Perugia - Walk II

Detour


To Santa Maria Colomata

This detour from Walk II begins outside the medieval gate of Porta Santa Susanna.

Cross Viale Pompeo Pellini (avoiding the underpass, which is dark and dirty) and walk down the steps and along Piaggia Columbata.  The so-called Alfabetario di Perugia (late 6th century BC), which is a fragment from the rim of a vase that is inscribed with the Etruscan alphabet, was found here in 1970 during the construction of the sports stadium on your left.  It is now in the Museo Archeologico.

The ex-nunnery of Santa Maria Colomata is some way along on the right, just beyond the junction with Via Arturo Checchi.

Santa Maria Colomata (ca. 1300)

This church (also known as Santa Maria di Colle Amato) was built on the site of an ancient hermitage.  It became a Benedictine nunnery in 1297, but Bishop Giovanni Andrea Baglioni suppressed it in 1427 because of the bad behaviour of the nuns.  Pope Eugene IV subsequently allowed the church to be partially demolished to provide building materials for the new Duomo.

The complex was then put to a number of uses:

  • It belonged to the Gesuati (the Order of Hermits of Saint Jerome, which Pope Urban V approved in 1367 and which Pope Clement IX suppressed in 1668) in 1454-99.
  • A community of Poor Clares lived here in 1499-1528.
  • It is documented as an isolation hospital in 1528.
  • A group of nuns from the Monastero della Beata Colomba moved here in  1528 but they were sent back to their mother house in 1575, probably because of their bad behaviour.  

The complex then passed into secular use.  All that remains of the original church is its façade of red and white marble.  The lovely portal (14th century) has a relief of the Lamb of Godthat probably dates to the original construction.  The nuns of Beata Colomba probably added the sculpted dove above.
 
 


Retrace your steps and turn right along Via Arturo Checchi.  Walk past the car park on the left and then take the “scala mobile” (escalator) up one flight to rejoin Walk II.