Not to be confused with Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 (formerly Calcutta), a city in West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Calcata is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

  and town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 in the Province of Viterbo

Province of Viterbo

The Province of Viterbo is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. It is bordered to the north by the Province of Grosseto and Siena, by the north-east with the Province of Terni and Rieti, in the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and south by the Province of Rome.It...

 in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

, located 47 km north of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 by car, overlooking the valley of Treja river.

Calcata borders the following municipalities: Faleria

Faleria

Faleria is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located about 35 km north of Rome and about 35 km southeast of Viterbo...

, Magliano Romano

Magliano Romano

Magliano Romano is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 30 km north of Rome.Magliano Romano borders the following municipalities: Calcata, Campagnano di Roma, Castelnuovo di Porto, Mazzano Romano, Morlupo, Rignano Flaminio, Sacrofano....

, Mazzano Romano

Mazzano Romano

Mazzano Romano is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 35 km north of Rome.Mazzano Romano borders the following municipalities: Calcata, Campagnano di Roma, Castel Sant'Elia, Faleria, Magliano Romano, Nepi.It was first mentioned in 945, one of the...

, Rignano Flaminio

Rignano Flaminio

Rignano Flaminio is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 35 km north of Rome. As of 2007, it had a population of 8,544...

.

In the 1930s, the hill towns's fortified historic center was condemned by the government for fear that the volcanic cliffs the ancient community was built upon would collapse. Local residents moved to nearby Calcata Nuova. In the 1960s, the emptied historical centre began to be repopulated by artists and hippies who squatted in its medieval stone and masonry structures. Many of the squatters eventually purchased their homes, the government reversed its condemnation order, and the residents of what had become an artistic community began restoring the ancient town.

This trend has continued. Today the town has a thriving artistic community described in the New York Times as what "may be the grooviest village in Italy, home to a wacky community of about 100 artists, bohemians, aging hippies and New Age types."

The historical centre now includes restaurants, cafes, and art galleries.

Main sights

• Old Town
• Church of Santissimo Nome di Gesù, dating from the 14th century but restored from 1793.
• Sub-urban Park of Treja Valley.
• Remains of the Faliscan
  Falisci
  Falisci is the ancient Roman exonym for an Italic people who lived in what was then Etruria, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. The region is now entirely Lazio. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely akin to Latin. Originally a sovereign state, politically and socially they...
  
   temple of Monte Li Santi (outside the village).

Holy Prepuce of Calcata

According to legends of the village of Calcata, in 1527 a soldier in the German army sacking Rome

Sack of Rome (1527)

The Sack of Rome on 6 May 1527 was a military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, then part of the Papal States...

 looted the Sanctum sanctorum

Sanctum sanctorum

The Latin phrase sanctum sanctorum is a Latin translation of the biblical term: "Holy of Holies" which generally refers in Latin texts to the Holiest place of the Tabernacle of Ancient Israel and later the Temples in Jerusalem, but also has some derivative use in application to imitations of the...

. When he was eventually captured in the village, he hid the jeweled reliquary

Reliquary

A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures...

 containing the Holy Prepuce

Holy Prepuce

The Holy Prepuce, or Holy Foreskin is one of several relics attributed to Jesus, a product of the circumcision of Jesus....

 in his cell, where it was discovered in 1557. It was officially venerated by the Catholic Church in Calcata since that time, with the Vatican's offering a ten-year indulgence

Indulgence

In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...

 to pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s. Calcata became a popular site for pilgrimage.

In 1856, however, the Charroux Abbey

Charroux Abbey

Charroux Abbey , is a ruined monastery in Charroux, in the Vienne department of Poitou-Charentes, western France.-History:Charroux was a Benedictine abbey, founded in 785 by Roger, Count of Limoges. It had up to 213 affiliated abbeys and priories. The Council of Charroux was held at the abbey in 989...

 rediscovered what it considered to be the true Holy Prepuce, which it claimed to have received from Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

. It had been lost for centuries. The rediscovery led to a theological clash with people over the established Holy Prepuce of Calcata, which had been officially venerated by the Church for hundreds of years. In 1900, the Catholic Church solved the dilemma by ruling that anyone writing or speaking of the Holy Prepuce would be excommunicated

Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

. In 1954, after much debate, the punishment was changed to the harsher degree of excommunication, vitandi (shunned). Later the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

 removed the Day of the Holy Circumcision from the church calendar in its review of holy days and obligations.

Calcata continued to stage an annual procession

Procession

A procession is an organized body of people advancing in a formal or ceremonial manner.-Procession elements:...

 on the Day of the Holy Circumsion to honor the relic

Relics attributed to Jesus

A number of relics associated with Jesus have been claimed and displayed throughout the history of Christianity. Some people believe in the authenticity of some relics; others doubt the authenticity of various items...

. In 1983, however, parish priest Dario Magnoni announced, "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home." He had reportedly kept it in a shoebox

Shoebox

A shoebox, shoe-box or shoe box may refer to one of the following.*A box for storing shoes*"Shoe Box", a 1995 single by the Canadian band Barenaked Ladies*Dingbat *Shoebox style...

 in the back of a wardrobe

Wardrobe

A Wardrobe is a cabinet used for storing clothes.Wardrobe may also refer to:* Wardrobe , a full set of multiple clothing items* Wardrobe , part of royal administration in medieval England...

. Citing the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

's decree of excommunication, Magnoni refuses to further discuss the event, as does the Vatican. As a result, villagers' theories of the crime vary from theft for lucrative resale to an effort by the Vatican to quietly put an end to the practice it had attempted to end by excommunication years ago. Some residents speculate that Magnoni may have been the culprit.

In popular culture

• An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town (2009) recounts United States writer David Farley's account of trying to locate the relic.

External links

• Commune Calcata, Official website
• www.calcata.info/ "Calcata: General Info", also in English
• Description and pictures of Calcata
• David Farley, "Calcata", New York Times