All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in September 2024.
All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in September 2024.
You may wish to see pages on the history and fortifications of Perugia or on its two main piazzas first.
I should perhaps do the reader a service by telling him just
how a week at Perugia may be spent. His first care must be to
ignore the very dream of haste, walking everywhere very slowly
and very much at random, and to impute an esoteric sense to
almost anything his eye may happen to encounter. (..) On archways and street-staircases and
dark alleys that bore through a density of massive basements,
and curve and climb and plunge as they go, all to the truest
mediaeval tune, you may feast your fill. (..) The battered black
houses, (..) closer packed, even as such are, than
spadefuls of earth resemble exposed sections of natural rock;
none the less so when, beyond some narrow gap, you catch the
blue and silver of the sublime circle of landscape.
Henry James - Italian Hours - 1874
Wandering about near Via della Cupa, west of the main square, where there is evidence of the ancient walls
Perugia is characterized by many vaults joining together almost all the buildings of its medieval quarters: they reduced the impact of earthquakes which are frequent in the region: another aspect of the town is that the use of brickwork is remarkable while the other towns shown in this Umbrian journey have a stonier aspect. Its narrow streets offer here and there views of the countryside.
During the XIIth century each major family lived in a block of houses
protected by a tower: of the many towers which once existed only Torre degli Sciri, west of Palazzo dei Priori, is left, because it was converted into a granary.
The bell tower of S. Pietro de' Cassinesi in the neighbourhood named after the church was built in different periods: early medieval, Gothic and Renaissance styles were joined together to yield a very
harmonious result.
S. Giuliana was the church of a monastery located south of the walls and this explains why the bell tower has almost the aspect of a fortification: it also reminds the viewer of the architecture of northern Europe as the church was built by the Cistercians.
The bell tower of S. Maria Nuova in Borgo S. Antonio was built in 1644 in a Late Renaissance style similar to the bell tower of S. Maria degli Angeli near Assisi.
(left) Pozzo Etrusco and Chiesa dell'Orazione e della Buona Morte; (right) Fonte di Veggio (1615)
In the XIIIth century an aqueduct provided Perugia with an ample supply of fresh water: the authorities however did not neglect the maintenance of the ancient Etruscan wells, so that the town could rely on an alternate source in case an enemy cut the aqueduct (see some medieval wells in Borgo S. Pietro). Umbria is a region with plenty of water and the landscapes in the paintings by il Perugino show rivers, lakes and waterfalls. A local spring supplied an elegant XVIIth century countryside fountain which today gives its name to Fontivegge, a modern development of Perugia. Augustus set fire to Perugia, but the town was (and is) very proud of being associated with him and the fountain bears the inscription Augusta Perusia.
(left) Via Bagliona; (right) Palazzo dei Cavalieri di Rodi (see that in Rome)
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built Rocca Paolina above the houses of the Baglioni in literal terms: the buildings were not pulled down, but
were used to support the first platform of the fortress. In 1859 Perugia revolted against the pope and set up a local government in the
hope of joining the Kingdom of Italy which was in the process of coming into existence. Pope Pius IX sent Swiss troops
who easily occupied the town: the plundering and killings which followed became known as the slaughter of Perugia. In 1860 Perugia was occupied by Italian troops and the inhabitants with their own hands pulled down Rocca Paolina, the symbol of papal rule: almost all the coats of arms of the popes were erased from the monuments of the town, including that of Pope Sixtus IV on the façade of Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi. However the bronze statue of Pope Julius III was spared because that pope restored the privileges of Perugia, after Pope Paul III cancelled them.
In recent times a careful restoration of the underground passages of
Rocca Paolina provided Perugia with Via Bagliona, an extraordinary walk through medieval buildings which were thought to be lost.
(left-above) Renaissance frieze in Corso Garibaldi; (left-below) S. Angelo della Pace: inscription still bearing the name of Pope Paul III and decoration of the entrance; (right) Fonte Lomellina (1682) near Porta Marzia
The Cathedral is covered in page two.
Close to the end of the Via Lungara, on a rising ground on the right, is the Church of S. Angelo, very curious architecturally, and having evidently once been a temple. Externally, the lower part is circular, the upper octagonal. (..) Local authorities call the building "II Tempio della Gloria": it bears a great resemblance to S. Stefano Rotondo at Rome.
Augustus J. C. Hare - Cities of Northern and Central Italy - 1878
S. Angelo is Perugia's oldest church and is located on a charming site near Cassero di Porta S. Angelo. It was built in the late Vth century making use of columns and other materials taken from ancient temples.
Within it is circular and supported by 16 ancient columns. Originally there were three circles of pillars, of granite and dark grey marble, but only one now remains perfect, and two of the pillars which formed this circle have been moved, and their places supplied by others from the outer circle. All the columns in S. Pietro were brought from hence, two columns in Il Gesu and two in the Piazza Sopramuro. Hare
The variety of the columns (some of which came from Greece and Egypt, see a page on this topic) is an indication of the wealth of Perugia during the Roman rule: the wedding arrangement of the circular interior reminds the viewer also of S. Costanza in Rome.
(left) S. Agostino; (right) S. Severo
Perugia, owing to to its geographic position received cultural inputs from many parts of Italy: the lower part of the decoration of the façade of S. Agostino is based on the use of pink and white stones which prevailed in nearby Assisi and other towns of the Umbrian Valley. The upper part is more similar to churches of northern Italy where brickwork was used to design pillars and other architectural patterns. This method was applied also in S. Severo. The ancient Romans made use of brickwork to decorate some funerary monuments along Via Latina and Via Appia (Sepolcro di Annia Regilla).
(left) S. Francesco al Prato; (right) S. Fortunato
The church dedicated to St. Francis is one of the first built
by the members of his order. Work started in 1230, just four years after the saint's death, outside the ancient walls on a meadow (prato) at the western edge of the hill: the location proved not to be carefully chosen because earthquakes led to the collapse of the ceiling, so that only the external wall did not fall due to its strengthened structure.
S. Fortunato is another church built approximately during the same period and again outside the ancient walls, an indication of the growth of Perugia during the XIIIth century. St. Fortunato was a Bishop of Todi in the VIth century.
S. Bernardino: (left) façade; (right) reliefs depicting Virtues and angels playing musical instruments
In the little green square close to the convent of S. Francesco is the Oratory of S. Bernardino ("La Giustizia"), a beautiful specimen of Renaissance decoration. Its marble front is inscribed "Opus Augustini Fiorentini Lapicida, 1461," and is the work of Agostino di Duccio. Hare
This façade, with its terra cottas and coloured marbles, forms one of the most charming examples of polychromatic architecture in Italy. An infinite variety of reliefs, arabesques, and ornaments cover its architraves, flat-spaces, and the side posts of its doors.
Charles Perkins - Tuscan Sculptors - 1864
The influence of Tuscan Early Renaissance in Perugia is evident in this small church near S. Francesco al Prato which was designed and decorated by Agostino di Duccio in 1461. He was a Florentine artist who was exiled from his city and who worked in Rimini with Leon Battista Alberti on the
decoration of Tempio Malatestiano. Alberti, due to his works and to his writings, can be regarded as the
founder of Italian Renaissance architecture. Other works by Agostino di Duccio in Perugia are an altar to St. Lawrence in S. Domenico and Porta S. Pietro.
S. Bernardino: (above) Glory of St. Bernardine; (below) the saint promotes a vanities bonfire; the image used as background for this page shows another detail of the decoration
Above rises an arch, the principal architectural feature of the façade, in the lunette of which San Bernardino appears in a glory of flaming tongues, attended by angels playing upon musical instruments. (..) The reliefs over the door, representing scenes from the life of San Bernardino, are notably realistic in style, and eminently naive in sentiment. Perkins
Bernardine began his labours at Perugia, a veritable city of confusion, where, under the constant stress of civil war, the people had grown so savage as to have earned for themselves a name for ferocity. Our saint, who was stopping at a convent of the Observance close to the city walls, went every morning to preach in the market-place, where the people flocked in crowds to hear him. And yet he was conscious of not having so far touched their hearts. He therefore hit upon the singular device of announcing his intention of introducing his hearers to the devil, which, by exciting the people's curiosity, had the effect of visibly swelling the number of his audience. Whereupon, after several days of anxious expectation on the part of the crowd, he said: "I will keep my word to you, and not only one devil, but several will I show you," and, to the amazement of the throng held in breathless suspense: "Gaze at one another," he suddenly exclaimed, "and you will be looking on devils; for are not you, in very truth, devils, you who do the work of Satan?" Then, in earnest tones, to obviate the possibility of any flippant interpretation, he went on to draw a severe as well as pathetic picture of the vices raging in the city, while conjuring his listeners to renounce the works of Satan. And his fervent exhortation at last met with a favourable ear and was followed by a complete conversion. Peace was publicly proclaimed, the most inveterate hatred was subdued at the sight of so general a reconciliation, while several of those who formerly considered themselves bound to vengeance now hastened to seek out their adversary, and to beg his pardon, in several instances with a halter round their neck. Moreover, the piety, which had seemed extinct, revived, and led to the various artifices of feminine coquetry, in the shape of false hair, scents, wreaths, high-heeled shoes, mirrors and "other abominations" being piled into a heap on the market-place, two tall turrets flying the satanic colours being erected thereon, and the whole being given over to the flames.
Paul Thureau-Dangin - Saint Bernadine of Siena - 1906
In May 1444 a very ailing St. Bernardine reached L'Aquila to continue his predication,
but he died there on the eve of the Ascension, at Vesper time. The citizens of that town erected a grand basilica where the saint is buried inside a very fine Renaissance monument.
(left) S. Maria della Luce near Porta Trasimena; (right) S. Luca
In the XVIth century it was the turn of Rome to influence the design of churches in Perugia: the use of travertine, the typical stone of the Eternal City, is an indication of this change. S. Maria della Luce is a beautiful little church which shows the passage of the Gothic into the classic style.
S. Luca was built at the initiative of the local representative of the Order of the Knights of Malta at the time of Grand Master Cardinal Hugues de Verdale (1582-1595).
(left) Palazzo Donini; (right) Palazzo Antinori Gallenga Stuart
The main palaces belonging to public institutions (town hall, tribunals, university) are located in the two main squares. Some fine palaces belonging to wealthy local families were built in the XVIIIth century: Palazzo Donini has a rather severe appearance, while Palazzo Antinori is a lively work by Francesco Bianchi, a Roman architect who designed the monastery near S. Maria in Monterone.
View of Assisi and Monte Subasio from Perugia
I left Perugia on a glorious morning, and felt the happiness of being once more alone. The site of the city is beautiful, and the view of the lake in the highest degree refreshing.
These scenes are deeply impressed on my memory. At first the road went downwards, then it entered a cheerful valley,
enclosed on both sides by distant hills, till at last Assisi lay before us.
J. W. Goethe - Italian Journey - October 1786 - Translation by Charles Nisbet
Move to Walls and Gates, The Two Piazzas, The Papal Street (Borgo S. Pietro), S. Pietro de' Cassinesi, The Tomb of the Volumni or The Archaeological Museum.