Original Campanile (11th century)
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Detail of a panel (ca. 1330) by the Maestro dei Dossali di Montelabate |
The illustration above is the only surviving image of the original 12-sided campanile of San Lorenzo. It was built above a stretch of wall that had probably terraced the Roman forum. According to a 14th century tradition, Ulysses had buried the palladium of Troy here, having brought it to Perugia after the fall of that city. (This sacred image of Pallas Athena had protected Troy until Ulysses had managed to steal it. A similar legend had Aeneas taking it to Rome).
The campanile was probably built originally to defend the
adjacent episcopal enclave. From the 12th century, it provided the
locus for the secular government. For example:
- It was in the shadow of the campanile that the twelve consuls of the newly formed Commune accepted the submission of the people of Isola Polvese iin 1139, thereby formalising the earliest recorded act of Perugian colonisation.
- In 1234, the Petra Justitiae (Stone
of Justice) was set into its walls. The inscription recorded the terms
of a settlement that was reached between the nobles and the Popolo of
Perugia after a long civil war. A copy now marks the original
location: the original inscription, which was carved on marble from a
Roman building (1st century AD), is now in the Sala del Consiglio of
the Palazzo dei Priori.
- In 1309, on the feast of St Herculanus, the Priors of Perugia received the formal acts of submission of all the subject territories at the foot of the campanile.
The papal legate Girardo di Puy, the Abbot of Monmaggiore demolished most of the campanile in 1373-5 in order to make way for the fortified corridor that linked his new Fortezza di Porta Sole to the Palazzo dei Priori. However, the remains of its base above the Roman terracing survives under the right hand arch of the Loggia di Braccio.
Return to Walk I.