Orte

Orte stands above the Tiber valley north of Rome. The Etruscans knew it as Hurta, and the Romans later made Horta a municipality. Its position attracted successive rulers after the fall of the Western Empire, including the Ostrogoths, Byzantines and Lombards. In the Middle Ages Orte developed as a free commune governed by a podestà, rather than becoming the seat of a feudal lordship; it later formed part of the Papal States.