Civita di Bagnoregio, known in Italy as 'the dying city', has been nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. This small town in the municipality of Bagnoregio in northern Lazio is also included in the official list of Italy's Most Beautiful Villages, but has gained its ominous name as 'the dying city' due to the fact that the village has been threatened by erosion for centuries.
Italy's UNESCO nominee will now be submitted to the World Heritage Committee, as the nomination has been approved by the Executive Board of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO. The Italian Minister for Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini, stated the importance of this most recent nomination for Italy and hailed this "extraordinary site" in the Italian countryside.
This village has a rich historical past, mostly due to problems surrounding the landscape of this rural setting. The expression "the dying city" was coined by the writer Bonaventura Tecchi, who was born in Bagnoregio, due to the fact that the inhabitants of this village have had to struggle against erosion and landslides since the year 1650 when an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale struck central Italy. However, the current appearance of the village dates back to the end of the Middle Ages and it has remained almost intact since then.
