PANEL 1
THE UNESCO SERIAL SITE “LONGOBARDS IN ITALY. PLACES OF POWER (568 – 774 D.C.)”
On 25 June 2011, the Longobards’ serial site was included in the UNESCO WHL. The serial site includes seven outstanding monumental compounds, forts, churches and monasteries, scattered across Italy, that testify to the high artistic level reached by the Longobards. Spoleto is included with the basilica of San Salvatore, Cividale del Friuli with the gastaldaga area and the episcopal see, Brescia with the San Salvatore – Santa Giulia monastic compounds and the Capitolium archaeological area, Castelseprio-Torba with the castrum and the church of Santa Maria foris portas, Campello sul Clitunno with the Tempietto del Clitunno, Benevento with the Santa Sofia compound, and Monte Sant’Angelo with the sanctuary of San Michele. The Longobards came from northern Europe and settled themselves in Italy where they developed a new, original culture between the VIth and VIIIth centuries, that would spread across the vast lands they ruled. The Longobards’ cultural synthesis process integrated classical-Roman traditions, Christian spirituality, Byzantine influences and Germanic values and represented the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Europe. The serial site testifies to theLongobards’ pivotal role in the spiritual and cultural development of the European Medieval Christianity, particularly through the monastic movement. For further information, please visit www.longobardinitalia.it
The ALL PROJECT (Across Lombards Lands)
Supported by the European project COSME, it was undertaken by seven partners (3 in Italy: Incipit consulting [leader], Comune di Spoleto, Tandem coop sociale; 3 in Slovenia: Slovenia National Museum, B.S.C. Agency for Regional Development, Premiki Social Enterprise; 1 in Belgium: ENAT – European Network for Accessible Tourism). It aims at developing and promoting transnational tourist offers to all, based on the common Longobard heritage of the cities of Spoleto, Campello sul Clitunno, Lubiana e Kranj.
For further information, please visit www.acrosslombardslands.eu
PANEL 2
THE ORIGINS
The Longobard, formerly known as Winnili, were first based in Scandza, which they left to descend south on rivers Rhine and Elbe. In search of richer lands, and taking advantage of the Romans’ progressive decline, in the IVth century they reached Bohemia and Pannonia (nowadays Hungary) and from there they were able to reach Italy in 568. A feature of theirs was that they always embraced the culture and habits of the peoples they got in touch with; thus they did in Italy as well, where their Germanic traditions blended with the classical, Roman-Christian ones, to the point that Paul the Deacon talks of the Longobards as the true heirs of Roman civilization, much more than the Byzantines. The change of name, from Winnili to Longobards (from lang “long” and bart “beard”), testifies to their habit of growing full beards, a habit that can be retraced to their victorious clash against the Vandals and their adoption of the cult of Godan (Wodan – Odin), a long-bearded god. Thus wrote Paul the Deacon: “The Vandals had addressed Godan to plead victory against the Winnili, and Godan promised victory to those he would glimpse first at dawn. Therefore Gambara, mother of the Longobard chiefs, turned to Frea, Godan’s wife, beseeching victory for the Winnili. Thus Frea advised Gambara to have the Winnili’s wives rearrange their hair tied like beards and then go flank their men at sunrise, to be seen by Godan from the place where he used to watch the East from a window. And so they did. And as Wodan saw those women he asked “Who are these long-bearded men?” Then Frea asked him to give victory to those he had just named and so Godan did, giving the victory to the Winnili, who would henceforth be called Langobards, after the length of their unkempt beards”. (Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, I, 7-9).
Paul the Deacon (Cividale del Friuli between 720 and 724 – Montecassino 799). Of noble Longobard family, he moved early to Pavia, where he was educated at the court of King Ratchis and at the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro. He was Adelperga’s preceptor, and then a monk in the convent of Civate, then in Montecassino. After the fall of the Longobard kingdom, he addressed Charlesmagne to obtain liberation for his brother, convict for rebellion. He lived by the Franks’ court where he gained fame and prestige as grammarian. He returned to Montecassino around 786 and stayed there till his death in 799. The author of a Historia romana (possibly before 774), and of Gesta episcoporum Mettensium, he is mostly famed for his Historia Langobardorum, a passionate account of his people’s history, whose enthusiast and fresh words often reach epic heights, and which came to be the main source of knowledge on the period between the Longobards’ departure from Scandza and the fall of King Desiderius.
PANEL 3
THE LONGOBARDS IN ITALY
In 568 the Longobards led by Alboin descended from Pannonia (Hungary) to Italy, along with the populations met along the way (Saxons, Gepids, Suebi, Bulgars, Sarmatians, as well as part of the Roman population in Pannonia), and occupied Cividale, the Roman Forum Iulii (hence the name of modern-day Friuli), progressively extending their dominion across most of Northern Italy, establishing the so-called Langobardia maior. Later the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento were founded, occupying wide parts of Central and Southern Italy (Langobardia minor). Liguria and Venice remained largely independent, as well as the Ravenna Exharcate, the Pentapolis and the Byzantine Corridor, the Patrimonium Sancti Petri, Naples and Capua, most of Apulia and Calabria, the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Indro Montanelli and Roberto Gervaso wrote in their “L’Italia dei secoli bui” (1965) on the end of the Longobards’ power in 774: “Barbarians camped on conquered land, Alboin and his successors were uncomfortable rulers, more uncomfortable than Theodoric; but then again, they were about to mutually blend with Italy and could have turned her into a true nation, like the Franks were doing with what is now France. Yet France had no pope. Italy did.”
THE DUCHY OF SPOLETO
According to some hypotheses, the Longobard occupation of Spoleto occurred around 569, in the wake of the invasion of Italy; yet another historical reconstruction has the Duchy of Spoleto originating in 575/6, not merely following the Longobards’ invasion of Italy, but rather following personal initiative of general Faroald. He was the chief of Longobard mercenaries fighting the Persians on behalf of the Byzantines; recalled to Italy when Byzantium aimed at her conquest, he took advantage of the Byzantines’ scarce strength and of the endemic anarchy, to impose his dominion. The geographical position among the easily-defendable, water-rich Appennines, along with the tenuous Byzantine control around them, favoured the duchy’s expansion and the rise of Spoleto as centre of the Longobards’ military dominion across Central Italy, reaching a role and power that allowed for maintaining a marked autonomy from the Longobard kings (see G. Bognetti, P.M. Conti). The Duchy of Spoleto outlived the fall of the Longobard kingdom (774) and passed under the Franks’ control first and the papal aristocracy’s after; in 1198, it became part of the States of the Church, still maintaining its administrative autonomy. Renaissance cartographers brought the term “Umbria” to the fore with the expression “Umbria or the Duchy of Spoleto”, that would only disappear in the XIXth century, just like (Spoletium) Caput Umbriae. Spoleto dukes Guy II and his son Lambert I were Kings of Italy and Holy Roman Emperors from 889 to 898. The duchy’s confines were fickling, yet its stable core covered most of Umbria, part of Latium and wide sections of Marche and Abruzzo, all the way to the Adriatic Sea; it was bordered by the Ravenna Exarchate and the Pentapolis to the North, by the Byzantine Corridor to the North-West (in Umbria: Gubbio, Perugia, Todi, Amelia, Narni), by the Patrimonium Sancti Petri to the West (Rome and most of Latium), by the Duchy of Benevento to the South and by the Adriatic Sea to the East.
The duchy included ten Gastaldati:
Rieti – Terni
Spoleto – Foligno
Marsi (Avezzano)
Nocera Umbra
Forcona (L’Aquila) – Teramo
Norcia
Valva (Sulmona)
Ascoli Piceno e l’Agro Piceno
Penne
Camerino
PANEL 4
ON THE TRAILS OF THE LONGOBARDS… … IN SPOLETO
The Longobards were as used to blend themselves into the culture of those whom they conquered, as they were keen to re-use local buildings and artifacts. That is why it is so uncommon to find an “exclusively Longobard” monument; to catch their signs, it is often necessary to look hard and seek the details, as in brain teasers.
01 THE PLUTEUS ON THE DUOMO’s BELL-TOWER The first such sign can be found on the Cathedral’s bell-tower, in piazza del Duomo: a VIIIth – IXth century pluteus (a marble slab featuring bas-reliefs), finely carved with vegetable motives included in a cross.
02 THE ARCHITRAVE ON ST. GREGORY’s FAÇADE Another exceptionally beautiful pluteus dating to the VIIIth century was re-used as architrave on the left portal of the church of San Gregorio Maggiore, in piazza Garibaldi: it is one of the most interesting Early-Middle Ages sculptures in Umbria, featuring the monogrammed cross flanked by two lions, vegetable motifs and peacocks. The monogrammed cross is that formed by Greek letters X (“chi”) and P (“ro”), capitalized and crossed by a further horizontal arm.
03 THE MOSAIC AT PALAZZO MAURI Certainly easier to find is the mosaic that was discovered at Palazzo Mauri, in what is now the Public Library’s Caffè Letterario. It lies on the borders of the Roman Forum, in what was a thermal complex; study hypotheses confirmed by finds suggest that the earliest Longobard dukes commissioned the re-paving of part of the pre-existing building, turning it into a baptistry. The late-VIth-century decoration features four central baskets with vine branches, bunches of grapes and vine leaves; various animal shapes are included here: deer, birds, a horse and a hare.
04 THE MOSAIC AT PALAZZO PIANCIANI Like in Palazzo Mauri, restoration works gave back an extraordinary mosaic floor in a room accessible from via Walter Tobagi, created in the VIIIth century on a Roman thermal plant. The representation recalls the baptismal rite here too: a central kantharos (cup-shaped vase) is the source of water rivulets that quench the deer’s thirst, and of two vine branches whose grapes are pecked by doves; a central peacock opens its tail, signifying the soul renewed by baptism.
05 MONASTERY AND CHURCH OF SAN PONZIANO They stand on the spot where young Spoletan knight and martyr Ponziano was buried in 175, to become the city’s patron saint and protector against earthquakes. In the small, yet very interesting crypt there is an important cycle of frescoes where Archangel Michael often appears; the saint was particularly venerated by the Longobards. A slab with a funerary inscription with the Longobard name “Agipertus” is also outstanding. It was re-used for a step of the staircase.
06 BASILICA OF SAN SALVATORE According to Spoletan scholar Giuseppe Sordini, it is the “major Spoletan monument of Ancient Times”; in 2011 it was included in the UNESCO WHL, within the serial site “The Longobards in Italy. Places of Power (568 – 774 d.C.). While in Spoleto, one cannot but visit this church by the extraordinary charm (the description is inside the Basilica)
07 COLLE SANT’ELIA AND NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE DUCHY OF SPOLETO Placed inside the mighty Rocca albornoziana, towering over the city from atop Colle Sant’Elia, the museum keeps finds and works of art that span from the Late Antiquity (Vth cen) to the XVIth century. Items dating to the Longobard period include carved architectural features (capitals, slabs, pillars, all testifying to the presence of marble workshops of Longobard tradition) and part of grave goods found at the Portone Necropolis, Nocera Umbra. The most interesting find that emerged from the excavations at the Malborghetto (E/NE side of the hill) is a buckle tip decorated “a niello” (an ancient Longobard technique that consisted of filling the engraving with a black compound; the surface would then be refined and polished). This buckle is decorated with rhombuses and a brass/silver small ball. The excavations confirmed the area of Colle Sant’Elia to have been the place of the earliest Longobards’ settlement. Pole holes, well refined with mortar, testify to the presence of circular huts, while the ditches found next to the pole holes are to be seen as lined-up graves provided with perches that, according to the tradition, were installed on the graves of those who fell far from home, clear signs of early Longobard habits.
ON THE TRAILS OF THE LONGOBARDS… …OUTSIDE SPOLETO
01 TEMPIETTO DEL CLITUNNO Ten km North of Spoleto, in Campello sul Clitunno, there is this small, extraordinary sacellum, close to the Fonti del Clitunno. It is included in the UNESCO WHL.
02 ABBEY OF SAN PIETRO IN VALLE It stands in Ferentillo, in the lower Valnerina, which was part of the Duchy of Spoleto. It was built in the VIIIth century by duke Faroald II, following a miraculous dream that led him to relinquish his title and become a monk at the abbey. Among the many frescoes and stone finds, it maintains the Altar of Ursus, made of two carved slabs, surely Longobard; the altar obviously recalls the Altar of Ratchis in Cividale del Friuli.
“MYSTERIES” HARD TO EXPLAIN
DUCAL COURT, ROYAL COURT Being a capital city, Spoleto had to have both the ducal and the royal palace. None of them has been found so far. Papers in Farfa testify to the presence of a huge building, capable of hosting the duke and the king, the court and the archives, in the area where the Archbishop’s Palace stands. But other papers say that the royal palace was in the area of the Roman Theatre and of the church of St. Agatha, that would have been built in the Gothic or Longobard periods.
THE NECROPOLIS (… THAT IS NOT) Burial grounds dating to the Longobard period have been found in a number of places in and around Spoleto; however, in spite of the many excavation campaigns, an actual necropolis equating or paralleling the ones in Nocera Umbra, Castel Trosino (AP) or Santa Maria in Pietrarossa in Trevi, was never found. Yet, even the mighty Longobard and their dukes must have died and needed burial. Besides that at Colle Sant’Elia, other burial grounds were discovered; in 2009, Longobard graves in stone were brought to light in Cortaccione; others were discovered in the area of the church of San Sabino, a saint the Longobards were particularly devoted to. The Historia langobardorum reveals that Ariulf went to this sanctuary, to give thanks for a favour received in war. Both these places are in the immediate outskirts of Spoleto.
