Anagni

The History

The first human settlements date back to more than 700,000 years ago, according to the dating of some lithic hand-made fragments recently recovered; while the historical sources (Livy, Virgil, Servius, Silius Italicus) mention Anagni only when the city had already been introduced into the Roman orbit.

The people who lived in those places were of Ernica ancestry, migrated - as it seems - from the Aniene valley and probably descendant from the Marses (or from the Sabines), at least according to the ethnical term deriving from the Marsian herna, stone, that is: «Those who live on the stony hills». Only two words remain of their language: Samentum, a strip of sacrifical skin, and Bututti, a sort of funeral lament.

The importance of Anagni as a Holy City and therefore as the spiritual centre of the Ernici is outstanding. The City was the seat of temples and sanctuaries, where in the second century A.D., many flaxen books containing sacred writings were still well conserved, according to the testimony of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Recent archaeological discoveries have revealed cultural relationships betweeen the Ernici and the Etruscans around the seventh century b.C. Probably, at the foot of the hill on which the city stands, there was the so-called Maritime Circle, where the Erniche ethnies of Alatri, Piglio, Veroli, and Ferentino, confederated under the aegis of Anagni. There they held their sacred and political meetings until the Romans, on the pretext of a presumed treason of the Ernica-Roman alliance, attacked Anagni, defeated the Ernica League and dissolved the Confederation in 306 b.C.

Anagni allied with Rome in the struggle against the Volscans, was then reduced to a city sine suffragio, that is, without the right to vote, although conserving a proper religious autonomy and strategic importance.

By the end of the Roman Empire a deep political and economic crisis caused the demographic collapse of Anagni's population. The suburban zones, which during the Roman Age had grown along the most important roads of the area were depopulated; the lower parts of the city were abandoned, vegetation gradually took possession of several spaces. As a proof of that in the tenth century A.D., an inner zone of Anagni was marked by the place-name Civitas Vetus (Old Town), to say that long time before the place was already inhabitated.

In spite of this, the town was achieving a more and more out-standing importance over the territory, being the seat, since the fifth century, of an important diocese. In the ninth century the first Cathedral was built on the ruins of the temple dedicated to the Goddess Cerere. The agricultural reconquest, begun in the tenth century, was supported by the ecclesiastic power, which allowed the laic lords to exploit the earth resources and to build some fortified settlements for their own peasants, and favoured a new economic and demographic growth.

During the tenth and the eleventh centuries the city strengthened its link with the papal court: in fact the popes began to consider the old capital city of the Ernici a safer and healthier spot compared to Rome which was the place of frequent epidemic diseases. For this reason, even if the presence of factions inside the town cannot be excluded, Anagni remained faithful to the Roman Church, becoming more and more frequently one of the most favourite residences of the popes, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Thanks to this situation the city became the cradle of several events connected with the struggle between Papacy and Empire and it was the witness of some of the most important acts in the political life of these two centuries. In 1122, in fact, Callistus II promulgated the basic Bull of the Concordat of Worms; in 1159 Adrian IV received in Anagni, during the siege of Crema, the legates of Milan, Brescia, and Piacenza (the building of the Civic Palace was committed to the Ambassador of Brescia, Architect Jacopo da Iseo). In 1160 Alexander III excommunicated the Emperor Federico Barbarossa in the Cathedral; in 1176 after the Battle of Legnano, the same pope received the imperial legates, with whom he elaborated the Pactum Anagninum (Anagni's Agreement), premise to the peace which was achieved in Venice in 1177.

The thirteenth century represented the real golden period of the city: in one hundred years, Anagni gave four popes to the Christianity. The first one to ascend to the papal throne was Lotarius Conti who, as Innocent III (1198-1216), was one of the outstanding personalities of his century, together with Frederik II of whom he favoured the coronation as Emperor of Germany and Saint Francis of whom he approved the first Rule. To Innocent III credit is given for the elaboration and the most complete and concrete issue of the theocratic doctrine, principle according to which the absolute rule on every earthly power is ascribed to the Pope. He died in 1216, leaving the Church at the historical peak of its power.

Innocent III's efforts were taken up by Gregory IX (Ugolino Conti 1227-1241), who belonged to the powerful Family of Conti di Anagni. On the 29th of September 1227 in Anagni's Cathedral he excommunicated Emperor Frederik II who had abandoned the Crusade that the Emperor himself had proclaimed. The suggestive ceremony took place by the lights of the torches, firstly shaken, then thrown on the ground and finally blown out by the prelates. In September 1230 after the reconciliation, Gregory IX received in Anagni Frederik of Svevia who had been able to conquer, without bloodshed but by means of his great diplomatic ability, both Jerusalem and Nazareth.

During his pontificate Alexander IV (1254-1261), Gregory's relative and Anagni's third pope, had to face the raged theological dispute raised by the University of Paris against the Mendicant Orders. The leader of this dispute, by means of a pamphlet against the Dominicans, was Guillaume de Saint-Amour, whose text was burned in front of the Cathedral, the sentence having been passed in Anagni in September 1256. In 1255 the Pope canonized Chiara of Assisi in Anagni.

The name of Anagni is particularly connected to the events of Boniface VIII, the fourth Pope of the city, a member of the powerful Caetani Family. His election, which occurred after the historical and dark abdication of Celestine V, was opposed by French Cardinals and by the powerful Colonna Family.

In 1300 Boniface VIII, at the summit of his pontificate, set up the first Jubilee and founded the first Romnan university. Having got into a violent conflict with the King of France, Philip the Fair, who assigned himself the right to tax the French clergy, Boniface VIII emanated the famous Bull Unam Sanctam against the king. The contrast became so harsh that Philip the Fair organized an expedition to arrest the Pope, with the purpose of removing Boniface from his office by the help of a general council.
The Pope was captured in his palace at Anagni in September 1303, by the French and Italian soldiers led by Guglielmo di Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna.

A Legend tells us that in such circumstances the Pope was slapped by Sciarra Colonna. The outrageous imprisonment of the Pope inspired Dante Alighieri in a famous passage of his Divine Comedy (Purgatory, XX, vv. 85-93). The people of Anagni rose against the invaders and released Boniface, but the old pontiff, already suffering, died in Rome about a month later. After the death of Boniface VIII, both the splendour of Anagni and the dreams of power of the Caetani Family collapsed and the doctrine of papal theocracy lost its consistence forever.

The transfer of the papal court to Avignon marks for Anagni the beginnning of a long period of decline which lasted through the entire XV century.

Sacked by the troops of Duke Guarnieri (Werner) von Verslingen in 1348, ruined and depopulated, the city became a battlefield in the conflict between pope Paul IV and Philip II king of Spain. The Spanish army, led by the Duke of Alba sieged Anagni in 1556 bombarding it and horribly sacking it as soon as the papal troops abandoned their defenses and escaped.

The damages suffered by the town, particularly by the town walls, were accentuated by the fortifying works carried out in 1564 under pope Pius IV. Around 1579 a short period of refluorishing begins, thanks to Cardinal Benedetto Lomellino, bishop and governor of the city.

The planned works are made under the sign of a recovery of the architectonic structures and the medieval constructive and decorative style. The great architectonic and urbanistic reconstructions began around 1633. The works concerning the ecclesiastic buildings which determined the present look of the churches in Anagni are very interesting. The new architectonic canons which, howerver, left the existing Gothic Roman elements untouched are reflected in the transformation of the buildings. Also the ancient noble mansions embellished by magnificent portals were restructured and, toward the end of the XIX century, also the cultural level of the city rose again, thanks to the growing welfare. In fact, in this period, other institutions and congregations were born, which, together with the constitution of various schools, made Anagni an important centre of study thanks to its long cultural tradition.

In 1890, in the presence of the Queen, the Queen Margaret's National Boarding-house for the education of the orphan-girls of grammar schools teachers was opened.

In 1897 the Collegio Leoniano, entitled to the pontiff Leone XIII, was opened, too. In it the theological teaching is entrusted to the Jesuit fathers. The edifice is the seat of an interesting archaeological collection.

Finally, in 1930, the Prince of Piedmont's Boarding-house was built for the sons of local body personnel.

Since the second post-war period the territory of Anagni has become an industrial settlement ranking among the most important ones in Central-Southern Italy; a settlement which, even though it resulted to be remarkably useful to our economy, caused - on the other hand - several damages to the local culture and tradition, also deforming some traits of the environmental patrimony.

CYBER-SPAZIO INFORMATIVO

Tel. 0775/730487 - Fax 0775/779049  E-mail:info@bibliotecaanagni.191.it Grafica ed aggiornamento: I. Q.