Perugia - Walk VII
From Piazza IV Novembre to Rocca Paolina andSanta Giuliana |
Rione di Porta Eburnea
Much of this area was destroyed n ca. 1540
to make way for Rocca Paolina (see below)
What survived clusters around Santa Giuliana, to the right
Leave Piazza IV Novembre along Corso Vannucci and continue to Piazza della Repubblica (see Walk I). For many centuries, Piazza della Repubblica was simply the southern tip of Piazza Grande. However, it developed its own political identity in the late 18th century:
A tree of liberty was erected here during the French occupation of Perugia in 1798.
An inscription on the facade of Palazzo Baldeschi Cennini (at number 66 - 70 on the left) records that Giuseppe Garibaldi addressed the Perugians from the balcony here in 1848.
An inscription on the facade of Palazzo Ceccoli (across Via Baldo, at number 72 - 82) mourns the murder of King Umberto I in 1900.
The piazza was re-named fin 1890 or King Umberto I from 1890 and again in in 1946 for the newly proclaimed Italian Republic.
Palazzo Ceccoli (17th century)
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Palazzo Graziano - Monaldi (16th century) at number 59 - 73 opposite incorporates the Teatro del Pavone.
Teatro del Pavone (1773)
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The façade of the ex-church of Sant’ Isidoro is at right angles to Palazzo Ceccoli.
Sant’ Isidoro (16th century)
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Continue along Via della Forte, which runs to the left of Sant’ Isidoro.
- This was originally the Via Regale di San Pietro or dei Sellari (of the sadlers). It was one of the main arteries of the city, and led from Piazza Grande towards Porta Marzia.
- It acquired its present name in 1542, after the construction of Rocca Paolina, when it became the main road from the city centre to the main entrance of the fortress.
- It was reduced to its current form during the rebuilding of the area after the demolition of the fortress in 1860. Part of the medieval street survives in the excavated area under Palazzo della Provincia (see Detour I below).
Continue along Via della Forte to Piazza d' Italia, which was laid out after Rocca Paolina was demolished and replaced by the imposing Palazzo della Provincia (see below).
Detour I, which takes you through the excavated area under the palace and then around the remnants of Rocca Paolina, begins here.
Having done the detour, return to Piazza d' Italia.
From ca. 1540, as noted above, the main facade of Rocca Paolina stood where that of Palazzo della Provincia stands today, with a moat in front of it. The only entrance to the fortress was via the drawbridge over the moat.
This moat was filled in in 1802, allowing the development of what was then called Piazza Rivarola.
The demolition of Rocca Paolina in 1860 led to more extensive redevelopment, culminating in the present layout of what is now Piazza d' Italia and the construction of Palazzo della Provincia.
Piazza Rivarola (1802-8)The earlier piazza was named for Cardinal Agostino Rivarola, who had filled in the moat of the fortress in order to make it less forbidding. The new piazza had an elliptical plan:
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Piazza d' Italia (1860)
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Palazzo della Provincia (1869-72)Alessandro Arienti designed this palace (illustrated above), which now houses the Provincia (Provincial Authority) and the Prefettura. It is built on a rectangular plan, with a loggia that runs around all four sides. The original cast iron griffin that adorned the main facade deteriorated and was replaced in bronze in 1981. |
As noted above, the leafy Via dell’Alberato was
built to the right of the fortress when the moat was filled in. This road became redundant in 1870, and two new buildings were subsequently built:
the Banca d’ Italia (1871), designed by Guglielmo Rossi; and
Hotel Brufani (1881), designed by Alessandro Arienti for Giacomo Brufani when his original hotel (later Palazzo Gnoni-Mavarelli, see Walk IV) proved to be inadequate.
Palazzo Ansidei stands to the north of them (across the steps of Via Grecchi), with Palazzo Antinori next to it (on the corner of Corso Vannucci).
Palazzo Ansidei (early 19th century)This palace was built at about the time of the establishment of Piazza Rivarola in 1800-8. The remains of the earlier buildings that provided its foundations are clearly visible in the walls in Via Mario Grecchi. Count Vincenzo Ansidei built this palace, probably built just before the creation of Piazza Rivarola. From 1831 until 1879, when Banca d’Italia was built in front of it,
this palace looked out on the aptly named Via dell’ Alberata. In architectural terms, the most distinctive feature of the palace is its loggia (1808) in Via Mario Grecchi, which Count Vincenzo Ansidei commissioned and which subsequently looked out on this view. Count Vincenzo Ansidei was also almost certainly responsible for the main portal (now the entrance to Hotel Rosetta), which is flanked by two ancient columns that might have come from Sant’ Angelo. He made similar modifications to what is now Palazzo Manzoni in Piazza Morlacci - see Walk II). |
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Palazzo Antinori (1740-58)
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Take a short detour along the upper part of Corso Vannucci, which
was also redeveloped after the demolition of Rocca Paolina. Two
interesting palaces are on the left:
the Baroque Palazzo Montesperelli (17th century) at number 103-7; and
Palazzo Patrizi, which is now the Hotel Locanda della Posta, at number 89-101.
Palazzo Patrizi (early 18th century)The Marchese Patrizi built this palace, which soon became the headquarters of the company that ran the stagecoach service from Perugia. It soon developed into what was the first hotel in Perugia, the Locanda della Posta. Famous guests have included Goethe (in 1786) and the Emperor Frederick III of Prussia (in 1824). |
The small church of Santa Maria del Riscatto is set back from Corso Vannucci on the right, between Palazzo Donini Nuova (1786) and Palazzo Donini (see below).
Santa Maria del Riscatto (1657)The church, which is also known as Santa Maria di Colle Landone, stands on the site of a shrine (15th century) that contained an image of the Madonna and Child known as the Maestà degli Schiavi (of the slaves). This shrine stood in what was then an alley between Via della Forte and the present Corso Vannucci. The image performed various miracles in the 16th century, which led to the formation of the Compagnia di Santa Maria del Riscatto (of the ransomed) in 1585. The young nobles who formed this society built an arch across the alley, thereby enclosing the shrine. Two years later, they built walls across the alley to create a small chapel. The company, which was reconstituted as the Compagnia della Santissima Maria della Mercede in the 17th century, acquired some adjacent buildings and built the present church. It now belongs to the Opera Apostolica di Perugia. |
Return to Piazza d’Italia, turn left and cross the piazza, passing two palaces on your left:
Palazzo Donini; and
Palazzo Cesaroni.
Palazzo Cesaroni (1897)This palace was built for Ferdinando Cesaroni by Guglielmo Calderini. Houses on this site that had belonged to the Monaldi family had been demolished in ca. 1540 to make way for Rocca Paolina. |
Continue across Via Baglioni to Palazzo Calderini on the east side of the piazza. (There is a fine view over the Rione di Porta San Pietro from the balcony to the right of the palace.)
Palazzo Calderini (1871)Guglielmo Calderini built this palace on the semi-circular foundations established by Cardinal Rivarola in his remodelling of what was then Piazza Rivarola in 1800-8. This was the first condominium in Perugia. |
 The semi-circular Palazzo Calderini, with Palazzo della Provincia to the left and Palazzo della Penna below |
Leave Piazza d' Italia by Via Marzia, which runs to the left of and then behind Palazzo Calderini. This street was described in Walk IV. Continue past Porta Marzia to Viale Indipendenza, passing the surviving stretch of the curtain wall of Rocca Paolina on your right (described in Detour I). The spur of the fortress at the junction with Viale Indipendenza was the point at which the corridor from the southern stronghold entered the main fortress (see below).
Cross Viale Indipendenza and before walking along the line of the corridor, take a short detour by walking down a few steps on the right into Via del Circo. This wide street (really a piazza) was named for the stadium that Cardinal Rivarola built in 1805-8 as part of a series of modifications designed to make Rocca Paolina more acceptable to the Perugians. This stadium was used for “gioca del pallone”, a ball game then much in vogue, and for other spectacles, including bull fights.
To see what remains of this structure, walk through the entrance on your left that leads to the escalator up to the excavated area under Rocca Paolina. Walk down the steps beside the escalator to see the remains of a retaining wall on your right.
Return to Via del Circo. Detour II around the part of Rione di Porta Eburnea that survived the construction of Rocca Paolina and its southern stronghold starts here.
Corridor and Southern Stronghold
Return to Viale Indipendenza and turn right along it a little way until you are opposite what was the start of the fortified corridor to the southern stronghold. Turn right down the steps between the trees, following what was the
line of the corridor.
Cross Via Masi (which was named for Luigi Masi, the leader of the Cacciatori del Tevere in 1860) and continue down the steps to the fountain that constitutes a monument (1992) from the city of Perugia to those lost in war. The inscription reads “Perugia ai caduti di tutte le guerre”.
The back of Palazzo Gnoni - Mavarelli (see Walk IV) is on your left.
The back of what was the Caserma dei Carbinieri (see below) is in front of you.
Turn right along Via Fanti (which is named for Manfredo Fanti, the commander of the troops that liberated Perugia in 1860) and left along Via Masi. This takes you along the sides of two palaces that were built on the site of the southern stronghold before its demolition in 1870:
the ex- Caserma dei Carbinieri (1890), now the Umbrian headquarters of Radiotelevisione Italiana; and
the twin Palazzine Biscarini.
Palazzine Biscarini (1894)These two palaces stand on the site of the Politeama Calderini (1871), an enormous structure that Guglielmo Calderini designed to house public spectacles. Unfortunately, it had to be pulled down almost immediately due to structural problems, making way for the current buildings. |
Cross Via Luigi Masi and continue down the steps into Viale Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. The southern facade of the southern stronghold stretched from this point as far as the roundabout in Largo Cacciatori delle Alpi on your left, which is named for the battalion that Count Cavour established under Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1859 to chase the Austrians from Italy. The monument (1887) to Garibaldi at its centre was moved here in 1933 from Piazza Matteotti (see Walk II).
Retrace your steps and take the underpass under Viale Fiorenzo di Lorenzo into the bus station in Piazza Partignani. This square was so-named after the Second World War in honour of the anti-fascist partisans of Perugia. This area was leveled in the late 19th century after the demolition of the southern stronghold. It then became known as the Piazza d’ Armi and served as a huge parade ground and weekly livestock market. In 1911, two early aeroplanes managed to take off from here and land in Foligno. During the Second World War, the area was cultivated to provide food for the city. The stadium to the left was built in 1938 and was the home of Perugia’s football team until 1975.
Continue into Parco Santa Giuliana, with Santa Giuliana ahead to the right. (It is open for Mass on Sunday mornings).
Santa Giuliana to Piazza IV Novembre
Turn left on leaving the church, walk down the steps on the left and then take the path to the right through the trees.
Follow this path to a car park, which you then keep to your right. At the end of the car park, take the steps down into a private road that leads back to Viale Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. The imposing wall of the Istituto di Pena Maschile (men’s prison) is ahead of you across the road, with the apse and campanile of Santo Spirito (see Detour II of this walk) above and to the left of it.
Istituto di Pena Maschile (begun in 1866)It seems that two religious establishments on this site immediately outside the medieval city wall were demolished to make way for the prison:
The prison was built to take the criminals that had previously been incarcerated in Palazzo dei Priori and the political prisoners that had previously been held in Rocca Paolina. The last execution in Italy by decapitation took place outside this prison in 1874. |
Turn left along Viale Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, following the line of the city wall and passing Porta Eburnea on your right.
Porta Eburnea (1576)The first gate was opened in the medieval walls here in the 13th century, perhaps to provide better access to the city for the merchants bringing fish from Lake Trasimeno. It seems that Braccio Fortebracci restored the gate in ca. 1423. The inscription above the arch on the exterior wall records that the papal governor Antonio Santacroce rebuilt the ruined structure in 1576 and renamed it (temporarily, as it turned out) Porta Crucia. |
Continue along what is now Viale Pellini, which is named for the historian Pompeo Pellini (died 1594). Torre dei Vicarelli (15th century) , a circular bastion in the walls on the right, is similar in form to the tower incorporated into Palazzo della Penna.
Continue to the junction with Via Don Giovanni Bosco on the left and the complex of the Salesiani Don Bosco Liceo Linguistico (language school of the Salesian Society). There is an impressive modern bust here of St John Bosco (died 888), the founder of the Salesian Society.
Parco della Cupa is on the other side of the road. You can clearly see the stretch of Etruscan walls here that forms the foundations of the buildings in Piazza Annibale Mariotti (see Walk II) above.
Steps on the left of Viale Pellini just beyond the junction lead down to Via San Prospero. This road passes between the ruins of two towers (probably 14th century) that may have formed a double gate with Porta San Giacomo (see below). The interesting church of San Prospero is on the left, behind the iron gates of the Salesian complex. (There is a bell on the gate at the entrance, and you can see inside on request.)
Retrace your steps and then cross the Viale Pellini and continue straight ahead through Porta San Giacomo.
Porta San Giacomo (13th century)This gate was documented in 1273 as Porta San Prospero, and it is also known as Porta del Castellano and Porta dell’ Olmo. As noted above, it might have formed part of a double gate, with a second arch in Via San Prospero. The arch here was walled up in 1858 when it was in danger of collapse, and re-opened in the early 20th century. |
Continue along Via della Forza to the junction with four other roads:
Via Paradiso on the left;
Via San Giacomo ahead;
Via Eburnea (which leads to Porta Eburnea) on the right; and
Via degli Apostoli to the right of Via Eburnea, which seems to have been named for the Monastero degli Apostoli.
Monastero degli Apostoli (14th century)The “Apostoli” were a community of lay penitents also known as fraticelli. They built a small monastery on land in this area that was donated to them in 1391. The complex was documented again in 1528, when the Commune gave it to the nuns of Sant’ Antonio da Padova. Nothing else is known about it, but the name of the street suggests that it was close by. |
A large fish (very damaged) carved in the round has been inserted in the wall at the right-hand corner of Via Eburnea and Via San Giacomo. The ex-church of San Giacomo is slightly further along Via San Giacomo, on the right at number 50.
San Giacomo (13th century)This church, which is dedicated to the patron saint of the Rione di Porta Eburnea, was first documented in 1246 and listed as a parish church in 1285. The Servites occupied adjacent houses from the time of their arrival in the city in 1255 until their move to Santa Maria dei Servi in 1303. The Compagnia delle Cinque Piaghe, an association of penitents dedicated to the five wounds of Christ, had their headquarters here for a period, possibly from the time of the Bianchi march of 1399. Until the 17th century, they marched in procession every 25 years on Good Friday carrying a Crucifix that was usually kept on the high altar of the church. The church was remodelled in 1638 and again in 1818. It was subsequently deconsecrated, but its portal, which has interesting palmate decoration, survives. |
Retrace your steps to the junction and turn right up the steps of Via Paradiso to the Etruscan Porta della Mandorla. Walk through Porta Mandorla along Via Bruschi.
The house at number 18 on the right has a relief of a fish inserted into its façade, to the right of the door.
An inscription with impressive portraits at number 15
commemorates the residence here of the men for whom the street is now
named: the artist Domenico Bruschi (1840-1910) and his father Carlo, who was a prominent statesman during the liberation of perugia from papal control in 1859-60.
Continue along the back of the church of Sant’ Angelo in Porta Eburnea and turn right along Via Cesare Caporali (named for the 16th century poet Cesare Caporali), which runs along the right wall of the church. (You need to turn left at the junction and then look back to see its ancient campanile - see the illustration below).
Sant’ Angelo in Porta Eburnea (11th century, remodelled in the early 19th century)The church, which belonged to the Benedictine Abbazia di Pomposa (near Ferrara), was listed as a parish church in 1285. It passed to episcopal control in 1558. The neo-Classical facade was imposed in the early 19th century. The right side of the church is much older, and stands on foundations of huge blocks of stone, leading to the campanile above the apse. |
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Continue along Via Cesare Caporali. Take a short detour by turning right along Via del Pozzo. The house at number 8 on the left belonged to the mathematician Giuseppe Neri: the inscription on its facade that Neri hosted Galileo Galilei here in 1618 and that “they studied together the great problems of the universe”.
Return to Via Cesare Caporali. An Etruscan well (3rd century BC) was discovered under the restaurant at number 45: unfortunately it cannot be visited. Its construction is apparently similar to the more famous Pozzo Etrusco in Piazza Danti (see Walk II), and it is interesting to note that both were sunk just inside the walls of the Etrucan city.
Continue to the junction with Via Bonazzi, which is named for the historian Luigi Bonazzi (died 1879). Until the construction of Rocca Paolina in 1540, a right turn here would have led directly into Piazza dei Servi. Remains from the convent can be seen inthe walls on the right of Via Cesare Caporali, just before the junction.
Turn left along Via Bonazzi, passing on the right the steps of Via Grecchi on the right. This street is named for Mario Grecchi, who was active in the resistance to the German occupation during the Second World War. He was captured in Deruta in 1944 and executed.
There are two interesting buildings on the left:
the ex-Oratorio dei Santi Crispino e Crispiniano at number 41; and
the ex-Chiesa del Suffragio at number 37.
Oratorio della Compagnia dei SS Crispino e Crispiniano (1618-25)The oratory belonged to the Compagnia del Calzolari (cobblers’ guild), which was formed by five devout shoemakers in 1613. The brothers first used a chapel in Sant’ Ercolano and then moved to SS Severo e Agata before building an oratory of their own. The façade is now unrecognisable, but the cobblers' coat of arms survives over the door of the shop to the right of the newsstand. |
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Chiesa del Suffragio (1639)The Compagnia di Santa Maria del Suffragio, which was dedicated to prayer for souls in purgatory, was formed in 1619 at Santa Maria di Colle (see Walk IV) and moved to a new oratory here twenty years later. The building is now deconsecrated, but the original portal and a stone offertory survive on the façade. The inscription above the offertory solicits donations to finance the celebration of Masses for souls in purgatory. [Retains some original decoration inside] |
The remains of the ex-church of SS Stefano e Biagio are incorporated into a shop façade at number 10 on the right.
SS Stefano e Biagio (12th century)This church, which was dedicated originally to St Stephen, took on its double dedication in ca. 1540, when the nearby church of San Biagio (for which the street was originally named) was demolished to make way for Rocca Paolina. At some point, this church passed to the Sapienza Nuova: it was deconsecrated in 1829 when this college moved to the site of the Sapienza Vecchia. Its dedication, along with that of the deconsecrated church of San Savino (see detour II to this walk) passed to SS Biagio e Savino in Piazza Leone III on the outskirts of Perugia. |
[Via Larga is ahead on the left. The palace you see in front of you as you look down it is the one that Ugiccione di Sorbello gave to the Eugeni family in 1785 in exchange for Palazzo Bourbon di Sorbello in Piazza Piccinino (see Walk VI).]
Continue to the end of Via Bonazzi into Piazza della Repubblica and return along Corso Vannucci into Piazza IV Novembre, where the walk ends.
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