Città di Castello (Tifernum Tiberinum in Latin; commonly abbreviated to Castello) is an Italian town of 39 286 inhabitants in the province of Perugia. Main center of the upper Tiber valley, it is the bishopric of the diocese of Città di Castello. Given its position, it has strong historical and cultural links with the neighboring areas of Tuscany, Romagna and Marche.
The Palazzo dei Priori or Palazzo del Comune was built between 1322
and 1338 by Angelo da Orvieto, although it remained unfinished. It is
today the city hall
The Civic Tower, called "Torre del Vescovo" by
the people of Tiferno, today leaning, had a twin, located a few meters
away, demolished some time ago.
Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera, so
called because a cannon depot or foundry stood on the site, is one of
the five palaces that the Vitelli family built in Città di Castello
between the end of the fifteenth century and the second half of the
sixteenth century. The Palace features large and magnificent rooms
frescoed by Cristoforo Gherardi and Cola dell'Amatrice and is home to
the Art Gallery which houses a large collection which includes works by
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Neri di Bicci, Luca Signorelli, Raffaello and
Raffaellino del Colle.
Palazzo Vitelli in Sant'Egidio, testimony to
the Renaissance grandeur of the city and the power of the Vitelli
dynasty of Tiferno at the time of the Lordships, is an organic complex
composed of the Palace itself, the park with nymphaeum and the Palazzina
Vitelli.
Palazzo Albizzini is an example of Renaissance architecture
of Tuscan origin from the end of the 15th century. Since 1981 the Palace
has been home to the prestigious collection of works that Alberto Burri
donated to the city, the richest and most organic collection of the
twentieth century artist's works. The large works from the collection
are also exhibited in the second exhibition venue created in the former
tobacco dryers.
Palazzo Bufalini, built in the 16th century, as part
of the school of Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, at the behest of the counts
of San Giustino Giulio I Bufalini and Francesca Turini, a versatile
poet, who resided there and died in 1641.
Petrella Castle, near the
village of the same name
The Cathedral of SS. Florido and Amanzio, with the characteristic
round bell tower of Ravenna origin, is the main religious building of
the city. It is rich in works of art and houses the saint's tomb in the
crypt.
The fourteenth-century Church of San Francesco, internally
modified in the eighteenth century, is the place where the Marriage of
the Virgin was preserved which Raphael painted in 1504 and which was
taken away by Napoleon's troops in 1798 and today is located at the
Brera Academy in Milan, a copy of which reminds of its presence. Of note
is the Vitelli Chapel, built to a design by Vasari.
The Church of San
Domenico, begun in the 14th century and completed in 1424, preserved the
Martyrdom of San Sebastiano by Luca Signorelli, from 1498 transferred to
the Municipal Art Gallery, and the Crucifixion by Raphael painted around
1503, now in the National Gallery in London. The body of the Blessed
Margaret is kept at the main altar.
The Sanctuary of the Madonna
delle Grazie, built in the fourteenth century as the church of the
Servites, became a sanctuary for the veneration of the Madonna and Child
between Saints Florido and Filippo Benizi by Giovanni da Piamonte, from
1456.
The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built by Niccolò Vitelli as
a votive offering following his conquest of the city, was built between
1483 and 1509.
The Monastery of the Urbanist Poor Clares of Santa
Cecilia, also known as Giuseppe, which originated from the retreat of
pious women in 1422, preserves valuable fourteenth-fifteenth century
frescoes in the entrance space of the monastery.
The Monastery of the
Murate Poor Clares was built in 1535 and has remained almost intact in
its original appearance, including an inlaid choir from the 16th
century.
The Capuchin Monastery of Santa Veronica, the most important
of the Franciscan monasteries, was built between 1627 and 1643 and
Sister Veronica Giuliani lived there, whose body is kept in the church.
Parish Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano in Canoscio
Sanctuary of
the Madonna del Transito in Canoscio
Abbey of Santa Maria and
Sant'Egidio in Badia Petroia.
Parish Church of Santa Maria a Morra
Oratory of San Crescentino in Morra
Church of San Pietro a Monte
Cultural institutes
Institute of political and social history
"Venanzio Gabriotti"
Museums
Center of Popular Traditions at
Villa Cappelletti
Palazzo Albizzini Foundation "Burri Collection"
Museum of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Città di Castello
Municipal
Art Gallery of Città di Castello
Civic Collection of Città di
Castello
"Gioacchino Capelletti" Railway Modeling Museum
Umbrian
Canvas Museum
Museum of Graphic Arts
Libraries
Mandatory
Notarial Archive
Municipal Historical Archive
Diocesan Historical
Archive
"G. Carducci" Municipal Library
Diocesan Library "Storti -
Guerri"
Press
La Nazione (editorial staff of Città di Castello)
Il
Giornale dell'Umbria (editorial staff of Città di Castello)
La Voce
(editorial staff of Città di Castello)
The Other Page
Radio
Radio Tiferno Uno
Television
Tiber TV
Events
The
Festival of Nations is an international chamber music event that takes
place every year between the end of August and the beginning of
September.
Located in the Umbrian part of the Alta Valtiberina, the municipality has an exclave between the municipalities of Apecchio (PU) and Sant'Angelo in Vado (PU) in the Marche region, corresponding to the Monte Ruperto area of about 500 hectares with a number of inhabitants equal to zero. With an area of 387 km², it ranks 20th among the Italian municipalities by extension. The center has a height of 288 meters above sea level, while the municipal area has a minimum height of 248 meters and a maximum height of 1,006 meters. It is the northernmost municipality of the Umbria region and its municipal territory is nestled on the border with the Marche and Tuscany regions.
Città di Castello is situated in the upper valley of the Tiber, which is inside the central-northern Apennines. Nevertheless, thanks to the low altitude, given that the entire town extends between 270 and 310 m.s.l.m. approximately, and to the influences coming from the Tyrrhenian Sea, the city enjoys a temperate sublitorial climate with moderately cold winters. The average temperature in January, the coldest month, based on the averages for the period 1985-2016 is 4.3 ° C. Summers are characterized by high but not torrid temperatures, and their seasonal average, also based on the period 1985-2016, is 21.7 ° C. Rainfall, which averages 900 mm per year, is fairly well distributed throughout the year and in the winter months, with a maximum in November. These can sometimes take on a snowy character. The climate of the upper hilly and mountainous part of the municipality with an altitude that exceeds even 1000 m a.s.l., is generally of the sub-continental temperate type, with cold winters and mild or cool summers. On the higher mountains, heavy snowfalls can occur even out of season and frequent night frosts.
Umbrians
and Romans
The original settlement was founded by the Umbrians on
the left bank of the Tiber near the territory subject to the control
of the Etruscans. Starting from the third century BC due to the
Roman expansion the city became a federation of Rome and was
subsequently included in the Regio VI Umbria. From the 1st century
BC it became a Roman municipality, whose most illustrious patron was
Gaius Pliny Cecilio Secondo, called Pliny the Younger, who,
according to what was stated in one of his letters, had a temple
built, completed in 103 or 104, whose location is unknown.
Certainly the gens Plinia owned vast estates near the city and a
villa, which is mentioned several times by Pliny the Younger himself
in his letters. The excavations, carried out by the University of
Perugia in collaboration with the University of Alicante in Colle
Plinio in the municipality of San Giustino, have made it possible to
identify the location of the villa of Pliny the Younger. The city
was called Tifernum Tiberinum by the Romans, in order to distinguish
it from the homonymous settlement on the Metauro, Tifernum
Metaurense, and it seems that it assumed a good importance, since it
is also mentioned by Pliny the Elder.
It is not possible to
reconstruct with certainty the urban structure of the Roman city.
Surely the oldest part of the city corresponds to the southern area,
where, in the district called Mattonata, some mosaics, remains of
hydraulic structures and a portion of the wall of what probably must
have been an amphitheater were found.
Middle Ages
The
dating of the spread of Christianity is uncertain, traditionally
attributed to San Crescentino or Crescenziano. This lived between
the third and fourth centuries, and was martyred following a
sentence issued in Tifernum. Eubodio is documented as the first
bishop of Tifernum Tiberinum in the year 465.
According to
tradition, the city was destroyed in the sixth century by the
Ostrogoth Totila and later rebuilt by Bishop Florido, who was then
sanctified and proclaimed patron of the city. The city was therefore
conquered by the Lombards, who called it Castrum Felicitatis and
included it in the Duchy of Tuscia. Later it passed under the
dominion of the Franks first and then of the State of the Church.
Around 1100 it organized itself into a Commune and was threatened
by the claims of the Empire, the State of the Church, Florence and
Perugia. In the first half of 1200 it was called Civitas Castelli
and, despite the rivalries between Guelphs and Ghibellines which
often endangered its freedom, it was equally able to enjoy
prosperity. In fact, in this period the Tifernate diocese extended
well beyond the current borders, including a large part of the
current Tuscan Upper Tiber. It also extended in the upper Metauro
valley towards Fano, in the upper Cesena and in the upper Marecchia
valley towards Rimini, that is, in today's Marche and Romagna
respectively. Between the 12th and 13th centuries the village of
Sansepolcro acquired independence as an autonomous municipality,
built at the beginning of the 11th century around the monastery of
the same name in the countryside of Città di Castello.
On the
administrative level, the location of the city remains rather
undefined. Although inserted in the lands of the Church from the
eighth century, still in 1312 it was claimed together with the
neighbor and "daughter" Sansepolcro by the emperor Henry VII, as
part of the empire.
In the State of the Church
In 1306 the
construction of the church of the Servants of Mary began, which will
later be called Santa Maria delle Grazie and will also become a city
Marian sanctuary over time. In the second half of the 14th century
the influence exercised by Perugia became greater, until in 1367 the
city was brought back under the Papal States by Cardinal Albornoz.
In 1368 Brancaleone Guelfucci raised his citizenship and rebelled,
even if the people of Tifernate regained their freedom only in 1375
thanks to the intervention of the Florentines.
In 1422 Pope
Martin V entrusted the city to the leader Braccio Fortebraccio da
Montone, whose family held the domain until 1440. In this year the
struggles for the conquest of power began between various families
including those of the Vitelli, the Fucci and of Tartarini.
Initially there was an Oligarchy composed of Vitelli, Giustini and
Fucci. It then passed to the dominion of the Vitelli alone, who
eliminated the Fucci and expelled the Giustini.
Subsequently
followed periods of strong rivalry, which also saw the involvement
of Pope Sixtus IV and a long siege of the city led by Niccolò
Vitelli.Following various events, however, the domain was
definitively taken by the Vitelli who placed Paolo Vitelli and
Vitellozzo at the head of the city Calves.
The latter was
killed by Cesare Borgia, known as Valentino, in the Senigallia
conspiracy in (1502). Valentino proclaimed himself Duke of the city
and maintained dominion for the entire pontificate of Pope Alexander
VI. From this moment until the end of the eighteenth century the
city was subjected to the State of the Church, which however granted
the regency to a governor employed by the Roman council. The Vitelli
family in the alternating events of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries had a notable impact on the economic development and
political importance of the city. Family of patrons and condottieri,
closely linked to the Medici of Florence, embellished Città di
Castello with many palaces in which the greatest artists of the
Renaissance were called to work, first of all Raffaello Sanzio and
Luca Signorelli. The appearance of the Vitelli with the Rossi family
of Parma was significant in the 16th century. First Vitello and then
Alessandro after the death of their brother, married Angela Paola,
sister of Pier Maria the Younger Count of San Secondo and Giovan
Girolamo, first bishop of Pavia and then governor of Rome from 1551.
Angela Paola was also a cousin of the Grand Duke of Florence Cosimo
de 'Medici and sister-in-law of Camilla Gonzaga.
From the
Risorgimento onwards
On 12 January 1798 the soldiers of the
Cisalpine Republic entered the city and proclaimed the republic.
Only on 5 May following the French troops were unable to quell a
revolt that started from the countryside and had a marked
anti-republican tendency. The order was reported on June 18, 1799,
when the city was occupied by the Austrians at the behest of the
Pope.
In 1817 the territory of the municipality of Città di
Castello was reduced in the southern part of the hamlets of
Montecastelli, Niccone and Verna, which passed to the municipality
of Fratta, today Umbertide. In 1827 the areas of the two new
municipalities of San Giustino and Pietralunga were also detached
from the municipal territory.
During the insurrectional uprisings the city provisionally
obtained freedom from the Papal State on the evening of 11 February
1849. On 11 September 1860 it was definitively occupied by the
Piedmontese army and the following year it entered the Italian
State, following its historical events from this moment. .
During the Second World War, in the period of the German occupation
and the Italian Social Republic, the rector of the local Seminary,
Don Beniamino Schivo, stood out for his courageous humanitarian work
in favor of civilians, refugees and the persecuted. A family of
German Jews also owes its life to him, which was welcomed, hidden
and protected from deportation until the Liberation. For his
commitment to solidarity, on June 8, 1986, the Yad Vashem Institute
in Jerusalem conferred on Don Schivo the high honor of "Righteous
among the Nations". Among others, Elio Toaff also found refuge
during the period of persecutions, who later became chief rabbi of
the Jewish community of Rome and was appointed honorary citizen of
Tifernate in 1999.
Città di Castello was liberated on 22 July
1944.
In the second half of the twentieth century there was a
significant demographic increase, also due to immigration from the
nearby Marche and Tuscany, which led the Municipality of Città di
Castello to be the fourth municipality in Umbria by number of
inhabitants. Since the sixties the city has undergone a significant
change in the economic fabric. Industrial development took place
especially in the graphic, mechanical, textile, furniture and
ceramics sectors, and has profoundly changed the face of the city.
In recent years there has also been a strong development of many
service companies, especially in the distance education and training
sector.