Norcia

Norcia (Nursia in Latin) has been damaged by the earthquakes of 24 August and 26 October 2016: the latter has been collapse of a large part of the church of San Salvatore. On 30 October 2016 a shock has caused the collapse of the Basilica of San Benedetto and his eighteenth-century bell tower. There are also collapsed the Concathedral of Santa Maria Argentea, the churches of Santa Rita and San Francesco, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows with its bell tower, the church of Sant'Agostino and portions of the walls and the medieval towers, and has damaged the Palazzo Comunale and the Castellina.

The artistic heritage of the town truffle, albeit still substantial and interesting, suffers however of seismic events, often catastrophic, that over the centuries have inflicted severe injuries, destroying monuments and important traces of a distant past that dates back to pre-Roman times. Moreover are characteristic, in a large part of the historical center, the low buildings and with the perimetral walls to the shoe, testimony of the regulations which were adopted in the legislation the pontifical "ad hoc" after the earthquake of 1859, where it recommended constructions to Baracca. The Fulcrum artistic-monumental city center wheel certainly around its central square where, with an organization of renaissance flavor concentrate buildings symbol of identity truffle: the Basilica of San Benedetto, the Portico of measures, Castellina, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Argentea and the Tempietto.

Norcia today is a village with a strong tourist vocation for which the demographic bleeding seems to have stopped. The territory attends to a population growth and a reborn even of small villages, a time almost abandoned. The traditional activities, linked to the processing of pork and collection of black truffle, joined to the beauty of the landscape of the mountain district, make it a meta discreetly coveted by customers also international that especially in summer crowds the numerous hotels and centers of hospitality.

Pork products typical of Norcia find their peculiarities in production techniques, absolutely conventional. One of the most famous products is the Prosciutto di Norcia, rewarded with the recognition of the IGP mark already in 1998. From the Note food production of the city also derives the term norcineria used in central Italy to indicate the charcuterie.

Among other traditional economic activities, widespread and active there are those crafts, as well as the renowned wrought iron, aimed at the production of chandeliers, lanterns, household tools and objects depicting animals.