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The City of Perugia

A city of central Umbria: 43°07N, 12°22E. Altitude: 493 m. Population in 2003: 151,000.
[An urban landscape of apartment buildings and houses, with a very large church, maybe ten stories tall, sticking out of it. In the far background, a plain with more buildings, and a backdrop of low mountains. It is a very partial view of Perugia, Umbria (central Italy).]

The Borgo XX Giugno: an outlying spur of the city.

I don't much like big towns, but it's only fair that after having brought you endless pages on Acquasparta and Valfabbrica, I should at least start on Perugia. So this is that start:

[A low round building of mixed brick and stone, with a Gothic-arched door, and an equally low inset octagonal story with three round-arched windows on this side, the cupola surmounted by a small lantern with a cross; to the rear on the left side, hidden in a group of cypresses, a two-story square belfry: the church is set in a park. It is a view of the church of S. Angelo in Perugia, Umbria (central Italy).]

[ 1/21/07: 22 churches, 2 pages, 23 photos ]

Perugia's churches number about five dozen. I haven't seen anywhere near all of them, but maybe half of them at some level or other, including all the ones that my fellow tourists look at. Proper pages on them will be creeping onsite by and by; for now, a few good photographs.

Nearby

About 4½ km from downtown Perugia, the under­ground Etruscan mausoleum — more properly, a chamber tomb — known as the Hypogeum of the Volumni (in Italian, Ipogeo dei Volumni) was for generations the Velimna family vault, "Volumnus" being a Latin form of their name. Rediscovered in the 19th century in an area that had once been an Etruscan cemetery, it now houses many of the collected tombstones (funerary stelae).

My own 'discovery' of the hypogeum with a friend was also entirely by accident, in 1993 on the day we left Italy: we had a 2‑hour layover at the nearby train station of Perugia Ponte S. Giovanni, and not ones to waste good weather and good shoe leather sitting in a waiting room, we wandered off down some road, and by the sheerest accident saw it signposted. It turned out to be an extraordinarily atmospheric sort of place, with interesting sculpture and Etruscan inscriptions; and on that December day, no other visitors.

Frazioni

For historical reasons, Perugia is one of the larger comuni in Umbria, and has carried with it from its aggressive Middle Ages into modern times a long list of subject towns and hamlets, which form part of its extended territory, or comune. Many of these places are very small, a few hundred inhabitants if that; as elsewhere in Italy, those that have a certain administrative identity of their own are frazioni of the comune (singular: frazione, literally a "fraction"): a complete list of them follows. I've crossed quite a few of these small places in trains, cars, and buses, but few on them on foot, so almost all the links are offsite.

Bagnaia • Bosco • Capanne • Castel del Piano • Cenerente • Città della Domenica • Civitella Benazzone • Colle Umberto I • Collestrada • Colombella • Ferro di Cavallo • Fontignano • Fratticiola Selvatica • Ipogeo dei Volumni •  La Bruna (not to be confused with this other town by the same name in the comune of Castelritaldi) • La Cinella • Lacugnano • Migiana di Monte Tezio • Monte Corneo • Monte Petriolo • Montebello • Mugnano • Olmo • Parlesca • Pianello • Piccione • Pila • Pilonico Materno • Poggio della Pietra • Poggio delle Corti • Ponte Felcino • Ponte Pattoli • Ponte Rio • Ponte S. Giovanni • Ponte Valleceppi • Prepo • Pretola • Ramazzano • Rancolfo • Ripa • S. Andrea delle Fratte • S. Egidio • S. Enea • S. Fortunato della Collina • S. Giovanni del Pantano • S. Lucia • S. Marco • S. Maria Rossa • S. Martino in Campo • S. Martino in Colle (not to be confused with another town by the same name in the comune of Gubbio) • S. Sisto • Solfagnano • Villa Pitignano

In addition, the following small town is not even a frazione, but its blog on local festivals has been left online and includes photos of them, including some interesting ones from the early 20c:

Civitella d'Arna

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Page updated: 18 Jul 23

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