Spello

 

Spello (Hispellum in Latin) is an Italian town of 8 466 inhabitants in the province of Perugia in Umbria. It is part of the circuit of the most beautiful villages in Italy and boasts the Orange Flag tourist-environmental quality mark, awarded by the Italian Touring Club.

 

Spello is a municipality that occupies the south-eastern sector of the province of Perugia, in the Umbra Valley. The capital is located at an altitude of 280 m above sea level.

The surface of the municipality extends into the mountains, hills and plains. The municipality rises, together with nearby Assisi, on the western slopes of the Monte Subasio chain, in the Umbria-Marche Apennines.

It borders to the north with Assisi, to the north-east with Valtopina, to the south and south-east with Foligno, to the south-west with Bevagna and to the west with Cannara. It is approximately 5 km from Foligno, 30 km from Perugia, 12 km from Assisi and 35 km from Spoleto.

 

History

Spello was founded by the Umbrians to then be called Hispellum in Roman times; she was later enrolled in the Lemonia tribe. Later declared "Colonia Giulia" by Cesare and "Splendidissima Colonia Julia" by Augusto, since it supported him in the war in Perugia; after the victory of Augustus, he himself ceded a good part of the territories ruled by Perusia to Hispellum and the dominion of the city of Spello extended to the sources of Clitunno, which were previously under the possession of Mevania. Later it was called "Flavia Costante" by Costantino. Ancient Spello was considered one of the most important cities in Roman Umbria.

The remains of the walls, much wider in the past than we can admire today, attest to the greatness that the city had, as well as the archaeological remains that surround it. Devastating for Spello was the descent into Italy of the Barbarians who reduced it from a populous city to a poor hamlet. In the Lombard and Frankish ages it was part of the Duchy of Spoleto, and then passed to the Papacy. However, the town, mindful of the prosperity and relative autonomy it enjoyed in Roman times, did not take long to become a free municipality with its own laws. In 1516 the town was given by the pope to the Baglioni family from Perugia to which it belonged until 1648.

In the 4th century Spello was a bishopric and in the early Middle Ages, with other neighboring dioceses and later suppressed, it was part of the vast diocese of Spoleto for a long time. Since 1772 Spello has instead been integrated into the diocese of Foligno.

 

Monuments and places of interest

Porta Consolare: main entrance to the Roman city, in limestone from Subasio, with a medieval square tower and three republican marble statues. The funerary statues were added in the 16th century, coming from the area of ​​the amphitheater.
Augustan walls and Urbica gate: about 2 km, among the most significant and intact city walls in Italy.
Porta Venere and Towers of Properzio: Augustan, very harmonious, with two mighty Romanesque dodecagonal towers.
Porta dell'Arce or dei Cappuccini: Roman, northern entrance to the city.
Town Hall, in which there are Roman inscriptions, two portraits of the Flavian age, a valuable library with Venetian furniture and above all the well-known rescript of Constantine dated 333-337 AD, sixteenth-century external fountain with the emblem of Julius III. Palazzo Baglioni, in Piazza della Repubblica, once the residence of the Baglioni of Perugia, lords of Spello until 1648.
Palazzo Urbani, with a splendid wooden gallery with canopy from the early 17th century.
Tega Chapel, with frescoes by Alunno and the Mazzaforte workshop.
Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which houses, in the Baglioni chapel, frescoes by Pinturicchio (about 1500-1501) and a valuable floor of Deruta majolica ("Il frate", 1566). Precious and rare is the Ciborium of the main altar, the work of Rocco da Vicenza (1515). The original facade, from the 13th century, was completely rebuilt around the middle of the 17th century. The interior has many Baroque elements including an altar.
Church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo, houses the Madonna enthroned and saints by Pinturicchio and collaborators, from 1506-1508.
Church of San Lorenzo Martire, with frescoes, a 15th century tabernacle and beautiful 17th century paintings.
Church of San Claudio, near the town: beautiful 11th century Romanesque church (perhaps built over a temple dedicated to Saturn) with 14th century (Cola Petruccioli da Orvieto) and 15th century (Unknown) frescoes inside.
Church of San Girolamo
Late Roman (Augustan) villa, with remarkable well-preserved mosaics inside a beautiful, recent modern structure, located in the Sant'Anna area.
Villa Costanzi, much better known as Villa Fidelia, of the seventeenth-eighteenth century, hosts events and concerts every year.
Civic and diocesan art gallery, located in the Palazzo dei Canonici, has an interesting collection of works ranging from the fourteenth to the twentieth century.