A CIVILISATION JOINED TO THE TIBER RIVER

Since the distant past the upper Tiber Valley has been an ideal place for settlement and cultivation, of which Città di Castello is the main town, and has consequently linked its fortunes to the river. The presence of man in this area is wellknown since the mid Palaeolithic era: The discovery of pileworks and cabin floors under The church of San Francesco led to the hypothesis that a primitive settlement had been in this area, from which the town's beginnings rose.
From Neolithic times, the territory settlement became more systematic and organised, focusing more on the fertile plain, the surrounding hills and along the internal valley formed by the Tiber's tributaries.
Between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, many territorial changes occurred and the Etruscan people settled in the valley, on the right side of the Tiber, and the Umbrian people on the left with the River representing a border as well as a meeting point used as defence against Rome)