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Poggiodomo (Perugia province)

A town of SE Umbria: 42°42N, 12°56E. Altitude: 974 m. Population in 2003: 165.

[image ALT: A small village, with a single square belfry prominent among the stone houses, nestled in a slight hollow on the top of a hill to the right, plunging steeply towards the center of the photo; most of the photo in fact shows a scenery of uninhabited hills. It is a view of Poggiodomo, Umbria (central Italy).]

About three-quarters of the town, seen from the N on the road to Cerreto.

Poggiodomo is a remote town in the mountains W of Cascia: the territory of the comune is strung along the upper valley of the Tissino — in the above photo, far below, offscreen left — on the road from Monteleone di Spoleto (13 km S) that then follows that creek about 17 km further N to Cerreto. Another small road leads 13 km NW to Vallo di Nera and eventually Spoleto (roughly 30 km).

For all that geography, Poggiodomo and its three dependent hamlets — Mucciafora, Roccatamburo, and Usigni — add up to only about 200 people, making it the smallest comune in Umbria. It is also, with neighboring Monteleone, the highest.

As you might expect, the area is mostly woods, and a good place to look for truffles; but there are also at least two churches of interest: in the town itself, the medieval church of S. Pietro with Renaissance frescoes and the church of S. Carlo Borromeo which is said to house good 17c/18c woodwork; and a few miles to the S in Usigni, the baroque church of S. Salvatore the elegant decoration of which is due to the hamlet's having been the home of Fausto Poli, a powerful cardinal under •Pope Urban VIII. Mention should also be made of the frescoed hermitage of the Madonna della Stella, mostly carved into live rock in the 14c, about 5 km N: although it properly belongs to the territory of Cerreto, the visitor will find it much closer to Poggiodomo.

In addition to the pages below, you'll probably also find it useful to read the May 12, 2004 entry of my diary, which includes a photo of some of the frescoes of the Madonna della Stella; for further information, see the websites linked in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.

[ 6/6/05: 3 churches, 2 pages, 7 photos ]

In my two‑day walk thru the area, I did not see all the churches, nor were any of them open; but just the same, I can still show you some of Poggiodomo's churches.

Frazioni

Most of the comuni in Italy include in their territory some smaller towns and hamlets, often of no more than a few hundred or dozen inhabitants, with a certain administrative identity of their own; they are referred to as the frazioni (singular: frazione, literally a "fraction"). A complete list of Poggiodomo's frazioni follows; the links include photographs and some fairly detailed information.

Mucciafora • Roccatamburo • Usigni

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

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