Nocera Umbra

Nocera Umbra is a town and comune in the province of Perugia, Italy, 15 kilometers north of Foligno, at an altitude of 520 m above sea-level. The comune, covering an area of 157.19 km², is one of the largest in Umbria.

History

The town of Nocera was founded in the 7th century BC by inhabitants from Camerinum, an Umbrian town, who left their ancestral homeland during a so-called ver sacrum (sacred spring). The name Nocera in the Osco-Umbrian language was Noukria, meaning "New" (town).

The Roman town was not located on the hill - where modern Nocera lies - but in the valley, near the Topino creek.

The town - with the Latin name Nuceria Camellana – came under Roman control between the end of the 4th century and the first decades of the 3rd century BC, and became a Municipium. It soon acquired strategic importance because it lay on a branch of the via Flaminia, the road which linked Rome to the Adriatic, going from Forum Flamini (S. Giovanni Profiamma, near Foligno) to Fanum, on the Picenum. Several remains of the Roman roads are still visible today. From Nuceria the Romans also built another road – the Septempedana - leading to the Roman military outposts of Prolaqueum and Septempeda, on the Adriatic side of the Apennines.