Perugia

 

(pārū'jä) , city (1991 pop. 144,732), capital of Umbria and of Perugia prov., central Italy, situated on a hill overlooking the valley of the Tiber River. It is a commercial, industrial, and tourist center. Manufactures include chocolate, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and machinery. Perugia was inhabited by the Umbrians and the Etruscans before it came under the control of Rome (c.310 B.C.). It became a Lombard duchy in the late 6th cent. A.D. In the 12th cent. it attained the status of a free commune and gradually gained hegemony over other Umbrian cities. Although nominally under papal control, it was in fact ruled by strong tyrants until 1540, when it was conquered by Pope Paul III. To help control the city Pope Paul built an imposing citadel (designed by Antonio da San Gallo and dismantled in 1860). Perugia was the artistic center of Umbria. The Umbrian school of painting (13th–16th cent.) reached its greatest splendor with Perugino (1445–1523), the teacher of Raphael, and with Pinturicchio (1454–1518). Points of interest in the city include the imposing Palazzo dei Priori (13th–15th cent.), which houses the National Gallery of Umbria; the marble Great Fountain (13th cent.), with sculptures by Nicolò Pisano and his son Giovanni; the Collegio del Cambio [exchange hall], with fine frescoes by Perugino and his followers; the Gothic cathedral (14th–15th cent., with later baroque additions); a large Etruscan arch (with Roman and 16th-century additions); the Church of San Pietro; the Gothic Church of San Domenico, which houses an archaeological museum; the Renaissance-style Oratory of San Bernardino; and well-preserved medieval quarters. Perugia is the seat of a university founded in 1308. Nearby is an Etruscan cemetery comprising ten chambers carved out of rock.

Comune di Perugia
Piazza IV Novembre
Seal
Location of Perugia in Italy
Coordinates: 43°06′38″N 12°23′21″E / 43.11056, 12.38917
Country	Italy
Region	Umbria
Province	Province of Perugia
Government
- Mayor	Renato Locchi
Area
- City	km²  ( sq mi)
Elevation	m ( ft)
Population (July 2006)[1]
- City
- Density	/km² (/sq mi)
Time zone	CET ([[UTC+1]])
Postal codes	06121 to 06135
Area code(s)	075
Patron saints: St. Constantius, St. Herculanus, St. Lawrence
Website: http://www.comune.perugia.it

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber river, and the capital of the province of Perugia.

Perugia is a notable artistic center of Italy. The famous painter Pietro Vannucci, nicknamed Perugino, was a native of Perugia. He decorated the local Sala del Cambio with a beautiful series of frescoes; eight of his pictures can also be admired in the National Gallery of Umbria^[2]. Perugino was the teacher of Raphael,^[3] the great Renaissance artist who produced five paintings in Perugia (today no longer in the city)^[4] and one fresco^[5]. Another famous painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia. Galeazzo Alessi is the most famous architect from Perugia.

History

Perugia was an Umbrian settlement^[6] but first appears in written history as Perusia, one of the twelve confederate cities of Etruria;^[6] it was first mentioned in Q. Fabius Pictor's account, utilized by Livy, of the expedition carried out against the Etruscan league by Fabius Maximus Rullianus^[7] in 310 or 309 BCE. At that time a thirty-year indutia was agreed upon;^[8] however, in 295 Perusia took part in the Third Samnite War and was reduced, with Vulsinii and Arretium (Arezzo), to seek for peace in the following year.^[9]

In 216 and 205 BC it assisted Rome in the Second Punic War but afterwards it is not mentioned until 41-40 BC, when Lucius Antonius took refuge there, and was reduced by Octavian after a long siege, and its senators sent to their death. A number of lead bullets used by slingers have been found in and around the city ^[10]. The city was burnt, we are told, with the exception of the temples of Vulcan and Juno— the massive Etruscan terrace-walls,^[11] naturally, can hardly have suffered at all— and the town, with the territory for a mile round, was allowed to be occupied by whomever chose. It must have been rebuilt almost at once, for several bases for statues exist, inscribed Augusta sacr(um) Perusia restituta; but it did not become a colonia, until 251-253 CE, when it was resettled as Colonia Vibia Augusta Perusia, under the emperor C. Vibius Trebonianus Gallus.^[12]

It is hardly mentioned except by the geographers until it was the only city in Umbria to resist Totila, who captured it and laid the city waste in 547, after a long siege, apparently after the city's Byzantine garrison evacuated. Negotiations with the besieging forces fell to the city's bishop, Herculanus, as representative of the townspeople.^[13] Totila is said to have ordered the bishop to be flayed and beheaded. St. Herculanus (Sant'Ercolano) later became the city's patron saint.^[14]

In the Lombard period Perugia is spoken of as one of the principal cities of Tuscia^[15]. In the ninth century, with the consent of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, it passed under the popes; but by the eleventh century its commune was asserting itself, and for many centuries the city continued to maintain an independent life, warring against many of the neighbouring lands and cities— Foligno, Assisi, Spoleto, Todi, Siena, Arezzo, etc. In 1186 Henry VI, rex romanorum and future emperor, granted diplomatic recognition to the consular government of the city; afterward pope Innocent III, whose major aim was to give state dignity to the dominions having been constituting the patrimony of St. Peter, acknowledged the validity of the imperial statement and recognized the established civic practices having the force of law.^[16]

On various occasions the popes found asylum from the tumults of Rome within its walls, and it was the meeting-place of five conclaves, including those which elected Honorius III (1216), Clement IV (1285), Celestine V (1294), and Clement V (1305); the papal presence was characterized by a pacificatory rule between the internal rivalries.^[16] But Perugia had no mind simply to subserve the papal interests and never accepted papal sovereignty: the city used to exercise a jurisdiction over the members of the clergy, moreover in 1282 Perugia was excommunicated due to a new military offensive against the Ghibellines regardless of a papal prohibition. In the other hand side by side with the thirteenth-century bronze griffin of Perugia above the door of the Palazzo dei Priori stands, as a Guelphic emblem, the lion, and Perugia remained loyal for the most part to the Guelph party in the struggles of Guelphs and Ghibellines. However this dominant tendency was rather an anti-Germanic and Italian political strategy.^[16] The Angevin presence in Italy appeared offer a counterpoise to papal powers: in 1319 Perugia declared the Angevin Saint Louis of Toulouse "Protector of the city's sovereignty and of the Palazzo of its Priors"^[17] and set his figure among the other patron saints above the rich doorway of the Palazzo dei Priori. At the half of the 14th century Bartholus of Sassoferrato, who was a renowned jurist, asserted that Perugia was dependent upon neither imperial nor papal support.^[16] In 1347, at the time of Rienzi's unfortunate enterprise in reviving the Roman republic, Perugia sent ten ambassadors to pay him honour; and, when papal legates sought to coerce it by foreign soldiers, or to exact contributions, they met with vigorous resistance, which broke into open warfare with Pope Urban V in 1369; in 1370 the noble party reached an agreement signing the treaty of Bologna and Perugia was forced to accept a papal legate; however the vicar-general of the Papal States, Gérard du Puy, Abbot of Marmoutier and nephew of Gregory IX,^[18] was expelled by a popular uprising in 1375, and his fortification of Porta Sole was razed to the ground.^[19].

Civic peace was constantly disturbed in the fourteenth century by struggles between the party representing the people (Raspanti) and the nobles (Beccherini). After the assassination in 1398 of Biordo Michelotti, who had made himself lord of Perugia, the city became a pawn in the Italian Wars, passing to Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1400), to Pope Boniface IX (1403), and to Ladislas of Naples (1408-14) before it settled into a period of sound governance under the Signoria of the condottiero Braccio da Montone (1416-24), who reached a concordance with the Papacy. Following mutual atrocities of the Oddi and the Baglioni families, power was at last concentrated in the Baglioni, who, though they had no legal position, defied all other authority, though their bloody internal squabbles culminated in a massacre, 14 July 1500^[19]. Gian Paolo Baglioni was lured to Rome in 1520 and beheaded by Leo X; and in 1540 Rodolfo, who had slain a papal legate, was defeated by Pier Luigi Farnese, and the city, captured and plundered by his soldiery, was deprived of its privileges. A citadel known as the Rocca Paolina, after the name of Pope Paul III, was built, to designs of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger "ad coercendam Perusinorum audaciam."^[20]

In 1797, the city was conquered by French troops. On 4 February 1798, the Tiberina Republic was formed, with Perugia as capital, and the French tricolour as flag. In 1799, the Tiberina Republic merged to the Roman Republic.

In 1832, 1838, 1854 and 1997 Perugia was visited by earthquakes; Following the collapse of the Roman republic of 1848-49, when the Rocca was in part demolished^[19], in May 1849 it was seized by the Austrians. In the June of 1859 the inhabitants rebelled against the temporal authority of the Pope and established a provisional government but the insurrection was bloodily defeated by Pius IX's troops^[21]. In the September of 1860 the city was finally united, along with the rest of Umbria, to the Kingdom of Italy.

Perugia today

Perugia has become famous for chocolate, mostly because of a single firm, Perugina, whose Baci (kisses) are widely exported^[22]. Perugia chocolate is very popular in Italy^[23], and the city hosts a chocolate festival in October of every year^[24].

Perugia also hosts one of Europe's largest jazz festivals in early July.

In July 2007, Perugia hosted the International IUGG Assembly, a once per four year event that is one of the largest gatherings of Earth scientists.

Perugia today hosts two main universities, the ancient Università degli Studi and the Foreigners University (Università per Stranieri). Stranieri serves as an Italian language and culture school for students from all over the world^[25]. Other educational istitutions are the Perugia Fine Arts Academy "Pietro Vannucci" (founded in 1573), the Perugia Music Conservatory for the study of classical music and the RAI Public Broadcasting School of Radio-Television Journalism^[26]. The city is also host to the Umbra Institute, an accredited university program for American students studying abroad^[27]. The Università dei Sapori (University of Tastes), a National centre for Vocational Education and Training in Food, is located in the city as well^[28].

The city symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city.

Main attractions

• The Cathedral of S. Lorenzo.
• The Palazzo dei Priori (Town Hall, encompassing the Collegio del Cambio, Collegio della Mercanzia, and Galleria Nazionale), one of Italy's greatest buildings^[29]. The Collegio del Cambio has frescoes by Pietro Perugino, while the Collegio della Mercanzia has a fine later 14th century wooden interior.
  • Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, the National Gallery of Umbrian art in Middle Ages and Renaissance (it includes works by Duccio, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Perugino)
• Church and abbey of San Pietro (late 16th century).
• Basilica of San Domenico (begun in 1394 and finished in 1458). It is located in the place where, in Middle Ages times, the market and the horse fair were held, and where the Dominicans settled in 1234. According to Vasari, the church was designed by Giovanni Pisano. The interior decorations were redesigned by Carlo Maderno, while the massive belfry was partially cut around mid-16th century. It houses examples of Umbrian art, including the precious tomb of Pope Benedict XI and a Renaissance wooden choir.
• Church of Sant'Angelo (Founded in the 6th century).
• Church of San Bernardino (with façade by Agostino di Duccio).
• Fontana Maggiore, a medieval fountain designed by Fra Bevignate and sculpted by Nicolò and Giovanni Pisano.
• Church of San Severo, retains a fresco painted by Raphael^[5] and Perugino.
• Ipogeo dei Volumni (Hypogeum of the Volumnus family), an Etruscan chamber tomb
• National Museum of Umbrian Archaeology, where is conserved one of the longest inscription in Etruscan, the Cippus perusinus.
• Etruscan Arch (also known as Porta Augusta), an Etruscan gate with Roman elements.
• the Rocca Paolina, a Renaissance fortress (1540-1543) of which only a bastion today is remaining. The original design was by Antonio and Aristotile da Sangallo, and included the Porta Marzia (3rd century BC), the tower of Gentile Baglioni's house and a mediaeval cellar.
• Centro Direzionale (1982-1986), an administration civic center owned by the Umbria Region. The building was designed by the Pritzker Architecture prizewinner Aldo Rossi^[30].

Other attractions

• The Etruscan Well (Pozzo Etrusco).
• Medieval aqueduct.
• The Tribunali.
• Piazza Matteotti
• Teatro Comunale Morlacchi.
• Church of Sant' Agata.
• Church of Sant' Ercolano (early 14th century). Currently resembling a polygonal tower, it had once two floors. The upper one was demolished when the Rocca Paolina was built. It includes Baroque decorations commissioned from 1607. The main altar is made of a 4th sarcophagus found in 1609.
• Church of Sant'Antonio da Padova.
• Church of San Francesco al Prato.
• Church of Santa Giuliana, heir of a female monastery founded in 1253, which in its later years gained a reputation for dissoluteness, until the French turned it into a granary. It is now a military hospital. The church, with a single nave, has traces of the ancient frescoes (13th century), which probably covered all the walls. The cloister is a noteworthy example of Cistercian architecture of the mid-14th century, attributed to Matteo Gattapone. This is contemporary with the upper part of the campanile, whose base is from the 13th century.
• Church of San Michele Arcangelo (5th-6th centuries). It is an example of Palaeo-Christian art with central plan recalling that of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. It has 16 antique columns.
• Church of San Matteo in Campo Orto.
• Church of Santi Stefano e Valentino
• Templar church of San Bevignate.

Gallery

Corso Vannucci

Palazzo dei Priori

Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo

Local events

• The Umbria Jazz Festival is one of the most important venues for Jazz in Europe and has been held annually since 1973, usually in July.
• Eurochocolate
• Sagra Musicale Umbra^[1]

Twinnings

Perugia has twin and sister city agreements with the following cities^[2]:

• Aix-en-Provence, France
• Bratislava, Slovakia
• Grand Rapids, USA
• Potsdam, Germany
• Seattle, USA
• Tübingen, Germany

See also

• People from Perugia
• Perugia Calcio - local football club
• University of Perugia

Notes

References

• Conestabile della Staffa, Giancarlo (1855). I Monumenti di Perugia etrusca e romana. 
• Gallenga Stuart, Romeo Adriano (1905). Perugia. Bergamo: Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche Editore. 
• Heywood, William (1910). A history of Perugia. London: Methuen & Co. 
• Mancini, Francesco Federico; Giovanna Casagrande. Perugia - guida storico-artistica. Perugia: Italcards. ISBN 88-7193-746-5. 
• Rubin Blanshei, Sarah (1976). Perugia, 1260-1340: Conflict and Change in a Medieval Italian Urban Society. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. 
• Rossi, Raffaele; and others (1993). Perugia. Milan: Elio Sellino Editore. ISBN 88-236-0051-0. 
• Symonds, Margaret; Lina Duff Gordon (1898). The Story of Perugia. London: J.M. Dent & Co. 

External links

• Official Perugia Website (Italian)
• Official Perugia Tourism Website (English)
• Perugia travel guide from Wikitravel
• Google Maps of Perugia

Photo galleries

• Recent photos of Perugia
• Photos of Perugia
• Photos of the Umbria region
• Another gallery of Perugia

• Maps and aerial photos for 43°′″N 12°′″E / 43.1121, 12.3888Coordinates: 43°′″N 12°′″E / 43.1121, 12.3888
  • Maps from MapQuest, Multimap and Yahoo! Maps
  • Satellite images and maps from Google Maps and Live Search
  • Other mapping from GlobalGuide and WikiMapia

Umbria · Comuni of the Province of Perugia
	Assisi · Bastia Umbra · Bettona · Bevagna · Campello sul Clitunno · Cannara · Cascia · Castel Ritaldi · Castiglione del Lago · Cerreto di Spoleto · Citerna · Città della Pieve · Città di Castello · Collazzone · Corciano · Costacciaro · Deruta · Foligno · Fossato di Vico · Fratta Todina · Giano dell'Umbria · Gualdo Cattaneo · Gualdo Tadino · Gubbio · Lisciano Niccone · Magione · Marsciano · Massa Martana · Monte Castello di Vibio · Monte Santa Maria Tiberina · Montefalco · Monteleone di Spoleto · Montone · Nocera Umbra · Norcia · Paciano · Panicale · Passignano sul Trasimeno · Perugia · Piegaro · Pietralunga · Poggiodomo · Preci · San Giustino · Sant'Anatolia di Narco · Scheggia e Pascelupo · Scheggino · Sellano · Sigillo · Spello · Spoleto · Todi · Torgiano · Trevi · Tuoro sul Trasimeno · Umbertide · Valfabbrica · Vallo di Nera · Valtopina

Regional capitals of Italy

L'Aquila (Abruzzo) · Aosta (Aosta Valley) · Bari (Apulia) · Potenza (Basilicata) · Catanzaro (Calabria) · Naples (Campania) · Bologna (Emilia-Romagna) Trieste (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) · Rome (Lazio) · Genoa (Liguria) · Milan (Lombardy) · Ancona (Marche) · Campobasso (Molise) · Turin (Piedmont) Cagliari (Sardinia) · Palermo (Sicily) · Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) · Florence (Tuscany) · Perugia (Umbria) · Venice (Veneto)

pms:Perugia

Donate to Wikimedia