The village of Marmore

The village of Marmore,lying on a plateau partly bounded by the cliff of the famous Waterfall, is a natural conjunction between the plain of Rieti and the Terni basin due to its geographical position. The history of this territory has been strongly affected by the Velino river, which,though nowadays its impetuous jumps produces the majestic spectacle of the waterfall, in the remote past the limestone sediments of its waters caused a barrier along the edge of the cliff, so much so that obstruct the flow into the underlying Nera river. The problem of water stagnation, the cause of swamps in the Rieti plain,was overcome through a grandiose drainage project that led in the third century BC to regulate the Velino with the excavation of the Curiana canal. In the toponym of the place  remains the reference to a very widespread element in the area of ​​Marmore, namely the sponga stone, which is formed precisely from the encrustations of the limestone; Pliny in the "Naturalis Historia" writes that in this place "marble grows", meaning the travertine deposited by the Velino. Because of its diffusion, the sponga stone is also the construction material that characterizes many buildings in the Terni area. The architect Mario Ridolfi,who built "Casa Lina", his private residence in Marmore, also favored its use.

The village of Marmore sprang up towards the end of the nineteenth century,in what was then still a territory belonging to the Municipality of Papigno (since 1927 integrated into the Municipality of Terni, of which today also Marmore is a hamlet). The rebuilding of the former medieval church of Santa Gertrude (located behind the modern Church of Sant’Andrea) and the construction of the railway station date back to that same period; Marmore can be reached by train on the Terni-Rieti-l'Aquila-Sulmona line.

Other buildings of interest in this area are the former Elementary School and Villa Morandi, built in the early 1900s near the waterfall, between the Cava Reatina and the Clementina. On the overhanging Mount Sant’Angelo, the remains of a medieval fortified tower remain clearly visible. It had the function of controlling a strategically important territory both for the viability and the Waterfall.

 

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