Resisted devastating earthquakes, the Italian city that shines at night (Photos)

There are two large squares where locals sit in cafes to see people and take their evening walks. There are centuries-old churches and even ancient remains dating back to the Roman period.

As in many other Italian cities, the center was built in the medieval period. And like the others, it is beautifully preserved.

If you look around, especially at night and you will notice a big change, Ascoli seems to shine.

During the day, buildings and even paved stones shine in the sunlight. And at night they glow in the moonlight, the towers, the street lights reflect perfectly on the floor, making the city center look like a mirage.

This is all due to the fact that the Ascol rock, from which the entire historic center is built, is travertine: a marble-like gemstone that glows white in the midday sun, takes on a pink color with the west of the sun and shines under the street lights in the evening.

Today, travertine and Italian travertine in particular, is expensive. You will find it used in bathrooms as well as floors, instead of being used to build entire homes.

But Ascol’s travertine buildings and paved stones were placed long before it became a precious material. Many of the magnificent buildings you see today date back to the Roman period.

A miniature ancient Rome

They were erected from Roman buildings, which is why you will find churches in the visible remains of Roman temples and pieces of arches in medieval and Renaissance squares.

The Romans were not the first to settle here, he says Lella Palumbi a tour guide in Ascoli.

The city originally belonged to the Piceni, an ancient tribe whose territory stretched over most of the modern Marche region, from Pesaro in the north to Chieti. They founded the city a century before Rome was born.

The Piceni tribe were great warriors, says Palumbi, and the Romans, becoming more powerful, quickly sought to make them allies.

But Piceni’s application for Roman citizenship sparked a year-long war, which culminated in the conquest of Ascol. After entering, the Romans razed the city to the ground and decided to rebuild it from scratch.

“Then Ascoli travertine was born”says Palumbi.

A form of limestone, travertine is formed when hot springs deposit minerals calcium carbonate. It is extremely elastic, thanks to external organisms such as algae, mosses, bacteria, and often fossils.

The Romans had already used it for their most important buildings and monuments in Rome, using the quarries at Tivoli near the city, they even called the stone “lapis tiburtinus”, or “stone from Tivoli”, which later took its name in travertine ”. ”

After conquering Ascoli, the Romans noticed that there were similar quarries a few miles away, away from the ancient Via Salaria road. They used that stone to build a glittering new city, to demonstrate their power even over enemies in battle.

It was, says Palumbi, a “miniature Roma.” There were temples, a court, spa rooms and a center.

San Tommaso Square is still there today because it is located in the ancient amphitheater. Just outside the city center are the remains of the Roman theater, one of the few ancient buildings that survived the medieval “recycling” of the city.

2000 years of ‘recycling’

Roman Ascoli lasted far beyond the days of the empire, but in the medieval period, citizens decided to rebuild. Instead of using new stones, as might be the case now, they overthrew Roman buildings, using travertine cut 1000 years ago to build a modern city.

Today, the churches of San Venanzio and San Gregorio Magno are located on the site of Roman temples, including their stones in the building, the latter even building pagan foundations, its back wall and even building its facade.

“Everything is recycled, we shared Roman monuments to build the medieval city”, says Palumbi, who also owns a bar, Oziohoused in a medieval building using Roman stone that was renovated in the Renaissance.

“They were trying to save time and energy, so instead of going to the mountains to extract travertine, they got what was already there, the city was basically a quarry.”

Take a closer look at the many towers that made this a medieval Manhattan, as Ascoli is also called the city of 100 towers.

The rock that saved the city

Travertine has another special quality that gives Ascol beauty. When first extracted, it is relatively soft, allowing it to be sculpted, one of the reasons why Ascol buildings have carved portals and ornate facades. Many Renaissance houses even have mottos engraved on the door gates.

Then, through a chemical oxidation process, it solidifies into rock so resistant that Ascol buildings have withstood numerous earthquakes over the centuries.

It was not destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1703, nor was it badly hit by the 2016 earthquake that flattened the Amatricen, an hour away.

Of course, Amatrice was closer to the epicenter both early, as it was also destroyed in 1703. The terrain is also different, Ascoli is more stable than other areas nearby.

Papetti told CNN that “Stone helps buildings to be more sustainable.”

Palumbi agrees: The Romans were aware of earthquakes and built Ascoli to resist them. They had better engineers than they have today.

“We could still live happily in Roman homes if we had not demolished them.”

Although the 2016 earthquake caused damage, some churches were closed for structural repairs and post-earthquake surveys found that other buildings needed antiseismic work, nothing was destroyed, as happened in other cities in the region.