Bastia Umbra (Perugia province)

Bastia is an agricultural town in the northern Valle Umbra area of Umbria, on the road from Assisi (about 5 km E) to Perugia (17 km W).

In Roman times it was an island in a swampy lake called the Lacus Umber or Lacus Persius, which was reclaimed as dry land over a span of about 1500 years, starting with the Romans themselves, then by the Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages, and finally by a Foligno engineer in the 16c. As you might expect, the area is flat and fertile.

There are several churches to see, especially S. Croce — elegant 13c façade with rose and portico — which houses paintings by Domenico Bruschi and Tiberio d' Assisi, as well as a good triptych by Nicolò Alunno.

A proper website will eventually appear here, since I've been to Bastia: although the site will be small since my visit was very brief. In the meanwhile, you may find it useful to read the Oct. 1, 1998 entry of my diary; for more complete summary information, see the sites in the navigation bar at the bottom of this page.

Frazioni

Like most of the comuni in Italy, Bastia includes in its territory some smaller towns and hamlets, of a few hundred inhabitants if that, with a certain administrative identity of their own: as elsewhere in Italy, these are referred to as the frazioni of the comune (singular: frazione, literally a "fraction"): a complete list of them follows. I haven't been to any of them yet, so any links will be offsite.

Bastiola • Costano • Ospedalicchio