing in a
generally southward course.
The course of the Chiascio takes it through relatively
uninhabited areas until Bastia Umbra
, and about 10 km later it flows into the Tiber
at Torgiano
.
The
Topino
, cleaving
the Apennines with passes that the Via
Flaminia and successor roads follow, makes a sharp turn at
Foligno
to flow NW for a few kilometres before joining the
Chiascio below Bettona
.
The third
river is the Nera, flowing into the Tiber
further south, at Terni
; its valley,
called the Valnerina, is widely
considered to be the most scenic area of Umbria. While the
upper Nera flows more or less in isolation in the mountains, the
lower course of the Chiascio-Topino basin is a fairly large
floodplain, which in Antiquity was a pair of shallow, interlocking
lakes, the
Lacus Clitorius and the
Lacus Umber. They were drained by the
Romans over several hundred years, but
an earthquake in the 4th century and the political collapse of
the Roman Empire resulted in the reflooding of the basin, which was
drained a second time over five hundred years;
Benedictine monks started the
process in the 13th century, and it was completed by an engineer
from Foligno in the 18th century.
In tourist literature one sometimes sees Umbria called
il cuor
verde d'Italia (the green heart of Italy). The phrase, taken
from a poem by
Giosuè Carducci
— the subject of which is not Umbria but rather a specific place in
it, the source of the
Clitunno river,
treasured as a beauty spot — is to a certain extent appropriate
since the modern administrative region is the only one to have
neither a coast nor a border with a foreign country, and, except
for August and September, is famously green.
History
The region
is named for the Umbri tribe, who settled in
the region in protohistoric times (6th
century BC): 672 BC is the legendary date of foundation of the town
of Terni
(Interamna). Their
language was
Umbrian, a relative of
Latin and
Oscan.
Archaeological evidence shows that the Umbri can be identified with
the creators of the
Terramara, and
probably also of the
Villanovan
culture in northern and central Italy, who at the beginning of
the
Bronze Age displaced the original
Ligurian population by an invasion from the
north-east. It may be provisionally inferred that the Umbrians were
closely related to the
Achaeans of
prehistoric
Greece.
Pliny the Elder's statement that they were
the most ancient race of Italy is certainly wrong.
The
Etruscans
were chief enemies of the Umbri, and the Etruscan
invasion went from the western seaboard towards the north and east
(lasting from about 700 to 500 BC), eventually driving the Umbrians
towards the Apenninic
uplands and capturing 300 Umbrian towns.
Nevertheless, the Umbrian population does not seem to have been
eradicated in the conquered districts.
After the
downfall of the Etruscans, Umbrians attempted to aid the Samnites in their struggle against Rome (308 BC); but communications with Samnium were impeded by the Roman fortress of
Narni
(founded 298 BC). At the great
battle of Sentinum (295 BC), which was
fought in their own territory, the Umbrians did not substantially
help the Samnites.
The Roman
victory at Sentinum started a period of integration under the Roman
rulers, who established some colonies (e.g., Spoletium
) and built the via
Flaminia (220 BC), which became a principal vector for Roman
development in Umbria. During Hannibal's invasion in the second Punic war, the battle of
Lake Trasimene
was fought in Umbria, but the Umbrians did not aid
him.
During the
Roman civil war between
Mark Antony and
Octavian (40 BC), the city of Perugia supported
Antony and was almost completely destroyed by the latter.
In Pliny’s time, 49 independent communities still existed in
Umbria, and the abundance of inscriptions and the high proportion
of recruits in the
imperial army attest
to its population.
The
modern region of Umbria, however, is essentially different from the
Umbria of Roman times (see Roman
Umbria), which extended through most of what is now the
northern Marche, to Ravenna
, but excluded the west bank of the Tiber.
Thus
Perugia was in Etruria, and the area around Norcia
was in the
Sabine territory.
After the collapse of the
Roman empire,
Ostrogoths and
Byzantines struggled for the supremacy in the
region; the
Lombards founded the
duchy of Spoleto, covering much of today's
Umbria. When
Charlemagne conquered most
of the Lombard kingdoms, some Umbrian territories were given to the
Pope, who established temporal power over them.
Some
cities acquired a form of autonomy (the comuni); they were often at war with
each other in the context of the more general conflict between the
papacy
and the
Holy Roman Empire or between the
Guelphs and the Ghibellines.
In the
14th century, the signorie arose,
but were subsumed into the Papal States
, which ruled the region until the end of the 18th
century. After the
French
Revolution and the French conquest of Italy, Umbria was part of
the ephemeral
Roman
Republic (1789–1799) and of the
Napoleonic Empire (1809–1814). After
Napoleon's defeat, the Pope regained Umbria until 1860. After the
Risorgimento and the
Piedmontese expansion, Umbria
was incorporated in the
Kingdom of Italy.
The borders of Umbria were fixed in 1927, with the creation of the
province of Terni and the
separation of the
province of
Rieti, which was incorporated in
Lazio.
Economy
The present economic structure emerged from a series of
transformations which took place mainly in the 1970s and 1980s.
During this period there was rapid expansion among small and
medium-sized firms and a gradual retrenchment among the large firms
which had hitherto characterised the region's industrial base. This
process of structural adjustment is still going on.
Umbrian agriculture is noted for its tobacco, its olive oil and its
vineyards, which produce excellent wines. Regional varietals
include the white Orvieto, which draws agri-tourists to the
vineyards in the area surrounding the medieval town of the same
name.. Other noted wines produced in Umbria are Torgiano and Rosso
di Montefalco. Another typical Umbrian product is the
black truffle found in Valnerina, an area that
produces 45% of this product in Italy.
The food industry in Umbria produces processed pork-meats,
confectionery, pasta and the traditional products of Valnerina in
preserved form (truffles, lentils, cheese). The other main
industries are textiles, clothing, sportswear, iron and steel,
chemicals and ornamental ceramics.
Demographics
As of 2008, the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT
estimated that 75,631 foreign-born immigrants live in Umbria, equal
to 8.5% of the total population of the region.
Government and politics
Umbria is a stronghold of the center-left coalition
The Union, forming with
Tuscany,
Emilia-Romagna and
Marche the famous Italian political "Red
Quadrilateral". At the
April 2006 elections, Umbria
gave more than 57% of its votes to
Romano
Prodi.
Administrative divisions
Umbria is divided in two
provinces:
Footnotes
-
http://www.plymouth.edu/italyextreme/facts_&_figures.html
-
http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/ite2_eco.htm
References
External links
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