Historical events in Umbria

History of Spoleto

Spoleto is one of the oldest towns of Umbria boasting more than 2500 years of history. The Huns were its founders but the fortune for the town came only with the Roman Empire, when it became a colony in 241 BC, known as Spoletium. It remains allied to Rome for a long time and during this period public buildings and various works were built, even if they collapsed in the earthquake in 63 BC. After its rebuilding, Spoleto lives an era of great splendor until to destruction of Totila. It became Duchy under the Longobard domination and it lived a turbulent period under the Holy Roman Empire. For a long time the Franks and the State of the Church fought for its conquest and the last obtained its control in 1240. Witness of the presence of popes and governors in Spoleto is the Rocca Albornoziana. It was built between 1359 and 1370, on the will of Cardinal Egidio Albornoz, by Matthew Gattaponi to strengthen the papal power. Among the governors of the town you can remember the legendary Lucrezia Borgia (1499). Spoleto lived behind the scenes throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, until the appointment as the capital of the Department of Trasimeno between 1808 and 1815. During the twentieth century it lived moments of alternating luck; different administrations and the various social classes invested all their capability in the exploitation of and implementation of new cultural events.

Characteristics

The urban plant of Spoleto is strongly influenced by the particularities of the hill "Sant'Elia" on which the town rises. It has a clear medieval imprint but it puts in evidence the derivation from the preceding Roman "grate", that developed around the internal branch of Via Flaminia, and it's particularly "readable and regular" at the top of the city, where the Pomerio (sacred space inside and outside the walls) was fixed.

It presents a development at shelves tightly welded to each other not only from the streets and alleys that intersect them, but also from palaces and buildings that compose them. It is not uncommon, in fact, that a building has a front prospectus in a street and the rear in another over or below (Town Hall, Palazzo Rosaries-Spada, Palazzo della Signoria), or that the same house has for low and top plans, admission in different roads at different levels. This particular structure is concentrated in a short space so that, with a little 'imagination, you could portray it as a "big pine-cone."

Walking through the historic center you can dive into the Roman Empire atmosphere: the "Teatro Romano" or de Drusus Germanicus or the house Roman attributed to the Vespasian's mother.

Spoleto is rich in various Roman buildings. The churches of St. Salvatore, S. Dominic S. Major Gregory, SS. John and Paul and the Duomo. Interesting is the Civic Museum, the Diocesan Museum, Art Gallery, the Museum Theatre, the Archaeological Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art.

Comfortable apartments in Spoleto await visitors to help create a unique holiday. For who is interested to know this very suggestive town.