Rocca Paolina (1540-7)


Facade of Rocca Paolina
after the filling in of the moat in ca. 1800
Watercolour by Giuseppe Rossi, Galleria Nazionale
Copyright © MedioEvo in Umbria 2003 - 2005

Salt War (1540)

The history of this fortress begins in 1534 when Ridolfo Baglioni took Perugia, murdered the papal legate, Cinzio Filonardi  and burned down the legatine residence (the ex-Palazzo del Podestà).  When papal forces re-took the city in 1535, the new legate Marino Grimani exiled the Baglioni and confiscated their property.  He established his residence in the palace that had belonged to Gentile Baglioni, and began its fortification.

The Perugians invited Ridolfo Baglioni  back to the city in 1540 in a rebellion that was brought to a head by the imposition of a tax on salt, which was subsequently known as the Salt War.  Pier Luigi Farnese, the natural son of Pope Paul III and Captain General of the papal army, marched into Perugia at the head of 12,000 troops (mainly Swiss mercenaries).  He crushed the city's rebellion and ended the Baglioni hegemony. 

Farnese immediately commissioned Antonio da Sangallo the Younger to design a huge palace incorporating the Baglioni palaces, that would be linked by a fortified corridor to a new fortress, the Fortezza di San Cataldo.  This was so-named because it incorporated the church of San Cataldo: it also incorporated the nunnery of Santa Maria delle Vergini and threatened to engulf that of Santa Giuliana.  The fortress was to act as a safe haven for the inhabitants of the new palace, in the way that the Castello di Sant' Angelo was used for the residents of the Palazzo Vaticano, Rome.

Construction (1540-3)

The foundation stone of the new palace was laid in November 1540, and the Sapienza Nuova was demolished soon after as part of the clearance of the site.  It seems likely that Pier Luigi Farnese had designed it for his own use.  However, his attention soon moved to the more prestigious possibilities of Parma and Piacenza.  His son, Ottavio Farnese, whom Pope Paul III initially intended that should rule Perugia as "Perpetual Captain", stayed in the ex-palace of Gentile Baglioni in March 1541 as the construction of the new palace continued around it.  Its west facade faced the church of Santa Maria dei Servi and its east facade incorporated Porta Marzia as its central portal.

However, when Pope Paul III visited Perugia in September 1541, the plan changed considerably.  He is reported to have said: "Questo non basta: voglio che vi si faccia una fortezza"  - "This is not enough: I want you to build a fortress".

  • The ornate walls of the palace, which were still in construction, were replaced by the forbidding curtain walls of Rocca Paolina, complete with a moat and a single entrance to the north, protected by a drawbridge.  The new project required the demolition of Santa Maria dei Servi, the parish church of San Silvestro and a stretch of the Etruscan wall including Porta Marzia.

  • The design of the Fortezza di San Cataldo was correspondingly reduced in scope.  The nuns of Santa Giuliana, who had already bought a new nunnery on the site of what became Santa Caterina Nuova, must have been relieved to learn that they would not, after all, need to move. 

The part (if any) played by Antonio da Sangallo in the revised project is unknown, but he was not documented in relation to it after 1542, when Galeazzo Alessi arrived in his native Perugia in the train of the new papal legate, Ascanio Parisani.  The people of Perugia were forced to work on the construction of the new fortress and to pay for it, albeit that Cardinal Parisani managed to persuade Pope Paul III to halve the levy imposed on them for the purpose.

As it was finally built:


 

 Watercolours by Giuseppe Rossi,
Galleria Nazionale
Copyright © MedioEvo in Umbria 2003 - 2005

  • The main body of the Rocca occupied most of the square defined by today’s Piazza Italia, Corso Vannucci, Giardino Carducci, and Via Marzia (where part of Porta Marzia was reassembled in the fortress wall).

  • The southern stronghold occupied most of the square defined by today’s Via Marconi, Via Massi and the north part of Via Fanti.



Once the structure was in place, work began on the internal buildings, including a palace for the papal legate.  Galeazzo Alessi completed this phase of the work in the 1547.  [Decoration]

Destruction (1798 - 1860)

When Napoleon’s army invaded Italy in February 1797, the Perugians rebelled against the papal authorities.   They removed the inscriptions and papal arms from the walls of the Rocca and threw the statue of Pope Paul III into the moat. 

This occupation ended after only a month with the signing of the Treaty of Tolentino (1797).  The Rocca was probably left largely undisturbed during the second French occupation of Perugia in 1798-9 (when Perugia formed part of the Roman Republic).

Papal control returned to Perugia shortly after the election of Pope Pius VII in 1800.  Cardinal Agostino Rivarola, the new papal legate, filled in the moat and had a large square (Piazza Rivarola) laid out in front of the Rocca.  In the 1805 he began the restoration of the fortress.

The Rocca was probably left largely undisturbed again during the third French occupation of Perugia in 1808 - 14 (when the papal States were formally annexed to France and Perugia formed part of the Dipartimento del Trasimeno).  With the fall of Napoleon in 1814, Perugai was once more under papal control.

When Pope Pius IX was driven from Rome in 1848, the democratic government of Perugia decided (on 11 December) to demolish the fortress.  The honour of wielding the first hammer blow was given to Count Benedetto Baglioni.  When manual means failed, mines were used, but substantial parts of the fortress remained in tact.  These efforts however had the unintended consequence that  the vestiges of the Baglioni houses that had survived within the fabric of the fortress were finally destroyed.  Papal troops retook Perugia in June 1849 and the captain of the papal guard, Costantino Forti was sent to the city with orders to restore the fortress.  

When Piedmontese troops under General Manfredo Fanti entered Perugia on September 14 1860, papal forces fell back on the fortress and held out there for about three hours before capitulating.   Marchese Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, who took office two days later as Commissario Generale Straordinario delle Provincie dell’Umbria, signed a decree (15th October) that gave the fortress to the city.  It was formally incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy after the plebiscite of 5th November, 1860 and the city authorities duly authorised the demolition of the fortress on 17th December. 

Excavation (1930 - 65)

Excavation began in 1931 but only really progressed in 1963, under the direction of Ottorino Gurrieri.  The excavations were finally opened to the public in 1965.  The escalator to Piazza dei Partignani opened in 1983.

Detour I to Walk VII includes a walk around the surviving remnants of the Rocca and of the excavations of some of the buildings that were demolished to make way for it.

Walk VII includes a walk along the corridor that connected the main part of the fortress to the Fortezza di San Cataldo and explores the redevelopment of the area in 1800-5 under cardinal Rivarola and after 1867 according to the urban plan of Alessandro Arienti.