Traces of human settlements in the Assisi territory date back to the Neolithic era. Numerous archeological artifacts seem to prove that Assisi began as a small village in which the Umbri lived in the Villanovian Age ( IX – VIII century B.C.).
The name meaning ” city of the falcon or of the hawk ” or maybe of Latin origins, obviously refers to the Assino river. After a time of war in 1174, Assisi was assaulted and conquered by Federico Barbarossa, who later invested Duke Corrado of Lutzen, named also Corrado of Urslingen, as its’ leader. Assisi became an imperial domination, but because of civil uprisings, it was rapidly changed into a township in 1198; because of this, wars were frequent with neighboring Perugia.
In 1860, a civil motion caused it to be annexed to the developing Italian state. This gradually allowed the city to grow outwards, also because of the construction of a train station.
Cite: Wikipedia
