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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.

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.

	[ 10/11/10: 2 pages, 8 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, one of which gets her own page.
	[ 1 page, 5 photos ] Morávola: once a medieval watchfort, then a sparse, remote, abandoned group of houses, and now, though still remote of course, a sophisticated retreat. My view of the place toward the end of that middle phase.

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 this 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 (although I've been to Morávola, a much smaller place). Any link is therefore offsite:

Carpini

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