| Description: |
It is a mountain site located at 608m in a wooded basin of the river Nera’s upper valley, surrounded by a crown of mounains, it is referred to as the ´Pearl of the Sibillini´. The name comes probably Vicus, meaning a village of the Roman times located among two different valleys where quite a few peoples passed throughout the ages. In medieval times, the town, allied to the duchy of Spoleto, enjoyed an extraordinary importance for its strategic position along the way linking Foligno to Camerino. The original urban area, which probably held traces of pre-Roman days, was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1200 which forced the citizens to rebuild it in a new site. Of that period, its urban system, its narrow streets and its well-preserved very old houses, they all still survive, but they stand side by side with newly-added buildings in modern style, thus giving the town such a peculiar elegance.
After becoming a free commune, it always had to struggle against the neighbuoring towns until 1443, when Pope Eugenio IV authorized the town to have the pontifical keys and the motto Atiquum ed fidele Vissum on its armorial bearings. Nonetheless the ostilities with Norcia went on, and they ended only with the battle of ´Pian Perduto´, in 1522, when Visso, allied to the other ´guaites´, defeated the Umbrian town.
The town is home to the “Ente Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini”.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |