It owes its ancient name, Ameria, to a legendary founder, the king Ameroe. According to Cato the Censor the first indigenous community settled here around 1134 B. C., four centuries before Rome was founded. As a consequence of the growth of the town and of the power of the surrounding populations, first of all the Etruscans, the necessity arose to build defensive works, as the Polygonal Walls (6th-4th cent.). Some historians say that Ameria became a Roman municipality in 338 B. C. right after the Latin War, others say around the 1st cent. a C.). The Amerinian Way linking Nepi with Chiusi via Todi and Perugia was then very important. In the Middle Age it was the only road which allowed the connection between Ravenna ( the seat of the Exarchate, the West Bysantium) and Rome (it was a good stretch of the "Byzantine Corridor").
During the Roman domination Amelia enjoyed a period of splendour, as testified by the remains of the thermae, the cisterns, the "thesaurus" exhibited in the Boccarini Palace, to be open shortly. But the most interesting find unearthed in Amella is without any doubt the bronze statue of the Roman captain Germanico.
In the times of Diocletian, Fermina, a young Roman girl then made the town patron saint, was martyrized. After the Edict of Constantine (313 A. D.), Amelia became a diocese (363 A. D.). Besieged by the Goths (548 A. D.) it was then possessed by the Longobards (579 A. D.) and afterwards by the Roman-Byzantines. Become Commune, it was sacked by the troops of the emperor Frederick the Second (1240). Once definitely fallen under the direct influence of the Church, it always defended the Commune authonomy and freedom.
Among the distinguished personages of modern times we remember the 15th cent. painter Piermatteo d'Amelia, who was trained in the school of Lippi and the bishop Alessandro Geraldini.
He was the one who, while he was in service of the Spanish Crown interceded on behalf of Christopher Colombus to get the three caravels which would lead the famous navigator to discover the New Worid. Successively he was named the first bishop of America.

Curiosities

Since a few years the ancient communal statutes of 1346 are the object of a historical revisitation. For two weeks the town centre of Amelia is divided into five "contrade": Crux Burgi, Posterola, Platea, Vallis and Collis which fight one another in the "Palio dei Colombi", a tournament made of a game of quintain on horseback and a crossbow shot. The target when hit opens a cage and sets a pigeon free in the air.

The old Silla mill, by the "Fosso delle Streghe", that is the "witches' ditch", has become since the seventies "The valley of Hope". Here don Pierino Gelmini has founded the "Comunità Incontro" for the rescue of drug addicts.
The "Silla Mill" is now the international seat of hundreds of "Comunità Incontro" centres scattered throughout the five continents.