SOURCE WIKIPEDIA
Spoleto is a town of 39,122 inhabitants in the province of Perugia.
Spoleto is located at the southern end of Valle Umbra, a vast alluvial plain Generated in prehistoric times by the presence of a large lake, the Lacus Umber, finally dried in the Middle Ages, after his waterlogging, with the reclamation works.
The town is built on the hill of St. Elias, a low promontory at the foot of the hill Monteluco, and further down to the banks of the river Tessino to the east is surrounded by mountains that surround the Valnerina.
Spoleto is an ancient town from prehistoric times. The first evidence indicate that Spoleto has been inhabited since at least the seventh century BC by the Umbrian, as attested by ancient tombs dating from the Iron Age. The polygonal walls of the V-IV century BC, these Cyclopean walls, made of huge blocks of limestone in the form polygon, prove that it was a well-fortified and fortified city, overlooking the Umbrian valley.
became a Roman colony in 241 BC, Spoleto (Spoletium) soon became prosperous and rich in monuments. Spoleto remained faithful to Rome, especially during the Punic Wars, Hannibal not only rejected after his victory at the Trasimeno (217 BC), but especially during the critical period following the long conflict.
In 43 BC Octavian stopped there, before the battle of Modena, officiating at a ritual sacrifice at a temple in the city.
the beginning of the fifth century we know that resided in Spoleto, the Roman senator Giulio Naucelle.
Embellished by Theodoric that between 507 and 511 put his hand in the restoration of the city and the reclamation of the valley to a large part of the mire and Belisario (536), was conquered by Totila (545) and restored by Narsete that after 553, he undertook the restoration the walls.
invaded Italy, the Lombards chose Spoleto as the capital of one of the greatest Ducati, projecting the city's political influence over a vast territory of central and South America to the Duchy of Benevento. The fall of the Lombards, the Duchy passed to the Franks. When the Carolingian Empire was dismembered, the dukes of Spoleto, Guido III and his son Lamberto, went to the conquest of the imperial crown (889). In 1155
Spoleto, "fournished defended city hundred towers "was, according to tradition, which was destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa, and if the various invasions brought death and destruction on the one hand, on the other enriched Spoleto's famous monuments.
then Contention between the Empire and the Church was this aggregate by Innocent III in 1198 and, finally, in 1247. marred by conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, was reconciled by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz (he, in 1359, began construction of the Rock as the seat of Governors city) was secured to the Church and made an important center of the Papal States, which sent prominent governors, including Lucretia Borgia (1499).
From the Renaissance onwards, Spoleto gradually transformed from a strategic center mainly as a cultural center with the founding of the Academy of Dull (today Academy Spoleto). Followed periods of splendor and decadence, yet always remaining within a certain importance in the Papal States: it is testimony to the fact that at different times two famous popes, Urban VIII and Pius IX, had previously been Archbishop of Spoleto.
During the French occupation, Spoleto was the first capital of the Department of Clitunno and then that of the Trasimeno, not so much a tribute to the historical legacy of the ancient Umbriae as Caput, more pragmatically, because of its proximity to the upland areas bordering the Kingdom of Naples, and therefore vulnerable to penetration of the robbery, which allowed an easier control of the territory.
The Restoration (1814) became the site of a papal delegation until, September 17, 1860, the troops of General Filippo Brignone Spoleto joined the new Italian state.
From the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, Spoleto became the seat of a small but thriving Jewish community. As evidence of its history remains today only in the name of a town topomastica via: S. Gregory of the Synagogue.
Places of worship [edit]
* The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in 1067 on the ruins of a church in the ninth century. Remarkable are the frescoes by Pinturicchio in the chapel in the apse Eroli and Filippo Lippi the nave.
* The church of San Salvatore (IV-V century, with restorations Lombard eighth century), the most ancient early Christian basilicas in Italy.
* The church of Santa Eufemia (XII century), built in the area of \u200b\u200bInsula, which remains mosaics and walls (which is a rare case of Italian Romanesque church with the women's galleries).
* The monastery of St. Agatha and the church of San Pietro.
* The church of our place, the early Middle Ages, built on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter, still recognizable in the crypt.
* The Romanesque churches of San Gregorio Maggiore, San Domenico, San Pontian, San Giuliano and San Paolo vineas Inter.
* Complex Monument of St. Nicholas.
* The Church of Manna d'Oro.
* The church of Saints John and Paul, in this small church is the oldest in the world fresco that depicts the murder of Thomas Becket, which took place in 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral, at the hands of four knights sent by King 'England Henry II. The unique record of the fresco, by Alberto Sotio, is made even more astonishing by the fact that the painting is a few years after the episode shown (the church was consecrated in 1174): given the distance, huge for that ' period, which separates England Spoleto, having painted such an event in such a short time interval can be compared a sort of "live report" of the event, very rare in those days.
Monuments Civil
* La Rocca Albornoz, one of the landmarks of the city. Rises to the top of the hill, overlooking the St. Elias Umbrian valley. It has two courtyards and six towers, including one commonly referred to as spirited and the Chamber of Pinta, painted the frescoes in the fifteenth century. Popular tradition tells of the existence of two underground tunnels that would connect the Fortress with the lower part of the city (especially with the Bloody Bridge, in today's Victoria Square) and the old town (near the Arch of Drusus , Roman): These tunnels, which would also been known to Lucrezia Borgia, (she was governor of Spoleto in 1499), but have not been found yet.
* The Bloody Bridge, Roman bridge now below street level, only rediscovered in the nineteenth century. It is located exactly at the center of the road to Victory Square and is open down a flight of stairs that starts directly from the plaza and along 24 m high and 9, is in excellent condition and is made of blocks of travertine square comprising three arches, one still underground. The bridge allowed the Via Flaminia Tessino cross the stream, which today runs a few tens of meters to the northeast, when it gradually changes location, the bridge remained simply a stretch of the street and was eventually buried. The name probably derives from the ancient port and close Sandalapius, but popular tradition associated with the proximity of the Roman amphitheater, where took place many martyrs.
* The Arch of Drusus, Roman arch built along the urban layout of the Via Flaminia, which introduced the hole (the present site of Market Square), built in 23 AD in honor of Drusus minor.
* The Palazzo Spada, home of the Museum of Textiles and Costume. * The Palace
Racani Arroni, with its graffiti-century monochrome.
* The Tower Bridge, 230 m long, the symbol of the city is a Roman aqueduct-Lombard according to some late-medieval according to others, unique in its height of 82 m, making it the oldest stone bridge, Europe's highest. The monument is covered by a delicate operation to monitor the stress state of the walls. It is considered an anomaly at the time of its construction: in fact, rarely in the same period of civil works were built of such grandeur. The work is celebrated by Goethe in his Italienische Reise.
* The elegant Casa Romana of the first century AD, which belonged to Flavius \u200b\u200bVespasian Polla, mother of Emperor Vespasian, and decorated with mosaic floors still intact.
* The Tower of Oil of the thirteenth century, and the Gate Escape: The Tower of Oil is so call for out of it, in defense of the city, they used to throw boiling oil on enemies who were besieging the port below Fuga (first wall Suburb) it is said that many enemies, the most illustrious Frederick Barbarossa and Hannibal, suffered huge losses from this strategy defense (hence the name "Escape" of the underlying port) [1]. In the case of Hannibal, however, it is probably a false history, as the tower is not Roman but rear does not rule out that, previously, in the same place and there was a similar construction with the same function.
* The Palazzo Comunale, the '200.
* Several buildings of the eighteenth century: Collicola Palace (seat of the Municipal Gallery Modern Art, with works by Calder, De Gregorio, Tomato and others), and Palazzo Campello Ancaiani Palace, seat of the Italian Centre for Studies on the High Middle Ages.
* The Roman Theatre. In medieval times it was used as a quarry and many of them were using them, to build the castle, near the Palazzo Ancaiani and the bell tower of the cathedral, on the Roman origin of the material recovery, many pagan symbols, such as fouls winged mascot, are still visible on the bell tower of the Cathedral. * The Teatro Caio
Melisso of seventeenth-century origin (one of the oldest theatrical structures Italy), abandoned after the inauguration of the New and then rehabilitated.
* The New Theatre, 1885, designed by the architect Ireneo Aleandri and wanted by the middle class because of insufficient capacity of existing Caio Melissa. On 29 June 2007, at the start of the fiftieth edition of the Festival dei Due Mondi, the theater was reopened to the public after a restoration lasting three years.
* The Star Auditorium.
* The Laboratory of Earth Sciences.
* The Archaeological Museum, housed in the former monastery of St. Agata and adjacent to the Roman theater, contains exhibits illustrating the history of the city and area from prehistory to the late antiquity.
* The Diocesan Museum.
* The National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto, located inside the Rocca Albornoz.
* La Piazza del Duomo and its steps.
* Market Square. *
Fontesecca routes and where the Dukes are still visible (and used) the old medieval shops. *
boundary walls urbiche: Spoleto urbiche has two boundary walls, the first built in Roman times and called Cyclopean walls and the second of the Middle Ages and still visible. The first, consisting of huge square blocks of stone, enclosing the urban development before the Middle Ages and thus was much more limited extension. A large part of this first plant is still visible on a Leoncilli, where you can see also the ruins of a tower belonging to the boundary. Other sections have recently been unearthed as a result of the work to implement the second stage of the mobility project spoilage; reastaurati, are now visible at the exit of the route mechanized near Freedom Square.
Following the huge development of medieval towns and villages along the formation of the access roads of the city (and Nursina Flaminia) was accomplished and the second city wall still visible Suburb. It is from this second civil works can be seen mainly medieval Development and the grandeur of ancient cities: the walls in question is in effect an anomaly urban hardly found in other plants of the same era as the walls have one of the longest straight built in medieval times (the stroke is more than 1 km, is located in the lower level and the city and today is run in parallel with the street Martyrs of the Resistance).
During the fascist traits of the medieval walls were demolished to enable the construction of other works. The completion of the third stage in the draft alternative mobility has allowed the recovery and restoration of the steepest section of the medieval walls and steep, and for this reason, all'incuria left for a long time.
* "Teodelapio" Alexander Calder: Spoleto is the first monumental sculpture "stable" made the world: it is the Teodelapio American sculptor Alexander Calder, 18 meters high, was built in 1962 in the square of the train station to the exhibition "Sculptures in the city, during the Festival of Two Worlds that year. In fact, the other famous and magnificent sculptures by the same author (with his works in this city like Montreal, Chicago and Mexico City) are all higher. The fact that the sculpture is squarely on the asphalt of the square and roundabout to serve as almost atypical for vehicles leaving or going to the station is not random: the author has always attracted and fascinated by the dynamism, the imagined Teodelapio surrounded by and through its chaos of city traffic, in that sense, the entire square, and all vehicles passing through the dynamic part of the sculpture.
natural places
* The Sacred Grove of Monteluco with the twelfth-century Franciscan monastery. "Nihil mea jucundius saw the valley of Spoleto" is the famous phrase of St. Francis of Assisi, in reference to the Umbrian valley. A plaque placed at the Belvedere of Monteluco, shows that maximum.
* The scenic walk around commonly known as the Rock and the adjacent footpath around the ducts, from which you can see is that unusual views of the Umbrian valley of Spoleto.
* * In June 1876, he was sent Carducci as an inspector at the Liceo di Spoleto (the square on which there is a high school today bears his name) and wanted to visit the Clitunno sources, half an hour of train from the city. From this visit he was inspired to write one of the most solemn in his classic "Barbarian Odes": "At Clitunno sources.
* Other famous visitors to Spoleto was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his long journey along the Italian peninsula in 1786, stayed there, leaving a page of ecstatic admiration for the bold construction of the Tower Bridge in his famous book " Travel in Italy. "
Events
* The Festival of Two Worlds (also known as the Spoleto Festival), founded in 1958 by master composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who with his drama, dance, concerts, exhibitions and films in Spoletocinema, is one of the most prestigious international events and mundane. After the death of Maestro Menotti, the festival since 2008 has been entrusted to the direction of Giorgio Ferrara.
* Every year in August, takes place "Spoleto Estate", a series of cultural events, music and entertainment that players often see celebrities. * Since 1999
Events are set up at the end of year: during the Christmas period the city organizes cultural and entertainment collective, especially at New Year.
* Since 2004 takes place in the city, in September, the initiative of the European stars Taste.
* Since 2005, the initiative has created culinary wines in the world, one stationed in the basement shows the city's oldest and starring the wines produced by over 160 wineries from Italy and around the world. In the 2008 he was beaten as part of the event, the world record for the largest glass cup in the world: the glass, unique piece designed and made by master glassmaker Massimo Vicenza Lunardon - has scored a height of 2.03 meters to 48 cm in diameter and 3 cm thick, then entered the Guinness Book of Records, is now on display in Art Gallery Modern city.
* Since 2007, the initiative is established enogastrononica Typical Spoleto, a trade fair of local products (among others promoted by the Mountain Community of the Mountains, and Martan Serano of Reclamation and the Umbra), which takes place at weekends between 1 and 11 November ; historical buildings, streets and mills of the area, welcome visitors with conferences and tastings. Typical product is the leading olive oil in the area.
* Every year in August, takes place in the nearby village of Bazzano Mama Umbria International Festival, organized by the American choreographer Ellen Stewart.
* Since 2003, annually hosts Spoleto (in May) the International Dance Week, and even before she moved to Perugia from Rieti. The event is designed to seek and promote new young rising stars of classical and modern dance.
* Since 1995, annually hosts Spoleto (in December) the National Award for the Short Social Nickelodeon, aimed at authors (professionals and emerging) that have made short films on social themes or made in projects and charities. The main objectives of the award is Nickelodeon to help promote the production of films that are able to demonstrate, together with the mastery of the art cinema and audiovisual communication, social issues.
fractions
Acquacastagna, Acquaiura, Ancaiano, Azzano, Baiano, Bazzano Inferiore, Bazzano Superiore, Beroide, Camporoppolo, Sales field, Cerqueto, Cese, Collerisana, Collicelli, Cortaccione, Crocemaroggia, Eggi, Fogliano, Forca di Cerro, Madonna Baiano, Maiano, Massena, Montebibico, Monteluco, Monte Martano (lies on the mountain and is home to a castle), Morgnano, Morro, Ocenelli, Palazzaccio, Why, Petrognano Pompagnano, Pontebari, Poreta, Protti, Rubbiano, San Brizio, San Giacomo, San Giovanni di Baiano, Ocenelli of San Gregorio, San Martino in Trignano, San Nicholas, San Severo, San Silvestro, Santa Croce, Sant'Anastasio, Sant'Angelo in Mercole, Santo Chiodo, San Venanzo Silvignano, Sum, Strettura, Terraia, the Third Pieve, Terzo San Severo, Testaccio, Hook, Valdarena, Valle San Martino, Vallocchia
Economics
After the unification, became Perugia capital of Umbria, Spoleto gradually lost the role of administrative center. For the serious economic setbacks he began to partial remedy in the early twentieth century, with the construction of factories near the walls, with the activation of the lignite mines in the nearby village of Morgnano [2] and the construction in 1909 of cotton mill and a chemical for the treatment of phosphorus.
In order to integrate into the basin user Spoleto mountain peoples of the Nera Valley, in the late nineteenth century began the design of a suitable link road between Spoleto and Norcia, and thereafter passed to the creation of a rail link (Ferrovia Spoleto Norcia), operating from 1926 to 1968, the where the track is still considered a masterpiece of civil engineering.
Tourism, handicrafts, industry and agriculture, supported by the trade and service sectors, are the solid foundations on which the economy Spoleto. The craft has a strong tradition of textiles, embroidery and upholstery, agriculture, the production of great and famous extra virgin olive oil, continuing a tradition of centuries, the small and medium industry, with companies operating in the engineering industry, textile and graphic designer, is a fitting accompaniment to the local economy.
But the most representative voice of the economic sector, Spoleto is certainly that of tourism. Spoleto is one of the main tourist centers of Umbria, known internationally, the reasons that led to this success stems from the great historical, artistic, cultural and natural that offer the city and its territory.
