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Corciano (Perugia province)

A town of West Central Umbria: 43°8N, 12°17E. Altitude: 313 m.

[image ALT: A small arched gateway in a stone wall, with a powerful round tower to its left as we see it. In the background, on the right, a much taller thin square tower can be seen. The group of buildings is seen from a little below them. It is the Porta S. Maria, the main city gate of Corciano, Umbria (central Italy), with the belfry of a church behind it.]

The Porta S. Maria, the city's main gate.

The township of Corciano is one of the larger comuni in central Umbria, due to the concentration of heavy industry and large-surface retail outlets in those parts of it that lie in the plain; but Corciano proper, perched on its hill about 12 km west of Perugia, is one of the beauty spots of Umbria, a peaceful and beautiful walled medieval town — overlooking that plain and its busy highway that will take the fast traveler to Magione, Passignano and Tuoro sul Trasimeno and eventually to Siena.

If you've wandered onto this page just looking for Corciano there is another place in Umbria by that name, but it's very unlikely that it's the one you're looking for: it's a very small hamlet in the comune of Trevi, near Pigge, and is usually called Corciano di Trevi to avoid any confusion.

Though the town itself is its own star, in addition to its streets and its at times impressive fortifications, five churches are of particular interest, all Gothic: S. Maria Assunta, over the main altar of which can be seen one of the best works of Perugino's old age, a vibrantly colored Assumption; S. Francesco, with a 15c Madonna and Child with Four Saints, by the late 15c Umbrian painter Orlando Merlini; the much smaller S. Cristoforo, said to be built on the remains of an Etruscan shrine and housing a little museum of sacred art; and, just outside the gates in opposite directions, S. Agostino with its paintings and the frescoed S. Maria del Serraglio.

I've walked much of the actual town of Corciano and some of its immediate surroundings, although in bad weather or by night: it's still enough to assemble a small website, the very barest start of which follows:

[ 1/20/07: 3 churches, 2 pages, 6 photos ]
The churches of Corciano, or at least the two principal churches in town, S. Maria Assunta and S. Francesco.

[ 1 page, 6 photos ]
The Arco della Vittoria and the Lions of Montemolino, two closely related monuments in town, and the history that links them.

Pending my complete site, you may also find it useful to read the Mar. 7, 2004 entry of my diary, which also includes several good photos. For further, more formal, information see the websites linked in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.

Frazioni

Like most of the comuni in Italy, Corciano includes in its territory some smaller towns and hamlets, usually 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've only walked past or thru the fringes of some of them, so any links will be offsite.

Capocavallo • Castelvieto • Chiugiana • Mantignana • S. Mariano • Migiana • Solomeo

Also, the comune's site has a page where links lead to summary descriptions, and a photo, of each.

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

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