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your velouria
 
location:
charleston, sc
Gender: Male
 |  | Calcata Italy: an abandoned medieval town (now featuring blasphemy!)
< on 12/16/2008 3:13 AM >
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Last year I was lucky enough to cash in some frequent flyer miles on a trip to Rome, la cittá eterna (the eternal city). Rome has been one of my favorite places on earth since I lived there briefly in college, and there are few places that are as intertwined with the history of Western civilization. Around every corner there are reminders of the city’s long history—you may wait for a bus on a broken piece of column that once held up an ancient Roman bathhouse, or you may sip a café in a former medieval palace.
But this post is not about Rome, it is about the nearby, mostly-abandoned town of Calcata.
Sitting atop a craggy chunk of rock, and surrounded by ruined castles and ancient structures in the surprisingly wild countryside of Lazio, only 30 miles from the border of Rome, sits the crumbling remains of a medieval town. Narrow passageways and haphazardly, and sometimes precariously placed apartments define the small village, and it is the closest I’ve seen to what one might picture when they imagine a medieval village.
my brother
me
my bro.
Today, there seem to be more feral cats than villagers.
A historical tangent, before returning to abandoned exploration:
One of the more bizarre stories about Calcata is one of the uniquely Catholic obsession with holy relics, which are usually body parts or possessions of saints that are prominent attractions in many European churches. Jesus was Jewish, and as such was circumcised. This, of course, left something behind, and Catholics being Catholics, the holy foreskin (aka prepuce) was for many years considered a very sacred chunk of withered flesh indeed. Legend has it that as Rome was being sacked (again) by Germans in the 1500s, a soldier stole the bejeweled box containing the fantastic foreskin, but was captured in Calcata on his way home. Someone later discovered it hidden in his prison cell there, the Vatican certified it, and it was thereafter venerated by Calcata villagers, and pilgrims from around the world, particularly on the ‘Day of the Holy Circumcision,’ which falls on New Years Day.
All was well until 1856, when a French monastery claimed have ‘found’ the true sacred skin, which was supposedly given to it by none other than Charlemagne himself. It is unclear to me why the Holy Roman Emperor would have had this chunk of Jesus Jimmy Jerky, but ok. Anyway, the Vatican now had a dilemma on its hands—unless it was willing to concede that Christ was a two-headed monster, so to speak, somebody was lying. Their answer was to simply excommunicate anyone who talked about it anymore.
For the people of Calcata, losing their claim to fame was not acceptable. A local priest hid the controversial cock carcass in his nightstand, and only brought it out once a year to parade it down the Calcata streets on the Day of the Holy Circumcision, much to the chagrin of the Vatican.
In 1983, however, the priest in question, Dario Magnoni, announced that someone had broken into his house and stolen the rancid relic. Rumors still circulate that the Holy Catholic Church itself was responsible for the theft, and it delights me to no end to think of Vatican ninjas creeping into this priest’s house, stealing it, and depositing the coveted cock somewhere deep within the bowels of Vatican City (oh yeah, I have no restraint in jokes about my former religion).
Well now that I have deeply offended some of you, and mocked all that is holy, I’ll get back to the abandonment part of this story. Calcata was vacated in the 1930s, since the (Fascist) Italian government thought that the town was in danger of collapsing into the valley below, due to its precarious perch atop what essentially several huge cliffs, so they condemned the entire place. They then built a new town down the road (Calcata Nuova), and moved everyone there. Calcata stood empty throughout the war and its aftermath, but in the 1960s, some precocious Italian hippies decided to squat there. Eventually, more bohemians and artist-types started moving in, and now the medieval town is probably 30-40% occupied, which gives it something in common with Detroit! ;)
Bizarrely, many medieval houses stand wide open, seemingly untouched since at least the hippy days. For example, I went in the following subterrenean apartment, and found a totally intact living space, complete with strange decorations, some furniture, and even some bottles of wine which sat undisturbed in candle nooks in this dank, underground, stone dwelling since the early ‘70s.
Of course I rescued a bottle, but I am afraid to open it since I know nothing about wine and would love to give it to someone who would appreciate it if its worth something. If there are any oenophiles on here, please contact me, and I will tell you the details!
Here is a really shitty and short video of the apartment, since i have it--i really wish i had more footage, but i was out of memory on my camera. Someday I will return!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MLHbhUPpuyk
All in all, this was one of the strangest places I’ve ever been, I hope you enjoyed reading about it, since writing about it will certainly secure me a place in hell.
[last edit 12/16/2008 3:16 AM by your velouria - edited 1 times]
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NAN
    
location:
rochester NY
bathroom expert
| |  | Re: Calcata Italy: an abandoned medieval town (now featuring blasphemy!)
<Reply # 1 on 12/16/2008 1:52 PM >
| | | | this place looks great and the story is very entertaining. Thanks for sharing.
Through the darkness of future's past
The magician longs to see
Once chants out between two worlds Fire, walk with me |
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DashingFlamingos
location:
Providence, Rhode Island
Gender: Female
| | | Re: Calcata Italy: an abandoned medieval town (now featuring blasphemy!)
<Reply # 2 on 12/16/2008 8:54 PM >
| | | | Wow, that looks wicked awesome!
I love the shot of the kitties, also!
It's all foreign to me. |
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Esoterik
location:
Kansas City
Gender: Male
| | Re: Calcata Italy: an abandoned medieval town (now featuring blasphemy!)
<Reply # 3 on 12/17/2008 3:48 PM >
| | | | This thread made my morning. Cheers!
“You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.” |
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Freak
location:
Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| | | Re: Calcata Italy: an abandoned medieval town (now featuring blasphemy!)
<Reply # 4 on 12/19/2008 8:42 PM >
|  | | | What's the stone those tunnels are cut from? If it's Tuffa sandstone there's probably a lot more, Naples and other old cities built on Sandstone have huge tunnel networks. There's probably at least some cisterns and water tunnels for rain catchment.
We saw lots of ferel cats in Naples when we were there, the locals would feed them. Ferel dogs were apparently a huge problem, people would go on vacation and just let their dog go, then get a new dog when they got home!
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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