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  • Museo olivo – Unguentari -english

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    ARCHAELOGICAL FINDS –UNGUENTARY VASES

    Jean-Pierre and Fiorella Cottier collection

    BEAUTY TREATMENT – Vedi anche: I profumi nell’antichità

    Both literary sources and archaeological finds report us customs concerning the treatment of one’s personal appearance. The use of cosmetics expresses the need to communicate one’s individuality through targeted messages intended for a precise purpose. The use of cosmetics and fragrant substances is at first linked to magic-religious functions and afterwards it becomes a decorative phenomenon of the person. The study of archaeological finds, from artistic production to material culture, allows us to reconstruct the cosmetic habits of ancient times.

    Most of the fragrant essences came from the East and were traded ever since the 8th– 7th century B.C. The several containers of ointments of Greek or oriental production, also in the Magna Graecia and Etruscan or Italic areas, show a thriving trade and a widespread use of such products at least in the affluent classes.

    Olive oil formed the fat base for the various fragrant components; the “omphacium” in particular, obtained from big green olives, was the most popular item (Plinius, Naturalis Historia, XIII, 2, 3).

    In the Roman world the use of cosmetics was all pervading and several literary sources tell us about it. For example Ovid is the author of a manual on make-up, whereas other authors (Martial, Seneca, Horatio etc) describe aspects of everyday life linked to body care.

    Several archaeological finds bear witness to the use of make-up and perfumes: baked clay, unguentary vases, glass, hard stones, oil containers, mortars for the preparation of cosmetic pastes, spatulas to take small quantities of balm from a container or to mix products.

    Cosmetics was not limited to women. For example athletes also used perfumed oils. Typical of the male world and linked to personal care was the “strigil”, an instrument for cleansing after doing exercises in the gymnasium. It was common in the Greek and Etruscan world already in the 5th-4th century B.C..

    (translated by David Sebastiani).

    MUSEUM OF OLIVE OIL OIL LAMPS DECORATIONS

  • Museo olivo – Decorazioni -english

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    ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS – DECORATIONS

    Jean-Pierre and Fiorella Cottier collection

    THE OLIVE TREE AS A DECORATIVE FEATURE

    The representation of the olive tree as a feature of the landscape in wider scenes or as an isolated element is quite common in Greek and Roman art both in pictorial works and in sculpture or in toreutics and in vase painting, where the olive tree is often the symbol of the landascape against which the scene is set.

    More frequently the representation of the olive branch seems to acquire a purely decorative value, even if one cannot exclude the symbolic value of the landscape and the use of the container on which it is represented. This type of representation appears in the Attic art of the 5th century B.C. and later also in the pottery production made in Greek colonies and areas in close contact and trade relations with Greece, like for instance Etruria. A typical example is a kind of cup, the “glaukes” (from “glaux”, owl) decorated on both sides by an owl (Athena’s symbol) flanked by two olive branches, maybe a symbol of the introduction of the olive tree into Attica by Athena.

    (translated by David Sebastiani).

    MUSEUM OF OLIVE OIL OIL LAMPS UNGUENTARY VASES

  • Museo della civiltà dell'olivo -english

    MUSEUM OF OLIVE OIL CULTURE

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    The museum is situated in the evocative area of the ex Saint Francis convent, which also houses the homonymous Church and the Art Collection. It is the first public museum in Italy and in Europe dedicated to oil and olive tree and is divided into four sections:

    Botany

    Getting to know oil and the olive tree

    Oil as a symbol of peace

    Oil history

    The exhibition offers visitors different approaches. Information on the olive tree in history, botany and agronomy is provided by boards with data of Centro Nazionale delle ricerche (National Research Centre). Ro Marcerano’s cartoons are intended for children. Interactive devices give details about the pressing techniques, while documentary films show the “fiscoli” (or “buscoli”, coconut fibre filter discs) are handcrafted, the different cultivation phases and the removal of the diseased parts of a plant with a technique called “slupatura”.

    Sophisticated equipment enables visitors to taste and learn how to feel the difference between the oil varieties, while a section is designed for chemical tests to quantify the oil acidity. And if you want to enhance the quality of your cuisine with new and tasty dishes you can download and print chef Angelo Paracucchi’s tasty recipes of gastronomic specialties prepared with olives and olive oil.

    The museum also has an important private collection of archaeological finds – kindly loaned by Jean-Pierre and Fiorella Cottier – connected with the symbolic value of the olive tree and the use of oil: a remarkable collection of oil lamps some of which are Phoenician and date back to the 8th century B.C. Equally interesting is the collection of unguentary vases and ancient objects decorated with oil-related motifs. A big three-screw press, built at the turn of the 18th century, and a grindstone mark the end of the tour.

    (translated by David Sebastiani).

  • Natura

    TREVI town centre is literally surrounded by undulating green olive groves reaching right up to its medieval walls. THE PASSEGGIATA is a magnificent 800m tree-lined road with spectacular views onto the valley below Cart tracks lead up to an altitude of 1000m in 10 minutes from where it is possible to continue for the peaks of Monte Brunette (1425m) and Monte Serano (1429m) with no great diffulty. Among the various guides and itineries on the market, the Pro Trevi suggests ” TREVI -Itineries in the hills and mountains” as for each itinery there is a detailed description of the countryside, ground composition, flora and fauna, with historical notes.

    (Translated by Sheila Rylands 1998)

    Mini-guide of TREVI

  • TREVI, Italy – Old Gate of S. Fabiano

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    destroyed

    The old gate, which had been abandoned for centuries because it was somewhat inconveniently sited, and as a result had wound up giving onto a cliff, was replaced by a suitably fortified i

    mpressive new gate

    a few yards away.

    It had been blocked up for ages with dry set masonry that itself had in turn caved in. The gate stood for ages in the condition seen in this photograph: every once in a while part of it would crumble off, clearly foreshadowing its inevitable collapse.

    As soon as it collapsed, all its stones vanished

    Trevi, Italy - Antica porta di S. Fabiano, distrutta

    Remains of the old gate (Photo: 1975)

    Trevi, Italy - Resti della facciata della chiesa di S. Fabiano e antica porta

    Trevi , Via S. Fabiano. Remains of the façade of the church of S. Fabiano. On the right, the old gate providing access to the fortified town of Trevi (Photo: 1975)

    The gate had survived the church by almost a century.

    On a mere whim, according to the fashion of the day, the church was destroyed for the sole purpose of recycling the stone to rebuild the church of S. Croce.

    The very handsome door was disassembled and now serves as the entrance to the sacristy of S. Croce.

    LOST HERITAGE

    Translated by Bill Thayer ©2010

    101

  • The Square and Tower

    The focal point of town life, the Square is used for various activities and cultural events. Here there is the 13th century Town Hall, modified several times; the arcade was added in the 15th C. The windows and inscriptions on the lintels date back to the early 1500s and the balcony was added in the 17thC.

    The CIVIC TOWER (13thC.) was lowered and rebuilt the following century. It is the symbol of the ancient commune In fact the town’s coat of arms bears a three-tiered tower.

    (Translated by Sheila Rylands 1998)

    Trevi, Piazza Mazzini o

    Photo of the year 1920 around

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  • TREVI, Italy  – The Gates

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    Over the centuries, the

    walls of Trevi

    have included several gates.

    In the original circuit of Roman walls, three gates can be identified. One, in the Via del Fiscale, has been unused since time immemorial and is perfectly intact; another, the Arco del Mostaccio, was modified during the rebuildings of the thirteenth century; and traces of the third can be made out at the end of the Via dell’Orticaro toward the Via S. Francesco. Any fourth gate that might once have existed would have been drowned in the buildings on the north side of town, across from the church of S. Francesco.

    Trevi, Italy. La porta Nuova. Panorama degli oliveti a sudest.

    The

    Porta Nova

    , from the inside

    In the early twentieth century, when the walls facing onto the Piazza Garibaldi were pulled down, so were the nineteenth-century

    Porta Pia

    and the Porta del Lago.

    Today there remain six gates: the Porta del Cieco or Blind Man’s Gate; the Porta della Strada Nuova or New Road Gate (1857), the porta Nova or New Gate, the Porta di S. Fabiano, the Porta del Bruscito and the Porta dei Cancelli or Wicket Gate.

    Trevi, Italy. Porta del Cieco.

    Porta del Cieco

    , or

    Blind Man’s Gate

    Back to the MONUMENTS page

    Translated by Bill Thayer ©2010

    101

  • Torch-lit Procession

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    Trevi, Processione dell'Illuminata

    This is the oldest and longest -standing procession in Umbria, dating back to the Middle Ages. From time immemorial on the evening of 27th JANUARY at 6.30pm, the procession winds its way along the torch-lit streets, the statue of the Patron Saint Emiliano preceded by ‘cerei’ or floats prepared and organised by the local businesses and workshops (once the local guilds and artisans.

    The procession route has remained unchanged since 1264.

    Trevi, Processione dell'Illuminata

  • TREVI, Italy – The Gate of S. Fabiano

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    This gate takes its name from the very ancient church that once stood nearby, of which, however, only the faintest traces remain.

    Before it was built a less impressive gate was used, even closer to the church. That earlier gate is now unfortunately destroyed: the Old Gate of S. Fabiano.

    In the entire circuit of the city walls, this is the gate at the lowest altitude above the plain.

    From it two important roads led west and southwest. The first linked Trevi to the fortified towns of Cannaiola (formerly Castelnuovo), Fabbri and San Luca, all of which belonged to Trevi, and continued on to Montefalco, Giano, Todi and the Tiber valley. The other led to Faustana where it merged with the natural prehistoric trail toward the pass to the southwest, thus linking Trevi to her forts at S. Lorenzo, Picciche, Fratta and S. Giovanni. This road also crossed the Via Flaminia, the ancient Roman consular road, on its busier side toward Spoleto, Terni and Rome.

    Trevi, Italy. La porta di S. Fabiano.

    The Porta di S. Fabiano was thus the gate through which passed all the workers who went to farm the lands in the plain — but also the gate that met those coming to Trevi with less than peaceful intentions, and it is therefore well fortified with defensive works which today give it a great deal of charm.

    Trevi, Italy. La porta di S. Fabiano, particolare.

    Porta di S. Fabiano, in the summer of 1998, with protective scaffolding in place after it was destabilized by the earthquake

    Trevi, Italy. La porta di S. Fabiano.

    Back to the GATES page Back to the MONUMENTS page

    Translated by Bill Thayer ©2010

    101

  • TREVI, Italy – La porta della Strada Nuova

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    Also called the “

    Porta Nuova

    ” or New Gate, it is more properly the “

    Porta della Strada Nuova

    ” or New Road Gate — to distinguish it from the next gate down the hill, which was built in 1654 and is still today “

    Porta Nova

    “.

    It is Trevi’s newest gate, built in 1857 in order to provide a more convenient access road to the town: the New Road or “Strada Nuova”.

    It was built to the design of Domenico Giannelli.1 of Terni.

    Shortly after 1950 the gate’s piers were “trimmed” to squeeze in a few extra centimeters of roadway and allow bigger modern cars to pass more easily.

    In the photograph we can see the first bus to provide service between Trevi and its train station: it has stopped to pick up passengers.

    In the background, on the right, we have a glimpse of the Natalini-Gizi mansion, the façade of which seems also to have been designed by Giannelli, or at least inspired by the gate he built.

    Trevi, Italy - La porta della Strada Nuova

    Back to the GATES page Back to the MONUMENTS page

    Translated by Bill Thayer ©2010

    101

    Note 1) Zenobi, Carlo, Storia di Trevi 1746-1946, Foligno, 1987, pp. 183, 184.
    The engineer Domenico Giannelli has given his name to a boulevard in Terni, in commemoration of his organization of the public gardens of that city. Among Giannelli’s other work are the promenade along the walls of Collescipoli with its plantings of now highly prized mulberry trees and the layout and design of the Teatro Sociale in Amelia.