Narni

In 1979 six young cavers pushed through a blocked opening in a garden and found a twelfth-century church with frescoes, a Roman cistern, and beyond them a room whose walls were covered in graffiti cut by prisoners of the Inquisition, including a large symbolic composition by one man identified from archive records. Narni Sotterranea now runs tours through these spaces. Above ground the town holds a Romanesque cathedral, a Rocca Albornoziana on the hill and a Roman bridge in the valley. Narni's Roman name, Narnia, was taken from an old atlas by C.S. Lewis for his fictional country.

History

Narni, ancient Narnia, took its name from the river Nera, or Nar, and before the Roman conquest it seems to have been called Nequinum. In 300 BC the consul Appuleius besieged the Umbrian city, which held out into the following year, when the consul Marcus Fulvius took it, and Rome then settled a colony here named Narnia (Wikipedia, Narni).

Highlights

• The prisoner graffiti - inquisition cell walls cut with symbols and names.
• The hidden church - a frescoed twelfth-century chapel found in 1979.
• The Roman cistern - a vaulted water tank under the town.
• The Narnia link - the town's Roman name borrowed by C.S. Lewis.

When to go

April to October; underground tours run mainly at weekends outside high season and must be booked. The Corsa all'Anello festival fills the town in May.

Things to know

The underground is seen only on a guided tour with fixed times, mostly weekends off season. It is cool and damp below. The Narnia connection is a name, nothing more.

Nearby

Marmore Falls lie east; Todi is north.

Key facts