Perugia - Walk VI
From Piazza IV Novembre toSanta Maria di Monteluce and San Severo |
Rione di Porta Sole
with the campanile of Santa Maria Nuova on the right
and the campanile of Palazzo dei Priori on the left
Leave Piazza IV Novembre by Corso Vannucci and turn left into Via Cesare Fani. This road was widened in 1911 when the Palazzo delle Poste was built at junction with Piazza Matteotti. A black and white mosaic (ca. 50 AD) with geometric design that was excavated from a Roman house here in 1918 is now in the Museo Archeologico.
Palazzo Ajò is on the right.
Palazzo Ajò (15th century) This palace was "restored" in 1917 in neo-Romanesque style by Ugo Tarchi. |
Turn left into Piazza Matteotti (described in Walk II). There was probably a gate in the Etruscan walls at a point close to the start of Via Alessi ahead. The suburb outside this gate, later Rione di Porta Sole, began to develop in the 12th century.
Walk along Via Alessi, which descends quite steeply, past Palazzo Ranieri at number 1 on the right.
Palazzo Ranieri (17th century)This palace belonged to the Ranieri family, which supplied the Imperial Podestà of Perugia under the Emperor Frederick I. He was present at the negotiation of the Peace of Venice between the Emperor and Pope Alexander III in 1177. The family’s coat of arms is over the portal. [Significance of the crown ?] |
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A stretch of the Etruscan walls can be seen at the back of the shop at number 26 on the left. Continue to Palazzo Ansidei di Catrano at number 27 on the right.
Palazzo Ansidei di Catrano (15th - 17th centuries)The palace was built on the site of a medieval building, traces of which survive in Via Angusta (to the left of it). The Renaissance facade is divided into three storeys, and contains a handsome portal, with the family arms above. |
Take a short detour by turning right along Via Angusta. An inscription on the wall of what is now Ristorante Paiolo (behind Palazzo Ansidei) records that Luisa Spagnoli opened the first "Perugina" chocolate factory here in 1906.
Return to and continue along Via Alessi, passing an interesting stone tower house at number 41 on the right. The road then leads to San Fiorenzo. The door by the column on the left leads to what is now the University of the Third Age: if it is open, you can see the 15th century cloister of what was the monastery attached to the church.
Turn left after the church along Via Bonaccia. Detour I to Parco Santa Margherita begins soon after, as Via Bonaccia swings to the right at the junction with Via Imbriani.
If you are not taking the detour, continue along Via Imbriani. A numbers of the lintels over the 14th century houses here have interesting reliefs, including:
the trigram "IHS” at number 11; and
an elaborate Cross at number 19.
The ex-Oratorio dei SS Simone e Fiorenzo is at number 41b, followed by the church of San Simone del Carmine, also known as SS Simone e Giuda.
Via Imbriani now becomes Via dell’ Asilio, and leads to what was Porta del Carmine.
Porta del Carmine (13th century) This gate, which was documented in 1277 as that leading to San Bevignate, was re-modelled as part of the defensive structure that was put in place in 1516 when Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere of Urbino threatened Perugia. The towers built into numbers 18 and 25 were part of this re-modelling. The gate was largely destroyed in 1822 when Via XIV Settembre was built outside it, and is now reduced to the role of entrance to the underpass by which pedestrians can cross this busy thoroughfare. |
Walk through the gate.
Detour II to San Bevignate and the cemetery starts here and ends in Piazza Monteluce (see below).
[It is also possible to take a short detour by turning right along Via XIV Settembre to visit the ex-convent of San Simone del Carmine. Is it open for visitors?]
Otherwise, turn left along Via XIV Settembre and follow the line of the 13th century walls into Largo di Porta Pesa, which was named for the now-demolished Porta Pesa.
Porta Pesa (13th century) A gate was opened here in the 13th century (from Via dei Ciechi on the left to Via Pasticcio on the right) to provide access to the new Borgo Sant' Antonio. It was demolished in the 19th century and replaced for a period by a barrier. The word "Pesa" refers to the weighbridge here that was used to assess the duty payable on goods entering the city. |
Take Via Brunamonti (which is to the right of Via Pasticcio) and fork left along Via Brugnoli, which are named respectively for the poetess Alinda Bonacci Brunamonti (died 1903) and the painter Annibale Brugnoli (died 1915). Your route follows the line of the "new" city wall. The brick reinforcement of it dates to 1516, when Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere of Urbino threatened Perugia.
The road ends at a crossroads at which the wall turns sharply to the left. Via Guido Pompili opposite leads to Via Madonna della Riccio.
- Grave goods from one or perhaps two Etruscan tombs (ca. 300 BC) that were discovered in 1927 in Via Madonna della Riccio are exhibited in the Museo Archeologico.
- A sarcophagus and a number of cinerary urns from the hypogeum of Cai Catu (3rd - 1st centuries BC) which was discovered in a garden near the junction in 1983, are now displayed in a dedicated room in the museum.
Turn right along Via Cialdini. The remains of three medieval shops stand to the right of the steps at the end, which lead down into the Piazza Monteluce.
Detour II ends here.
Piazza Monteluce stands on the hill of Monteluce, which was inhabited from at least the 8th century BC and which was probably so-named in Roman times for a sacred grove (lucus) . The piazza is dominated by the façade of the church of what was the important Franciscan nunnery of Santa Maria di Monteluce. An area here known as predio Ara was the site of an Etruscan necropolis that was in use in the 4th - 3rd centuries BC.
Detour III to nuns' present church of Santa Maria di Monteluce in Sant’ Erminia starts here. Otherwise, retrace your steps along Via E Cialdini to Porta Sant’ Antonio, where Detour III ends.
Porta Sant’ Antonio (13th century) A gate named for the nearby church of Sant’
Antonio Abate (see below) was documented here in 1273. The city walls did not then advance this far, so the gate must have been part of ancillary fortifications. In 1374, Girardo di Puy, the Abbot of Monmaggiore incorporated it into a fortress with six towers and two drawbridges that was connected to Fortezza di Porta Sole by means of a fortified corridor that ran along the top of the city wall to the right (as you look at the gate from the outside). These fortifications were demolished in 1424. The Commune restored the gate to a design by Rocco da Vicenza in 1516, when Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere of Urbino threatened Perugia. An inscription on the outer wall above the arch records that the militia of King Victor Emanuel II was acclaimed by the people of Perugia as it entered the city through this gate in 1860, after the city’s recovery from the massacre of the 20th June 1859. |
Walk through the gate into Corso Bersaglieri. This road was so named in 1871 in honour of the regiment of Bersaglieri (sharpshooters) who led the troops into Perugia in 1860. On the left, is a
truncated Roman column with a stone pig (15th century) that is the
symbol of St Antony Abbot. Just beyond is the ex-church of Sant’
Antonio Abate (at number 101) and the ex-Oratorio di Sant’ Antonio Abate
(at number 90).
Continue along Corso Bersaglieri to Via Cane on the right. You will turn right here, but first take a short detour further along Corso Bersaglieri to see the Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista at number 31, on the corner of
Via Formica.
Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista (1536) The oratory was built at the time of the inception of the
Confraternita di San Giovanni Battista. It was restored (as recorded in the inscription above the portal) in 1705. |
Return to Via Cane and turn left along it, following it as it turns right and then left, along two sides of an electricity substation. It ends at a viewing point that was opened in the city wall in 1968. The Rione di Porta Sant’ Angelo (see Walk V) stretches out in front of you on the other side of the valley. The inner side of the wall here still has the buttresses that were built to support the fortified corridor that linked the fortress at Porta Sant’ Antonio (see above) to the Fortezza di Porta Sole.
Walk through the gap in the walls and turn left along them, following signs for the pedestrian route to Porta Pesa. The path leads round the back of the ex-nunnery of San Tommaso (see below) to an open terrace, with the Officina per la Scienza e la Tecnologia (POST) on the left. The wall continues along the edge of the terrace, with a fine view of Sant’ Agostino ahead and Porta Bulagaio (13th century) below it.
Turn sharply left at the start of the terrace and walk into Via Pinturicchio:
Pinturicchio’s house is at number 47 (across the road and to the right); an inscription recording the fact is in the wall above what is now a Chinese restaurant.
The cloister of the ex-convent of Santa Maria Nuova (see below) is directly opposite, at number 87.
The entrance to the ex-nunnery of San Tommaso is immediately on the left, at number 62.
Continue along Via Pinturicchio, passing the Oratorio della Confraternita del Santissimo Crocifisso (1581), which was designed by Valentino Martelli, to the adjacent church of Santa Maria Nuova. The arch ahead on the left is the Arco dei Tei.
Arco dei Tei (13th century) The arch is named for the Tei family, allies of the Baglioni whose nearby houses were destroyed by partisans of the Oddi family in the 15th century. The arch was restored in 1794 at the expense of the Confraternita di San Benedetto, whose oratory was nearby (see below). |
Turn right and follow the right wall of the church along Via della Roscetto. The ex-Oratorio di San Benedetto is on the left at number 21.
Take a short detour at the start of the steps of Via Bontempi by turning left into the tiny Piazza del Duca, with the portal of Palazzo del Duca on the left. (The stepped Via del Carmine beyond leads up to San Simone del Carmine, which you passed on the outward walk).
Palazzo del Duca (late 16th century)This imposing palace extends along two sides of the tiny piazza. [Describe the importance of the della Corgna family. They had a chapel in San Simone del Carmine and also donated its organ in 1602.] |
Retrace your steps and take the stepped Via Bontempi to Porta del Giglio. The stretch of the street beyond was widened in 1547 by Cardinal Tiberio Crispo. Continue along it, past the ex-church of Santa Maria Maddalena at number 21 on the left and Palazzo Rizzoli (16th century) next to it, at number 17.
Santa Maria Maddalena (13th century)This church was built according to the will (1282) of Simonetta di Fortiguerra. It belonged to a community of male Franciscan tertiaries from 1285. In 1345, it was documented as a possession of the Monastero di Fonte Avellana. In 1404, Pope Boniface IX gave the church and adjacent houses (see below) to the Olivetans of Montemorcino (later Montemorcino Nuovo), and they used the site as a hospice. They soon sold the properties that housed the hospice, but they retained ownership of the church until 1796. It was then de-consecrated and adapted for secular use. |
The arch between Santa Maria Maddalena and Palazzo Rizzoli leads to a courtyard with one portal in front of you and another to the left. Each of these portals had the arms of the Olivetans on its lintel, but these were subsequently removed. An inscription on the left records that this was the location of the Tipografia Benucci in the period 1884-1984, and that the first electric printing press in Perugia was installed here in 1903.
The tower house at number 28 belonged to the Canons of San Lorenzo, and has a relief of the martyrdom of St Laurence on its loggia. A similar relief appears on the lintel over the door to number 22, further along on the right. Continue past Palazzo Baldelli Bombelli (1644) at number 11 on the left. The Chiesa della Compagnia della Morte on the right at the end of the street has its facade in Piazza Piccinino. The members of the company built the Oratorio del Santissimo Crocifisso, which stands behind the church in Via Bontempi, for their own services. They also owned the houses beyond, at numbers 2-12 Via Bontempi.
Chiesa della Compagnia della Morte (1575-1603)The Compagnia dell’ Orazione e della Buona Morte was formed in 1570 in order to provide a decent burial for people who died in poverty, and to give comfort to those condemned to be executed. They built this church, which was originally dedicated as Ogni Santi (All Saints) on a site donated by the Ranieri family. Bino Sozi and Vincenzo Danti designed the church, which is in the form of a Greek cross. The papal legate, Cardinal Bonifacio Bevilacqua commissioned the imposing portal (1606), the marble for which came from the fountain near the steps of Sant’ Ercolano. |
 Chiesa della Compagnia della Morte |
 Oratorio del SS Crocifisso (1613) |
Walk into Piazza Piccinino, which was so-named in 1871 in honour of the Perugian mercenary Nicolò Piccinino. The terrace to the left of the Chiesa della Compagnia della Morte (as you turn to look at its facade) sustains what is now Piazza Michelotti (see Walk II), which formed part of the Fortezza di Porta Sole.
Piazza Piccinino took on its present form in 1547, as part of the urban regeneration initiated by the papal legate, Cardinal Tiberio Crispo. He demolished the ancient church of Santa Lucia, which was documented here in 1052, and built a new church with that dedication in what is now Via Volte della Pace (see Walk II).
Until the Second World War, the well (15th century) in the piazza was, like its predecessors, fed by the water in the Pozzo Etrusco below (see Walk II). The inscription (1639) to the right of Palazzo Bourbon di Sorbello (at number 9) records that the Oddi family (then the owners of the palace) had rights over the well and the piazza.
Palazzo Bourbon di Sorbello (16th century)The Montemelini family, who built this palace, sold it to Diomede degli Oddi in 1639. It passed by inheritance to the Eugeni family in 1670, and they remodelled its facade. In 1780, Count Eugeni exchanged this palace for another in Via Larga, between Via Luigi Bonazzi and Via della Sapienza (see Walk VII), that was owned by the Marquis Uguccione III Bourbon di Sorbello. He moved his large family here, and undertook extensive renovations. The male line of the Bourbon di Sorbello family became extinct in 1880, and the palace passed to Ruggero Ranieri (died 1946), the son of Altavilla Bourbon di Sorbello. It became known as Palazzo Ranieri di Sorbello at this point. Ruggero married the American Romeyne Robert (died 1951) in 1902. The last member of this family, the journalist and diplomat Uguccione V Ranieri di Sorbello, died in 1969. The palace now belongs to a US foundation that was established in his name. It houses the family’s extensive library and a permanent exhibition of its art collection. |
Continue past Palazzo Salvatori (17th century) at number 13, which appears with a frescoed facade in photographs taken in the late 19th century. Continue past the entrance to the Pozzo Etrusco (see Walk II) at number 18 Piazza Danti and into Piazza IV Novembre, where the walk ends.
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