The real Narnia — a Roman city at the exact center of Italy, with a Gozzoli fresco and a hidden inquisition dungeon
Narni is a hill town in Umbria perched above the Nera river gorge, at the geographic center of the Italian peninsula — a medieval city built on Roman Narnia, which C.S. Lewis chose as the name for his fictional kingdom (he saw it on a map and liked the sound). Beyond the literary connection, Narni has a remarkable concentration of genuine substance: a Benozzo Gozzoli fresco in San Francesco (rarely seen by tourists), a Romanesque cathedral with a 12th-century crypt, the dramatic ruins of Narni Sotterranea (a rediscovered underground Inquisition prison), and an intact medieval piazza virtually…
Roman Narnia was a major city on the Via Flaminia — the triumphal arch of Augustus still stands at the east entrance of the modern town, and the medieval bridge (Ponte d'Augusto, 27 BCE) collapsed in the medieval period but its single remaining arch is still visible from the gorge. The city was the birthplace of Nerva (Emperor, 96–98 CE) and Erasmo da Narni (Gattamelata), the condottiere immortalized by Donatello's bronze in Padua. The underground Inquisition chambers of Narni Sotterranea were rediscovered by speleologists in 1979 — the 13th-century church above them had been divided and bloc…