What is Bagnoregio known for?

Eroding tuff-plateau frazione one kilometer east, sixteen residents, accessible only by a footbridge built in 1965. The dying town. The plateau loses centimeters of edge each year to landslides; the 1695 earthquake started the modern collapse. Franciscan theologian and biographer of Saint Francis, born Giovanni di Fidanza in Bagnoregio in 1221, named Doctor of the Church.

When is the best time to visit Bagnoregio?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September through October are when Civita is at its best. The light is low, the hill mist rises off the calanchi at dawn, and the path across the bridge is bearable in temperature. July and August reach the low thirties; the open bridge has no shade, and the small piazza of Civita can hold no more than a few hundred visitors at a time. November through March is the quiet season. The bridge stays open year-round, with a small access fee charged since 2013, and winter fog over the calanchi produces the photograph most people associate with the place.

Bagnoregio is a comune in the province of Viterbo, Lazio region of Italy, about 72 kilometers from Terni.

How do I get to Bagnoregio?

From Terni, Bagnoregio is roughly 72 km by road.

Lazio · Viterbo

Bagnoregio

The Etruscan-founded hill town in Tuscia whose frazione Civita di Bagnoregio sits on an eroding tuff plateau, reachable only by footbridge.

Known for

CIVITA
Eroding tuff-plateau frazione one kilometer east, sixteen residents, accessible only by a footbridge built in 1965.
LA CITTÀ CHE MUORE
The dying town. The plateau loses centimeters of edge each year to landslides; the 1695 earthquake started the modern collapse.
SAN BONAVENTURA
Franciscan theologian and biographer of Saint Francis, born Giovanni di Fidanza in Bagnoregio in 1221, named Doctor of the Church.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, 15 July

Why come

Bagnoregio sits on a tuff ridge in northern Lazio, sixty kilometers from Perugia and a hundred north of Rome. The town itself is small and quiet, but it is famous for what comes next to it: Civita di Bagnoregio, the frazione one kilometer east, a separate Etruscan-founded village stranded on a tuff plateau that erodes a few centimeters every year. After the 1695 earthquake split Civita from the rest of the commune, the population emptied; today sixteen people live there year-round.

A reinforced pedestrian bridge built in 1965 is the only access. Civita is on the Borghi più belli d'Italia list and on most northern Lazio itineraries, and Bagnoregio, the larger and older town it grew out of, is where the bridge starts. Saint Bonaventure, the medieval Franciscan theologian and biographer of Saint Francis, was born here in 1221.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Bagnoregio’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

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What to see

Ponte pedonale di Civita
Reinforced concrete pedestrian bridge built in 1965, replacing the donkey path that connected Civita to Bagnoregio after the 1695 earthquake.
Civita di Bagnoregio
Etruscan-founded frazione on an eroding tuff plateau, sixteen permanent residents, accessible only by the 1965 footbridge.
Cattedrale di San Donato (Bagnoregio)
Episcopal cathedral in the larger town, with works tied to the cult of Saint Bonaventure, born in Bagnoregio in 1221.
Valle dei Calanchi
Badland valley of eroded clay and tuff that surrounds Civita, the geological process that has been carving the plateau for two millennia.
Chiesa di San Donato (Civita)
Romanesque-Renaissance church on the small piazza of Civita, holding a fifteenth-century wooden crucifix attributed to the school of Donatello.

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Living here

Population 3,364
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Rome, 2 h 17 min drive
Regional capital Roma, 1 h 42 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

Elevation: 484 m
Population: 3,364
Surface area: 72.81 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Terni

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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