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Montone (Perugia province)

A town of N Umbria: 43°21.8N, 12°19.8E. Altitude: 482 m. Population in 2003: 1600.

[image ALT: A small cloister, with five arched bays on a side supported by slender columns. It is the cloister of S. Francesco in Montone, Umbria (central Italy).]

The 16c cloister of S. Francesco, recently restored.

Montone is a peaceful hilltown overlooking two small creeks, the Cárpina and Lana, that flow into the upper reaches of the Tiber, about 9 km north of Umbertide. The upscale dormitory town for Umbertide, in recent years it has become somewhat tourist-centered, but is not yet spoiled.

Historically the town is famous for one of the great condottieri, Braccio di Fortebraccio, master for a while of Perugia. Braccio's fortress, the Rocca d' Aries, is mostly ruined although the ruins are rather moving: they've been tied in with the war dead memorial to make a pacifist statement.

Montone's principal monument is the 14c Gothic church of S. Francesco, with an attractive and unusual wooden door of 1514, but mostly an important group of frescoes and artworks of the early Renaissance; the main painter represented is Bartolomeo Caporali, who flourished in the late 15c.

Outside the walls a bit below the town proper, an interesting Romanesque church in the Byzantine style (possibly 11c): the Pieve S. Gregorio.

[ 3/27/08: 1 page, 7 photos ]

A proper website will eventually appear here, since I've been to Montone twice, if briefly each time. For now, a sampler of Montone's churches; for the rest, you're waiting for my negative scanner to get fixed.

You might also find it useful to read the Sept. 12, 2000 entry of my diary, which includes a photograph of the main piazza of the upper town, and one more photo of the nearby church of S. Angelo of Corlo; for further (and much better) information, see the websites linked in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.

Frazioni

Most of the comuni in Umbria include in their territories 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. In the case of Montone, there is just one frazione, and I haven't been there. Any link is therefore offsite:

Carpini

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

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Pro Loco
(with a very good map of the town)

PagineSi
(with another good map of the town)

Umbria.org

ArgoNet

BellaUmbria

ValleMuseo

Verde Umbria

Vacanze
in Umbria

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