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Montefranco (Terni province)

A town of central Umbria: 42°36N, 12°45.5E. Altitude: 375 m. Population in 2003: 1300.

[A clump of old stone houses and a church with a tall square belfry topped by a cupola, on a spur high above a lush valley of forests and meadows. In the background, even taller hills, mountains in fact, partly veiled in fog. It is a view of Montefranco, Umbria (central Italy).]

Montefranco has some splendid views; this one N towards Ferentillo.

Montefranco is one of the smallest comuni of Umbria in terms of its area: only 10 km2. The town itself is a settlement that grew up around centuries of small castles and towers defending the right bank of the Nera river, 15 km east of Terni and about 6 km south of Ferentillo. The whole area is intensely green and is considered one of the beauty spots of central Italy.

Civilization is very much present, though. In town the church of S. Bernardino goes back to the 9c, and outside the limits of Montefranco, at the Case San Pietro, one of the houses includes fragments of 9c sculpture and identifiable pieces of a 1c funerary monument.

You should not confuse Montefranco, perched high above the Valnerina, with Montefalco, a town in central Umbria with a famous museum.

A proper website will eventually appear here, since I've been to Montefranco, if briefly. In the meanwhile, you might find it useful to read the brief section in the Sept. 4, 2000 entry of my diary, and you will find a very handsome photo of this beautiful town under Sept. 2; 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 Montefranco, there is just one frazione, and I've been there, although it's not much. At some point I may add a photo:

Fonte Chiaruccia (or Fontechiaruccia, both spellings are correct)

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