MONTEFALCO

SURROUNDINGS

ASSISI
BEVAGNA
FOLIGNO
GUBBIO
SPELLO
SPOLETO
TODI
TREVI

Spoleto (history)

Spoleto, stands mainly on the north-west side of a hill known as the "Colle di Sant'Elia". The city has ancient origins going back to the bronze age. Archeological evidence and the remains of a necropolis have been found within the city. In the fifth and sixth centuries BC it was historically occupied by the Umbrians, an Italic population speaking an Indo-European language.

Spoleto then presumably became a fortified centre in a true sense with an impressive city wall made in polygonally-cut stone, as can easily be gleaned from what is left of the so called cyclopic walls. In 241 BC Spoleto became a Roman "colony". When Rome granted Roman citizenship to Spoleto around 90 BC, it became a "municipium". It was then that it acquired a regular urgan structure in the Roman sense with the consular Flaminia road running through it and a wall with gates surrounding it. It also carried out an important military role such as in the victorious opposition to Hanibal during the Second Punic War when he had defeated the Romans at Trasmeno lake and was marching on the capital in 217 BC.

The event is recorded in an incription on the thirteenth century gate of Roman origin suitably called "Porta Fuga". Though experiencing moments of glory and others of relative regression, especially after the fall of the Roman Empire, Spoleto always remained important because of its strategic position. Indeed, in 571 the Longobards led by Faroaldus based the capital of their dukedom here where they not only managed to maintain a certain autonomy regarding the rest of the Longobard kingdom but also succeeded in expanding.

At the end of the eighth century the Longobards gave way to the Franks under whose dominion the Dukedom underwent progressive decline culminating, as it were, in the city being put to fire, sacking and pillage in 1155 when the army of Frederick Barbarossa invaded it. A street in Spoleto, via dell'Assalto, takes its name in fact from this chapter in history when the people of Spoleto refused to pay a heavy tribute imposed by their invaders. There ensued a somewhat confusing period in which the empire and the Church contended dominion over certain areas of the Dukedom.

This was made even more complicated by the rivaling factions within Spoleto. In 1247, however, Spoleto, which had become a free commune in the meantime, was annexed to the Papal States. In these first centuries of the new millennium, despite or thanks to the various serious political problems raging at the time, the population of Spoleto regained control of the city and rebuilt it by constructing impressive buildings and redefining the entire urban setting. Amongst other things a second wider city wall was built to contain the developing mediaeval suburbs.

This conferred the city of Spoleto with the strong fortified appearance it still has today. The fourteenth century was characterised by the terrible 1348 plague and the general air of uncertainty in the papal states generated by the transferral of the papal see to Avignon. The city was again beseiged by bloody internal strife which brought it for a brief period under the dominion of Perugia. Towards the end of the century, so as to favour the return of the pope to Italy, his legate and pontifical vicar, cardinal Albornoz, brought back all the papal states under papal rule and set out to defend them by having a series of fortifications built. Amongst these was the Rocca di Spoleto (The Fortress). The highest point on the city was chosen so that it could dominate the entire valley.

Both because of its impressiveness and strategic position, the Rocca was Albornoz' most important achievement. It was also the seat of pontifical government. From this moment on until the eighteenth century, despite various events threatening it, the city remained under the rule of the papacy. The nobilty stemming from papal links strengthened its position by building many family town houses to substitute the older mediaeval buildings and even entire residential blocks. Urban dwelling thus took on an entirely new look. The French under Napoleon took over at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Spoleto then became the capital of the Departement du Trasimene but then went back to being part of the papal states after the Restauration. When the troups of General Brignone entered the city in 1860, Spoleto became part of the new Italian state. Spoleto was thus one of the first Umbrian cities to join the cause of the Risorgimento.

Events:

Festival of Two Worlds, end of June – beginning of July. Certainly the most prestigious event of the city, founded by Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958 with the aim to create an occasion for meeting and exchange between Italian, European and American cultures. The event features dance, opera and theatrical performances, as well as films, concerts and art exhibits.

www.spoleto.umbria2000.it