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Traces of human settlements in the valley date from the Neolithic, but with certainty witnessed a continuous human presence from the eighth century BC The foundation of the city probably dates to the fifth century, through the work of Sabini, which Norcia put the northernmost outpost of the territory they controlled. Probably the name Norcia must be placed in connection with the name of Etruscan Northia Roman goddess Fortuna.
The city is Rome ally in the war against Carthage and becomes in the second century BC the first Prefecture and then Town Hall in Region IV Sabina. In the civil war that sees Ottaviano opposed to Antonio Norcia an alliance with the latter and endorses its fate after the defeat patita by the future first emperor. In 250, the city hosts the bishop folignate San Feliciano who converts to Christianity and becomes home to a major diocese as early as the fourth century.
With the decadence of the Western Roman Empire and the resulting invasions by the barbarian peoples, Norcia is several times plundered and devastated first by the Goths and then by the Lombards that subject and then subject to Longobardo Duchy of Spoleto. Precisely in this period at the end of the fifth century, Norcia sees the birth of its most illustrious citizen, San Benedetto founder of Western monasticism.
Despite its location in a mountainous region and not easily accessible Umbrian town suffers repeated attacks by pirates Saracens in early ninth century.
During the high Middle Ages Norcia through a period of deep depression and economic decline that saw almost succumb under the weight of a very high rate of emigration and a high rate of mortality. Agriculture autarchica survival characteristic of this period of history determines the development of pig whose meat, processed and resold to urban centres neighbours, it becomes an important means of subsistence and trade for peasants in the area, otherwise devoid of other fundamental resource.
Throughout the Middle Ages Norcia Guelf city is subject to papal domain but simply lodged in free commune at the beginning of the twelfth century and to live a period of relative economic prosperity. Particularly interesting and worthy of mention is the marriage which is established in this period between the city and the Benedictine abbey of Sant'Eutizio, situated in the territory of today's Preci. Marriage between the other from the birth place of so-called Schola Surgical in which anatomical knowledge of the monks merge with the empirical knowledge and practices surgical nursini that farmers are able to play successfully on pigs. The school surgical nursina is officially recognized by the Church authorizing a small group of people from some local families, to perform surgery until now only practiced by religious.
Between 1200 and 1300 Norcia is engaged in ongoing conflicts with the nearby town of Amatrice and Arquata del Tronto, Ascoli Allied, which in 1255 led Norcia to conclude the treaty of cession of territories Arquata del Tronto, Earn, Tufo, Rocchetta and Capodacqua in Ascoli.
In early 1300, Norcia consolidates its economic influence and its political prestige that they see, together with Visso, filled the role as the main urban centre in the mountainous region that surrounds it. They built the walls of defence but the closeness of the Spoleto powerful forces at a constant conflict that ultimately irreparably undermines the prospects of development and political power.
In 1354 is definitely subject to the Church, but already in 1324 because of a catastrophic earthquake that destroys most of the public and private buildings causing many victims, Norcia undergoes a final coup de grace to its territorial ambitions.
In the late Renaissance, popes allocate Norcia seat of a Pontifical Prefecture with jurisdiction over most of the surrounding mountainous areas, places one hand and on the other side of the Apennines, for defensive purposes consolidate the walls that still belt , Almost intact, the old town and erect, designed by Vignola, the fortress of Castellina said that with its simple but elegant style, dominates the central square of the city dedicated to St. Benedict.
In the seventeenth century Norcia, strongly bound to Rome from a strong dependence political and administrative, lives an interesting period of artistic and cultural vitality, reflecting the baroque splendour that the papal courts inaugurarono on the banks of the Tiber in that period. Yes indeed intensify cultural exchanges with other cities in the peninsula and some famous artists come in Norcia for dipingervi some works. It rises a literary academy, are opened schools and founded a theatre and the city population of churches, convents and monasteries.
During the eighteenth century the city was again ravaged by a series of catastrophic earthquakes that upset the town-planning. The reconstruction that is necessary erase much of the personality of medieval Umbrian town and set the structure typically nineteenth century that is now visible in much of the old town.
Norcia, and traditionally strongly pro-papal, rejects weapons first in an attempt to establish a government in the area pro-French in 1798 but was subsequently included in the Republic that under Napoleonic rule, check central Italy until the Restoration, which restores the papal power on the region.
The 1859 is a new theatre of devastating earthquake that, as reported by the official site of the town of Norcia, destroys 600 buildings on 676 existing. The administration imposes papal from that moment the strict rules which prohibit the increase in city buildings over three storeys high and require the use of special building materials.
In 1860, after the annexation of plebisciti, Norcia joins the new Kingdom of Italy but with the advent of the twentieth century the city lives of a more difficult economic times. The traditional agriculture can not sustain competition from agriculture intensive pre-industrial and campaigns live again a period of large-scale emigration in different directions: towards the United States where, between Pennsylvania and Ohio, establish colonies of many and especially Nursini to Rome where expert craftsmen in the art of processing pork implanting and operate numerous commercial activities in the field (Norcinerie).
The migration is continuing for most of the century and leads to a gradual depopulation of the countryside and small villages surrounding the town.
Another earthquake (1979), which causes the collapse of some cavity under the sink area town by numerous houses under their weight, further upsets the territory and cause serious damage to the whole artistic heritage and most of the buildings in private but the plan for rehabilitation and reconstruction which takes off in subsequent years and lasts for all 80 years, although controversy between violentissime policies and complaints to the judiciary in cases of corruption and cronyism, leads to an economic revival in the area, with 'launching of a small industrial activity, the abandonment of subsistence farming and especially with the tourism promotion hotel that becomes predominant in the budget's economic town.
The contemporary Norcia is a city with a strong tourist vocation for which the demographic bleeding seems to have stopped. The territory witnessing a growth in population and also to a rebirth of small fractions, once almost abandoned. Like the rest of the region Norcia is characterized by a certain immigration, mainly due to foreign labour relied on by seasonal job opportunities offered by the food industry and the tourist industry.
The traditional activities related to the processing of pork and the collection of black truffles, along with scenic beauty of the mountain, will make this goal discreetly sought by the international clientele that, especially in summer, crowd the many hotels and shopping centres hospitality.
 
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Umbria
Perugia