Città della Pieve is an Italian town of 7 686 inhabitants in the province of Perugia in Umbria. It is located on a hill, about 508 m above sea level, dominating the Val di Chiana. Medieval city, Città della Pieve is built for a good 70% in exposed brick. Città della Pieve is part of the Monti del Trasimeno Mountain Community.
Corgna Palace
Located near the cathedral, it was built, based on a
design by Galeazzo Alessi (1555/63), by Ascanio della Corgna, marquis of
Castel della Pieve, and by his brother Cardinal Fulvio: the interiors
were decorated by Salvio Savini and Pomarancio (including the Banquet of
the Gods), authors of the frescoes in the ducal palace of Castiglione
del Lago.
Public Tower
Looking at the tower, at least two
distinct construction phases from different eras appear evident. Lapart from the bottom in travertine, in squared rows, it dates back
many centuries before 1000 and certainly is higher than the current one.
Indicated by the name of "Turris S. Gervasci", since it was built near
the church of San Gervasio, it had double, triple and quadruple windows
with a full arched entrance typical of the Romanesque style. In a second
time, between the second half of the 14th century and the first of the
15th century, it is not known whether for military needs or simply
because it was ruined, it was raised by 7 m and the style was changed
using brick, some windows were closed to increase the stability and
others were opened. The tower was isolated from the church, but at the
end of the 16th century the cathedral was enlarged and extended by
placing the façade against the tower without respecting any aesthetic
criteria. Its base is square in shape with a side of 6 m, while its
height is 39 m
The fortress
Following the unrest that occurred
in the first decades of the 14th century, the Magistrates of Perugia
with a proclamation dated 18 December 1326 ordered that a fortress be
built along the walls near the "Cantone del Frontone" at a cost of 4,750
florins.
The Co-Cathedral
The Liber Pontificalis of Anastasius the
Librarian of the 9th century gives us information that the Roman matron
Vestina who lived in the 4th century owned estates near this hill and
near Fondi, a city in Lazio. After their sale she built a church in Rome
dedicated to SS. Martyrs Gervasio and Protasio (today San Vitale). The
coincidence that in the two towns there was the same cult of Saints
Gervasio and Protasio and that there is a church dedicated to them
suggests that the matron Vestina was taken by enthusiasm for the
wonderful things in the unveiling of the Holy Relics of these martyrs,
so much so that succeed in involving the inhabitants of these cities in
the veneration of these Saints. It is the oldest church, located at the
highest point of the city and became a cathedral after 1600. The size
and shape of the first pagan temple are unknown, while the remains and
Romanesque decorations are visible. In 1530 it was decided to renovate
the tribune and the apse, but the works began half a century later by
Niccolò di Pietro who raised it by a few metres, widened and lengthened
it until it joined the Public Tower and built the stone steps in front
of the door. Pomarancio painted the walls of the tribune and the roof of
the choir but his paintings were damaged by lightning (1783) which
struck the tribune. Only the glory on the apse remains visible today.
The trussed roof collapsed in 1667. It was rebuilt as a vault. The side
chapels were built between 1693 and 1708. In 1738 the bell tower was
built. In the apse, above the choir, you can admire a panel by Pietro
Perugino depicting the Madonna between the patron saints Gervasio and
Protasio, who are holding two oriflammes with the ancient city arms and
the Saints Peter and Paul. In the chapels you can admire works by
Perugino's pupils such as Domenico Paride Alfani and Giacomo di
Guglielmo as well as the altar canvas created by Niccolò Circignani and
Salvio Savini. Among the various works there is a wooden simulacrum from
the 16th century probably attributed to Giovanni Tedesco.
The
crypt
Under the apse of the cathedral, the remains of an ancient
construction made of columns and pillars supporting four arches which
join together in a central octagonal pillar are visible. This room was
intended to receive the bodies of bishops; these were subsequently
removed and taken to the cathedral. It was perhaps built on the ruins of
the pagan temple existing in Etruscan and Roman times and of the
Christian church founded by Vestina in the 5th century. This conclusion
was reached because this factory pre-exists the Romanesque church.
The convent and church of San Francesco
Historical documentation
attests that around the year 1280, the Franciscan fathers purchased from
the Benedictine monks an oratory dedicated to St. Bartholomew with a
small house and a modest portion of land on which they built the present
convent and a spacious church whose exact details are unknown. structure
since it was destroyed in 1776 with the exception of the façade, which
remained original up to the rose window and its overall height.
Internally the church has been completely renovated according to the
taste of the time and made very bright. The bell tower was built (or
perhaps rebuilt) in 1600 as can be read from the engraving on a brick.
Only one wall remains of the original convent where very small windows
are visible in correspondence with the friars' cells. In the 15th
century, due to the increase in the Franciscan religious community, 3
sides of the building were destroyed to increase the width and length of
the complex and a new portico was created inside the courtyard where the
ancient oratory of S. Bartholomew. It should be remembered that in 1426,
S. Bernardino da Siena stayed in Castel della Pieve and within this very
oratory he established the Confraternity of Mercy which remained there
until 1567. Subsequently it became the refectory of the Franciscans.
Inside there is an important fresco from the 14th century, "The
Crucifixion", popularly known as the "Crying of the Angels", whose
attribution to the Sienese painter Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio is
today accepted by critics without reservations. Over time the
ultramarine blue of the background has disappeared, leaving the dark
color of the underlying preparation visible. Previously, some characters
of the Sienese school, in particular that of Barna, led us to believe
that the author of the fresco was Nicola di Bonifazio Senese, who,
towards the end of the fourteenth century, moved to Castel della Pieve.
For six centuries the conventual religious inhabited this structure and
in 1860 they abandoned it. The church today is dedicated to Our Lady of
Fatima and the oratory remains in the rooms of the old convent.
Other
In the municipal area, worth mentioning is the small church of
the Madonna della Sanità, 2 km south of the capital: an old hermitage
with a Romanesque tympanum, and inside, above the altar, there is a
canvas from the school of Perugino. Very interesting, above all, is the
castle-village of Salci which was an autonomous duchy of the Bandini and
Bonelli families for 292 years, until the unification of Italy.
The village of Salci
The first news of this abandoned village dates
back to 1243, the year chosen by Frederick II to define the boundaries
of the possessions of Castel della Pieve. The road to Salci was built
only in 1834 (under the penultimate duke Pio Camillo I Bonelli) on the
trace of the ancient route.
The strategic position of the tiny
territory (approximately 0.03 km²) between Città della Pieve and Orvieto
and as a "buffer" between two larger states (the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
and the Papal State) had made it the subject of bitter disputes since
the Middle Ages. The village belonged for a long time to the Bandini of
Castel della Pieve (where their palace can still be admired),
descendants of the leader Vanni. In 1568 Pius V raised the lordship to
the rank of duchy by granting it to Lucrezia Bandini, only daughter of
Bandino III and Giulia Cesarini. The disappearance of the duchess in
1570 brought the small papal fiefdom to the Piedmontese Bonellis
(Michele and his brother Cardinal Alessandrino), relatives of Pope Pius
V who owned it until 1860. In 1886 the village was sold to Vittoria di
Mirafiori, daughter of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and Rosa Vercellana
who had a neo-Gothic castle built in the surrounding area. Subsequently
the village was confiscated by the municipality of Città della Pieve.
The origins of Città della Pieve are still unknown
today. Before becoming a Christian it certainly had another name (as
Guiducci says in his "Historical briefing of Città della Pieve of
1686): Monte di Apollo, Castelforte di Chiuscio, Salepio or Castrum
Salepia. In the second century, religion became stronger and
stronger. Christian, a plebe was created from which the name Pieve
di San Gervasio (from one of the SS protectors). The name remained
so until the whole town was enclosed by solid walls and towers.
Documents dating back to immediately after the year 1000 indicate it
the name in Castrum Plebis S. Gervasi. From the fourteenth to the
seventeenth century the name was shortened to Castrum Plebis and in
about 1600, Pope Clement VIII elevated it to a city calling it City
of Castel della Pieve (in lat. Comunitas Civitatis Castri Plebis)
but , this denomination because it was too long and easily confused
with Città di Castello, was almost immediately replaced with the
current Città della Pieve.
Etruscan period
Although there
are no memories that prove it, the hill where Città della Pieve
stands was inhabited since the most remote times. Proof of this are
the many artifacts found in the neighboring countryside such as
sepulchral urns with figures of gladiators, cinerary vessels,
tombstones and shields. In the past, many tombs were found
containing alabaster urns (one of them with particular bas-reliefs
was sold at a high price at the National Museum in London. Many of
these contained the mortal remains of the members of the Purni
family (from lat. Furini or Purii). . Objects such as òlle, clay
ossuaries, tools and fibulae were also found. The discovery of
chamber and non-chamber tombs, found in the area adjacent to Città
della Pieve and the absence of remains of urban settlements,
suggests that this territory belonged to the district In November
2015, excavations on an Etruscan tomb recently discovered in the
municipal area made it possible to enrich the collection of the
Diocesan Civic Museum of Santa Maria dei Servi.
Roman times
A plaque found in the garden of the convent of San Francesco (at the
current oratory adjacent to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Fatima)
shows how the town was a Roman Municipality, which Silla granted to
its veterans in the Chiana plain after the defeat inflicted on Gaius
Mario the Younger (83 BC). The discovery of coins, tools, ruins of
aqueducts as well as of an urn containing the ashes of Tannia
Stazia, the Pozzo del Casalino and the Torre del Pubblico are proof
of this.
Christian era
It is assumed that the Christian
religion was embraced in the first half of the second century, when
it is documented in the neighboring cities of Siena, Cortona,
Perugia, Arezzo, Spoleto, Orvieto and Chiusi.
In the Rocca,
after a brief imprisonment, Paolo Orsini and Francesco Orsini, Duke
of Gravina, were killed on January 18, 1503, following the massacre
of Senigallia.
The inhabited area and the territory of Città
della Pieve remained severely involved in the conflict known as the
Castro war, fought between the Papal State and the Duchy of Parma to
obtain control of the Duchy of Lazio. On 1 October 1642, Odoardo I
Farnese, Duke of Parma, entered the city at the head of his army,
with the intention of stopping for just one night, waiting for his
ambassador to Rome Monsignor de Lyon to negotiate an agreement with
Pope Urban VIII. In reality the troops stayed there for several days
and the soldiers, left without money and provisions, plundered the
city and the countryside until 10 October, when Odoardo decided to
move his army towards the Viterbo area. At the beginning of 1643 the
Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II dei Medici made an alliance with
the Farnese family to counter the expansionist aims of the Pope, the
Duchy of Modena and the Republic of Venice also joined this
alliance.
In the first days of June the troops of the Grand
Duke, led by Prince Mattias and Alessandro del Borro, left the
Montepulciano camp to move towards the border with the
Ecclesiastical state. The Tuscan army reached Città della Pieve in
that period defended by a few armed men placed under the command of
Major Frizza Napolitano who refused to hand over the city to the
invaders and decided to defend it with all his might. The Papal
army, encamped in Capodimonte, did not intervene to help the
besieged city, despite the desperate requests sent by Frizza
Napolitano by means of numerous relays.
On June 19, the Pievese War Council negotiated a surrender and
handed the city over to the troops of the Grand Duke. Prince Mattia
placed Cavaliere Niccolò Brandolini Fiorentino in command of Città
della Pieve, who, to ensure the defense of the city walls, had the
Roman gate closed with an embankment and opened the Castello gate,
the latter being better defensible. and ecclesiastics from Pievesi
held hostage and sent to Florence as prisoners of war.
The
devastation that Città della Pieve had to endure during the period
of military occupation by the Florentine army was considerable. Some
neighborhoods of houses were demolished, the peasants attacked and
deprived of their belongings, numerous furnishings were removed from
the cathedral church and the taxes required of the citizens of
Pievese were very high.
On 7 April the city was reached by
the news that a peace treaty had been signed between the Papal state
and the Duke of Parma: therefore any hostility was from what moment
prohibited. On 19 July 1644 the Grand Duke's army left Città della
Pieve, returning it to the authority of the Holy See.
Città
della Pieve is also known for being the birthplace of Cesare Orlandi
(1734-1779), author of the work Of the cities of Italy and its
adjacent islands compendious news (1770-1778). The work is a
valuable source of information for several Italian cities up to the
eighteenth century. It remained unfinished due to the untimely death
of the author and the cities covered range from letter A to letter
C.
Location and Regional Context
The town is situated about 50 km (31
mi) southwest of Perugia (Umbria’s capital) and 11 km (7 mi) southeast
of Chiusi in Tuscany. Its precise coordinates are approximately
42°57′08″N 12°00′09″E. It occupies a strategic position in the
Valdichiana, a broad tectonic valley that historically formed a marshy
floodplain between the Arno and Tiber river systems. The municipality
spans 111.5 km² (43.1 sq mi) and includes the main town plus several
frazioni (hamlets) such as Moiano, Po’ Bandino, and Ponticelli, along
with scattered rural dwellings. It borders multiple communes: Allerona,
Castiglione del Lago, Fabro, Monteleone d’Orvieto, Paciano, and Piegaro
in Umbria; and Cetona, Chiusi, and San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany.
Topography and Elevation
Città della Pieve rises dramatically on
a hill at 508 m (1,667 ft) above sea level, standing roughly 260 m (850
ft) above the Valdichiana valley floor. The surrounding terrain features
gentle-to-moderate rolling hills typical of the Umbria-Tuscany
borderlands, with significant local relief—elevation can vary by over
260 m (873 ft) within just a couple of miles. The full municipal
elevation range extends from about 219 m in the lower valleys to 810 m
on higher ridges. The town’s hilltop site provides natural defensibility
and commanding vistas, while the broader landscape consists of
cultivated slopes, wooded patches, and open farmland. Clay-rich soils in
the area have historically supported local brick production, giving the
historic center its distinctive reddish-pink hue.
The Valdichiana
itself is a former marshy lowland that underwent major reclamation in
the late 18th century through the “Hydraulic Concordat” between the
Papal States and Grand Duchy of Tuscany, transforming it into fertile
agricultural plains.
Hydrography
The municipality sits near a
subtle watershed divide. At the foot of the town’s hill flow several
streams:
The Tresa River drains westward into Lake Chiusi and
ultimately the Arno River basin (Tuscany side).
The Chiani and
Astrone rivers flow into the Paglia River, part of the Tiber River basin
(Umbria/Lazio side).
To the east lies the Nestore River Valley,
where the Nestore River itself crosses municipal territory for about 2
km. These watercourses, combined with the proximity to Lake Trasimeno
(about 20 km north), shape a well-watered but not flood-prone landscape,
supporting agriculture while historically posing drainage challenges in
the lowlands.
Panoramic Views and Surrounding Landscape
Few
places in central Italy offer such a 360° panorama of iconic features:
North: Hills encircling Lake Trasimeno, the Valdichiana plain, and the
Pratomagno massif.
South: Mount Cimino.
Southeast: The Sibillini
Mountains and Mount Peglia.
East: Montarale, the majestic Mount
Subasio (near Assisi), and the Nestore Valley.
West: The volcanic
cones of Mount Amiata and Mount Cetona.
The countryside blends
Umbrian and Tuscan elements—gentle hills quilted with olive groves,
vineyards, cereal fields, sunflowers, and saffron crocuses (a local
specialty). This “green heart of Italy” setting features a mosaic of
cultivated land, woodlands, and scattered farmhouses.
Climate
Città della Pieve has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) with
Mediterranean influences—warm summers, mild-to-cool winters, and
relatively even but autumn-winter-peaking precipitation. Annual average
temperature is about 13.8 °C (56.8 °F). Monthly mean temperatures range
from ~4.6 °C (40 °F) in January (coldest) to ~23.8 °C (75 °F) in
July/August (hottest). Daily highs can reach the mid-80s°F (low 30s°C)
in summer and drop to the mid-30s°F (near 0°C) in winter. Annual
precipitation totals around 926 mm (36.5 in), with the driest month July
(~43 mm) and wettest November (~119 mm). Summers are sunny and dryish;
autumn brings more rain; winters are cool and occasionally frosty but
rarely severe. Humidity averages 65–70%, with moderate winds.