Monteleone di Spoleto
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Monteleone di Spoleto (in Antiquity, the Roman town of Brufa), is a town and comune of Italy, in the province of Perugia in southeast Umbria, (), at 978 meters (3209 ft) above sea-level overhanging the upper valley of the Corno River. It is one of the remoter towns in Umbria, on a mountain road from Norcia and Cascia (33 km and 12 km NNE respectively) to Leonessa and Rieti in the Lazio (10 km S and 51 km SSW).
The population of the comune was 662 according to 2003 census figures, with the town proper accounting for about half of that; the frazioni of Monteleone are Butino, Rescia, Ruscio, and Trivio.
Monteleone, or more precisely Ruscio, is famous for one of the world's great archaeological finds: a 6th‑century BC Etruscan chariot that quickly followed the path of money and by the early 20th century had already wound up in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. A copy of the chariot is on display in Monteleone. There remain, however, few if any traces of the town's Roman days: destroyed and rebuilt by the Spoletans in the 12th century, it offers at present an essentially medieval appearance.
The main monument in Monteleone is the church of S. Francesco, with an attractive cloister now serving as a lapidary museum, an exceptional Gothic door, probably the best in Umbria; and a unique fresco of Christ crucified in the full robes of a bishop, with a loaf of bread under one foot and a chalice of wine under the other. Unusually, under the cloister a second church can be seen, complete with a 14th‑century fresco. Other monuments include several other medieval churches, the 15th‑century Palazzo Bernabò, and vestiges of the town's medieval walls, chief among them the clock tower.
[edit] External links
- Pro Loco (The town's volunteer tourist bureau)
- Archeoambiente
- Bill Thayer's site
The initial text of this article was adapted from Bill Thayer's Gazetteer of Umbria, by permission.
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