If Gubbio's Festa dei Ceri is one of the oldest continuous annual festivals in Italy, and probably also the world given that it goes back to the 13th century, then Bevagna's Mercato delle Gaite is perhaps one of the youngest, having only been formally established as recently as 1989.
But that is not to suggest that it lacks authenticity, far from it because for 10 days at the end of June the Mercato puts on a multi-faceted re-creation of the medieval period in Bevagna from 1250-1350.
It is not some simple costume reenactment but instead it has come to represent a cultural reawakening for Bevagna and a rejuvenation of the town's connection to its history. It also provides a much more interesting and educational tourism experience.
To achieve something of real substance and relevance to the town's medieval period, the organizers went back to old municipal statutes to re-familiarize themselves with the traditional crafts of Bevagna and also to re-create some of the original tools available at that time.
All manner of artisanal trades and crafts were then relearned, relating to the production of leather, parchment paper, ironmongery, wood carvings, silk, hemp etc as well as authentic medieval music and food preparation.
During the Mercato the four districts of the town, known as gaite compete for the Palio across various competitions that include choosing two of the above crafts and producing something with complete fidelity to the raw material and the process used in the medieval period.
The town is transformed back into a medieval village with many of the townspeople dressing and behaving in character, selling their produce in the streets and with an archery contest in the main piazza completing the scene. Visitors can book a place at the evening banquet and there is a long list of activities and entertainment to enjoy.
Bevagna is full of interesting shops
It is understandable why Bevagna chose to hark back to this period to reaffirm its identity, because much of the town, including the surviving walls, towers and gates, is classically medieval, as are the two Romanesque churches of San Michele and San Silvestro that face each other across the beautiful unspoiled Piazza Filippo Silvestri.
However a historian might argue that the heyday of Bevagna, or Mevania as it was then, was many centuries earlier, beginning well before the birth of Christ, when it was a flourishing and prosperous Roman town benefitting from the protection of Rome.
Oddly for an Umbrian town, Bevagna was built on the flat Foligno floodplain at the northern end of the Martani mountains because it was here that the Roman Via Flaminia intersected with the ancient Umbrian waterways of Clitunno, Teverone and Topino. These were all navigable waterways two millennia ago connected to the Tiber so Bevagna became a key transportation hub for shipping goods to Rome and was the administrative center for a much larger area that included modern day Assisi and Spello.
The Roman port area was near the small waterfall where the Clitunno flows into the Teverone and becomes the river Topino. Public wash houses were constructed here just outside the medieval city walls for the women of the town to do their laundry while their young children swam nearby; a place known as l'accolta, ie. the gathering place. As with the rest of Italy away from the major cities, washing laundry in rivers continued well past the middle of the 20th century, including in the Serchio near our home town of Lucca.
The circular corridors of the Roman theater have survived in the center of Bevagna underneath a medieval house and there are also the brick columns still visible of a 2nd century Roman temple along Corso Giacomo Matteotti which follows the line of Via Flaminia.
However, probably the most important discovery in Bevagna was the Roman bath house, dating from Hadrian's period of 117 - 138 A.D., which after almost a century of intermittent work yielded an impressive surviving mosaic floor whose richness of detail demonstrated the importance of Bevagna in Roman times and suggested that Bevagna was also a place where wealthy patrician Roman families would come for a holiday.
Suetonius wrote of Caligula's visit to Fonti del Clitunno in 39 A.D. and it is probable that he also visited Bevagna as his sister Agrippina owned a villa here.
The Valdichiana in Tuscany is not terribly far from Bevagna, located on the other side of Lake Trasimeno about 50 miles away, so perhaps the famous white Chianina breed of cattle there was originally from the valley around Bevagna because mention is made of them by Marcus Annaues Lucanus in Pharsalia Book 1 (below) when describing the impact of Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon river in 49 B.C:
Caesar, with strength increased and gathered troops
New efforts daring, spreads his bands afar
Through Italy, and fills the neighbouring towns.
Then empty rumour to well-grounded fear
Gave strength, and heralding the coming war
In hundred voices 'midst the people spread.
One cries in terror, "Swift the squadrons come
Where Nar with Tiber joins: and where, in meads
By oxen loved, Mevania spreads her walls,
Lucanus should perhaps have heeded his own words describing the power of Roman leaders because shortly after writing this he was forced to commit suicide in 64 A.D when his involvement in the plot to overthrow the young Emperor Nero was discovered.
Bevagna doesn't need its Roman history or indeed it's medieval past to stay relevant in the modern world for an unlikely superstar has appeared recently in this small town. She is an 85 year old grandmother known as 'Nonna Iside' who in less than three years has attracted an Instagram audience of over 100,000 followers for her impromptu demonstrations of traditional day to day Umbrian cooking.
One of her frequent videos was seen by a staggering 15 million people around the world, most of whom probably have no-one in their lives like Nonna Iside who cooks purely from memory and experience with no need of recipes or instructions. She reminds me of my mother-in-law here in Lucca who does the same at 88 years of age and it is the knowledge of this generation that Italy needs to preserve and retain.