Abbazia di San Pietro

(12th century)


Fresco (late 15th century) by Benedetto Bonfigli showing
the translation of the relics of St Herculanus
to San Pietro
Cappella dei Priori

According to the "Dialogues" of St Gregory, St Herculanus was buried at a church outside Perugia that was dedicated to St Peter after his execution in 549 by Totila.  This is almost certainly the early church that was discovered in 1980 under the apse and nave of San Pietro, which might date back to the 4th century.  An inscription in the first cloister claims that this was the first Duomo of Perugia.  In 933, Bishop Ruggiero translated the relics of St Herculanus to San Stefano del Castellare and the earlier church here seems to have fallen into decline. 

Foundation of the Abbey

According to tradition Bishop Onesto gave the site of the old church to Peter Vincioli:  the inscription mentioned above says that he established a monastery here that followed the Rule of St Benedict in 964.  Pope John XIII re-consecrated the church in 969. 

The first record of the “new” abbey dates to 1002, when Bishop Canone of Perugia invaded it and declared it to be under episcopal jurisdiction.  Pope Sylvester II defended the Abbot and took the abbey under papal protection.  When Peter Vincioli died in 1007, he was venerated as a saint and his relics were preserved under the high altar. 

The Emperor Conrad II reconfirmed this privilege at the behest of Pope John XIX in 1027, and he stayed in the abbey (again, as recorded in the inscription) in 1039.    

The abbey went on collecting great wealth and papal and imperial privileges throughout the 11th and 12th centuries, and became one of the most powerful in Umbria. 

  • Pope Gregory IX instituted a reform of the community in ca. 1235 and reconfirmed its privilege of papal protection. 

  • Pope Urban IV lived here during his sojourn in Perugia and died here in 1264.

Pope Clement V gave the abbey “in commendio” to Cardinal Giacomo Colonna in 1306 because the monks could not agree on the election of a new abbot.  He administered it through intermediaries until 1310, when Ugolino Guelfone emerged as abbot.  He relinquished this post in 1330 to become bishop of Perugia. 

His successor, Ugolino di Nuccio da Montevibiano presided over a period of prosperity.  He improved both the administration of the abbey estate and the education of the monks, enlarging and improving its library and encouraging the monks to attend the Studium.  He was buried in the church in 1357: his tombstone survives, embedded in the wall at the end of the left aisle (see the page on the church interior). 

Pope Boniface IX stayed here in 1393, and he was probably aware of (or perhaps even a party to) the plan of Abbot Francesco Guidalotti to murder Biordo Michelotti in 1398.  The furious citizens of Perugia attacked the abbey and tried to burn it down.  from this point, its fortunes went into decline.

Cassinese Congregation

The inscription mentioned above records that Pope Eugenius IV ordered the transfer of the abbey to the Cassinese Congregation, a reformed Benedictine congregation in 1436.   From this point, it had an prior rather than an abbot, and he was responsible to the head of the congregation, the Abbot of Santa Giustina in Padua. 

The inscription records a series of subsequent papal stays in the abbey:

  • Pope Pius II, in 1459;

  • Pope Julius II in 1506 (when he took the city from Gianpaolo Baglioni);

  • Pope Clement VII in 1532; and

  • Pope Paul III in 1535 and again in 1538 (just two years before the famous rebellion). 

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the monks of San Pietro assumed responsibility for a number of Perugian nuuneries, including Santa Caterina (in 1487), Santa Maria Maddalena (also in 1487), San Sperandio (in 1542)  and Santa Margherita (in 1561) .  Following a decision taken at the Chapter General of the Cassinese Congregation in 1702 that Pope Clement XI ratified in the following year, all of these nunneries reverted to episcopal control.

The French suppressed the abbey in 1797, but it was restored to the monks in [when].

Despite their traditional papal allegiance, the monks sided with the city the anti-papal rebellion of 1859 and gave succour to those who fled the massacre outside the abbey.  They were rewarded by exemption from the religious suppressions that followed, which accounts for the relatively large number of works of art that remain in the church. 

Despite this reprieve, the fortunes of the abbey soon deteriorated.  The last abbot, Manari died in 1890, and the Fondazione  per l' Istruzione Agraria (the faculty of Agriculture of the University of Perugia) took over the complex in 1897.  It now operates from the adjacent monastery and tends the interesting monastery garden (see the walk around the abbey grounds).

Return to Walk IV.