Città di Castello

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Comune di Città di Castello
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Umbria
Province	Perugia (PG)
Mayor

Elevation	288 m
Area	387 km²
Population
- Total (as of 2001)	39,342
- Density	98/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	43°28′N, 12°14′E
Gentilic	Tifernati
Dialing code	075
Postal code	06010, 06011, 06012, 06018
Frazioni	see list
Patron	San Florido
- Day	November 13
Website: www.castiglionedellago.it

Città di Castello is a town in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the upper part of the flood plain of the nearby river Tiber. The city lies north from Perugia (46 km) and south from Cesena (104 km) on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1 Rome-Florence highway by the SS 73 from Arezzo.

1 History
2 Ecclesiastical history
3 Main sights
4 Famous inhabitants
5 Frazioni
6 Notes
7 Sources and external links

[edit] History

The town may have been Etruscan; the Romans knew it as Tifernum Tiberinum ("Tifernum on the Tiber")^[1] or Civitas Tiberina. Pliny the Younger built nearby a magnificent villa supported by extensive land holdings, his villa in Tuscis, which is identified with walls, mosaic floors and marble fragments at a place now called Colle Plinio.

In 550 it was taken and largely destroyed during the Ostrogothic campaign by Fantalogus, by order of Totila. The town was subsequently rebuilt under the direction of its bishop, Floridus, around a castle, and hence renamed first Castrum Felicitatis and later Civitas Castelli. By the donation of the Frankish king Pepin the Short in 752, it became subject to the Holy See, though in practice it was disputed between the papacy, Perugia and Florence. Local lords disputed its possession, which settled in the family of the Vitelli, even after Cesare Borgia attached the city more directly to the Holy See.

In subsequent centuries it was under various rulers, among them Pier Saccone di Pietramala. In the later Middle Ages it was governed successively by the Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1375 Città di Castello joined in the insurrection of other cities of the States of the Church. Cardinal Robert of Geneva (later antipope as Clement VII), undertook to recapture it with Breton mercenaries, but was repulsed. Under pope Martin V it was taken by the condottiero Braccio da Montone (1420). Later Nicolò Vitelli, helped by Florence and Milan, became absolute ruler or tiranno. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built for the Vitelli family an extensive palace.

In 1474 Sixtus IV sent thither his nephew, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later Julius II); after fruitless negotiations he laid siege to the city, but Vitelli did not surrender until he learned that the command of the army had been given to Duke Federico III da Montefeltro. The following year Vitelli tried unsuccesefully to recapture the city; fear of Cesare Borgia alone induced him to desist, before Cesare Borgia had the patrianch of the Vitelli strangled and Città di Castello added to the papal possessions.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, the city has seen a considerable expansion northwards toward S. Giustino, with industrial parks tracking the river, railroad and main highway: the area produces farm machinery, textiles, ceramics and furnishings.

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

During the persecution of Diocletian —according to legend— St. Crescentianus, a Roman knight, and ten others suffered martyrdom at Tifernum. The first-known bishop of this see was Ennodius, present at a Roman council in 465 under Pope Hilary. At the time of the Ostrogothic sack of the city by Fantalogus (550), the bishop was Florius, later a friend of St. Gregory the Great. In 711 Lombard Arians put to death the Catholic bishop of the city, Albertus, and his deacon Britius. Città di Castello is the birthplace of Pope Celestine II (1143-44).

Though the city did not produce any artists of the first rank, the young Raphael painted his Sp[ozalizio (now in Milan) for the city.

[edit] Main sights

The city is mostly built of brick, since it has been found that the local sandstone erodes very rapidly. Its principal monuments include the medieval Palazzo Comunale and a tall thin city tower nearby, the Torre Comunale, also medieval; and the Pinacoteca Comunale, an art museum with mostly Renaissance works, although notable for its external decoration by Giorgio Vasari.

The much reworked cathedral (Duomo), now essentially eighteenth century, has among its treasures an altar-front (paliotto) of chiselled silver dating to the twelfth century, and a crosier of the fifteenth. The Museo del Duomo, or cathedral museum, is famous for the Canoscio hoard, a set of Late Antique silver spoons and plates with Christian motifs.

[edit] Famous inhabitants

Monica Bellucci from Città di Castello, Umbria.

For persons from the city, see People from Città di Castello. In addition, the following are believed to have a local connection, usually through long residence there:

[edit] Frazioni

Antirata, Astucci, Badia di Petroia, Badiali, Barzotti, Baucca San Martino d'Upò, Belvedere, Bisacchi, Bonsciano, Caifirenze, Candeggio, Canoscio, Capitana, Celle, Cerbara, Colcello, Coldipozzo, Cornetto, Croce di Castiglione, Fabbrecce, Fiume, Fraccano, Grumale, Lerchi, Lugnano, Madonna di Canoscio, Montemaggiore, Morra, Muccignano, Palazzone, Petrelle, Piosina, Promano, Rio Secco, Roccagnano, Ronti, Rovigliano, San Leo Bastia, San Lorenzo Bibbiana, San Maiano, San Martin Pereto, San Pietro a Monte, San Secondo, Santa Lucia, Scalocchio, Terme di Fontecchio, Trestina, Uppiano, Userna, Userna Bassa, Valdipetrina, Vallurbana, Vingone, Volterrano.