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Cascia

The history of Cascia and the surrounding area goes back many centuries and is amply illustrated by archaeological finds, written documents, monuments, and numerous objects of historic or cultural value.
The origins of Cascia date back to several centuries before the founding of Rome, to a time when the area was inhabited by Italic tribes whose main occupation was sheepbreeding.
Moving from pasture to pasture, these tribes eventually came into contact with one another and contributed to the founding of the nascent Roman civilisation.
The most imposing monument testifying to this period is the splendid temple at Villa San Silvestro, but there are many other archaeological finds on display in the Palazzo Santi Museum in Cascia and in other museums in Italy and elsewhere.
Various inscriptions and recent archaeological discoveries testifying to the presence there of a court of law show Cascia and the surrounding territory to have been a place of some importance in Roman times. The emperor Vespasian's family came from this area.
The chaos and upheavals of the dark ages, allayed to some extent by the presence of a number of monastic orders, gave way to a period of great splendour at the time of the communes, from the beginning of the twelfth century.
Like most of Umbria, Cascia was caught up in the feuds between the warring Guelf and Ghibelline factions.
The structure of Cascia itself and of many of the surrounding towns and villages, clearly designed for self-defence, was dictated by these turbulent times.
In later centuries, the town's strategic position, just on the border of the kingdom of Naples, made it a stronghold of the Papal State; it remained an unquiet Papal garrison until 1860.
Strangely, although the history of Cascia is so amply recorded in a wide variety of sources, nothing is known about the origins of the town's coat of arms.
It depicts a woman, standing, holding in her right hand a lily and in her left a serpent.