Orte

File:Orte aerial panorama. June 2024.jpg

File:Orte and the River Tiber. June 2024.jpg

File:Orte and its significance as a transport hub from above. June 2024.jpg

Orte is situated in the Tiber Valley on a high tuff cliff, encircled to North and East from a handle of the Tevere river. It is an important road and rail hub.

The Etruscans inhabited the area from the 6th century BC and called it Hurta,Chiesa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LvoWeJP3o_EC Tarquinia: archeologia e prosopografia tra ellenismo e romanizzazione], 2006, p.267. as testified by the findings in a necropolis nearby, now preserved in the Vatican Museums. Two major battles between Etruscans and Romans (310 and 283 BC) were fought nearby on the shores of the Vadimone lake. The Romans were victorious both times.

The Romans domination made it the municipality of Horta (also Hortanum).John Murray, [https://books.google.com/books?id=22UPAAAAYAAJ A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography, Volume 1], 1873, p.1091 Under the rule of Augustus it received numerous public works. Because of its strategic position, Orte was occupied in succession by the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines and the Lombards. During the late 9th to early 10th century, along with much of central Italy, Orte was also held or threatened by the Saracens.{{cite book|author1=Peter Partner|author-link=Peter Partner|title=The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance|date=1 Jan 1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520021815|page=[https://archive.org/details/landsofstpeterpa0000part/page/81 81]|edition=illustrated|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/landsofstpeterpa0000part/page/81}}

In the Middle Ages the city was never seat of a fief, becoming a free comune under a podestà (elected magistrature). Later it became part of the Papal States.

George Dennis visited Orte in the 1840s. He describes it as picturesque, but having scarcely any visible Roman or Etruscan remnants.George Dennis, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Periods/Roman/Archaic/Etruscan/_Texts/DENETR*/9.html The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria], 1848, Chapter IX.

{{main|Roman Catholic Diocese of Orte}}

• Cathedral of Orte
• San Francesco: baroque church
• San Silvestro, Orte

• Sant'Egidio Abate's Day and Ottava of Sant'Egidio: from 31 August to the second Sunday in September. A Medieval festival with shows, fairs, conventions, seminaries of study, art exhibitions of art and archery competitions (the "Palio", contented by the archers of the Seven Contrade).
• Religious procession of Dead Christ: every Friday before Easter. A torchlight procession representing early religions orders ("Confraternity").

Orte railway station, opened in 1865, forms part of the Florence–Rome railway and the Ancona–Orte railway. It is situated in Piazza Giovanni XXIII, in the locality of Orte Scalo, approximately two kilometres southeast of the town centre.

• List of Catholic dioceses in Italy

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category-inline|Orte}}

• [http://www.comune.orte.vt.it/ Orte municipal website]
• [http://www.ottavamedievale.it/ Ottovamedievale.it]
• [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1326.htm GCatholic - former & titular bishopric]

; Bibliography - ecclesiastical history

• Ferdinando Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. I, second edition, Venice 1717, coll. 733-743
• Tommaso M. Mamachi, ''De episcopatus hortani antiquitate ad hortanos cives liber singularis, Rome 1759
• Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia della loro origine sino ai nostri giorni, vol. VI, Venice 1847, pp. 23–49
• Louis Duchesne, Le sedi episcopali nell'antico ducato di Roma, in Archivio della romana società di storia patria, Volume XV, Rome 1892, p. 491
• Paul Fridolin Kehr, Italia Pontificia, vol. II, Berlin 1907, pp. 192–194
• Gerhard Schwartz, Die Besetzung der Bistümer Reichsitaliens unter den Sächsischen und Salischen Kaisern : mit den Listen der Bischöfe, 951-1122, Leipzig-Berlin 1913, p. 259
• Francesco Lanzoni, Le diocesi d'Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604), vol. I, Faenza 1927, pp. 546–547
• Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, pp. 685–686
• Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, pp. 278–279; vol. 2, pp. XXVI e 166

{{Province of Viterbo}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Cities and towns in Lazio