Spello

Spello
Country	Italy
region	Umbria
province	Perugia (PG)
Coordinates	42 ° 59 ′ N , 12 ° 40 ′ E Coordinates: 42 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ N , 12 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ E
height	280 m slm
surface	61 km²
Residents	8,464 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	139 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	06038
prefix	0742
ISTAT number	054050
Popular name	Spellani
Patron saint	San Felice (May 18)
Website	www.comune.spello.pg.it
	; Panorama of Spello

Spello is an Italian commune with 8,464 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the province of Perugia in Umbria . The city is a member of the I borghi più belli d'Italia association (The Most Beautiful Places in Italy).

geography

Spello is located 6 km northwest of Foligno and 33 km southeast of the regional and provincial capital Perugia at the foot of the Monte Subasio mountain in the climatic classification of Italian communities in zone D, 2075 GR / G.

The historic center consists of three districts: the southern quarter of Porta Chiusa, the central Mezota and the higher-lying Posterula (or S. Martino).

The districts (frazioni) include Aquatino (204 meters in altitude , approx. 100 inhabitants), Capitan Loreto (223 meters in altitude, approx. 1000 inhabitants), Collepino (600 meters in altitude, approx. 50 inhabitants), and Crocefisso (208 meters in altitude, approx. 60 inhabitants ), Limiti (193 meters in altitude, approx. 100 inhabitants), Ponte Chiona (227 meters in altitude, approx. 200 inhabitants) and San Giovanni (636 meters in altitude, approx. 15 inhabitants).

The neighboring municipalities are Assisi , Bevagna , Cannara , Foligno and Valtopina .

history

Porta Consolare

Originally an independent Umbrian-Etruscan community, the settlement came into being in the 3rd century BC. Under Roman rule and was named Hispellum . 89 BC It was converted into a Municipium . During the time of the triumvirates shortly before the beginning of the occidental era, Hispellum received the title Colonia Julia, which was associated with the granting of Roman citizenship to the residents of the city. After the administrative reform of Augustus, the village belonged to the Regio Sexta of the eleven regions of Italy. Augustus expanded the possession of Hispellum to include large estates, which also included the spring baths of the ancient Umbrian god Clitumnus (today Fonti del Clitumno ) located south of Trevi . Under Augustus, the city wall and several gates were built, some of which have been preserved to this day.

Emperor Constantine donated a temple to the Gens Flavia in honor of his dynastic family and renamed it urbs Flavia Constans . The growing importance of the settlement can also be seen in another ordinance of Constantine from AD 333: the relocation of the annual celebrations of the Fanum Voltumnae to the city. The fanum Voltumnae (sanctuary of the Etrurian deity Voltumna) was originally located in Volsinii (presumably Orvieto ), where the members of the Etrurian city union met every year for their federal assembly.

After the time of the so-called barbarian invasions in the 6th century, Spello came into the possession of the Lombards - Duchy of Spoleto , under whose ruler Faroald I there was a modest economic and cultural boom. In the 12th century Spello was a free, rather Ghibelline minded community - despite the formal affiliation of the Lombard duchy to the Papal States by the " Pippi niche donation ". The cession of the bishopric from 487 to Spoleto in 1130 helped to keep the church's influence on urban matters low. The titular bishopric of Hispellum goes back to this extinct bishopric.

In 1240 the army of Frederick II looted and pillaged the small town during his campaign against the Papal States because it had refused to recognize the imperial authority. Weakened by wars with Assisi and Foligno and torn apart by bitter internal disputes between the urban nobility and the bourgeoisie, Spello joined the more powerful Perugia .

But the settlement did not remain unscathed in the following decades either: in 1529 the city was looted, in 1535 the walls had to be razed. Finally, in 1583, Spello fell completely to the Papal States.

Attractions

Cityscape

Alley in Spello

City walls and fortifications

closed wall ring, the first with a total length of 2 km from the time of the Roman emperor Augustus . The extension with the new construction of the northern city walls took place around 1360.
Parts of the Roman city walls are particularly well preserved in the area of Porta Urbica
Rocca - except for a tower, a few walls and substructures, Cardinal Albornoz's castle has been destroyed

City gates

Porta Urbica - single-arched city gate from Roman times
Porta Consolare - the most important gate of the city, dates from the time of the Roman Republic, in the 16th century with three statues found near the amphitheater
Porta Venere - antique double gates each with three arches and inner courtyard, outer gate with two twelve-sided towers on a square floor plan (partially reconstructed)
Porta Fontevecchia
Porta Montanara - medieval gate at the north end of the wall ring
Arco di Augusto - fragments of the base of a Roman city gate in Via Giulia
Arco dei Cappucini - remains of a Roman gate in the area of the Rocca

Santa Maria Maggiore, Cappella Baglioni , Adoration of the Shepherds by Pinturicchio

Churches and chapels

Cappella Tega - chapel from the 14th century, frescoes by Nicolò Alunno (disputed, 1461)
S. Maria Maggiore - Collegiate Church , completed in 1285 and enlarged in 1644; Cappella Baglioni with frescoes by Pinturicchio (around 1500), in the church frescoes by Perugino (1521), pulpit by Simone da Campione (1545)
S. Andrea - church from 1258; Altarpiece by Pinturicchio (1508, workshop)
S. Lorenzo - Church built around 1120, redesigned several times, with a marble tabernacle by Flaminio Vacca (created in 1589) and the work Storie di S. Lorenzo by Niccolò Circignani (called Il Pomarancio, created in 1567)
S. Maria di Vallegloria - Church and monastery with Romanesque façade ( founded by the Poor Clares around 1320 )
S. Martino - small Romanesque church
Oratorio di S. Biagio - small oratory with frescoes from the 15th and 16th centuries
Convento di Cappuccini - Capuchin monastery ; in the courtyard of the Romanesque facade of the Church of S. Severino (1180)
S. Ventura - Chapel of a pilgrims' hospital, 13th century

Palazzo Comunale, illuminated

Other sights

Palazzo Comunale (Vecchio) - built around 1270, later redesigned, archaeological finds, spoilage and wall paintings in the courtyard and building
Fountain in Piazza Repubblica with the coat of arms of Pope Julius III. , created around 1550
Pinacoteca Civica - municipal art collection, mainly with works from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Outside of Spello

Amphitheater - 1st century AD, only remains preserved
S. Claudio - Romanesque church, late 12th century; Frescoes
S. Maria della Rotonda (also Chiesa Tonda) - central building from 1517, frescoes, substance very neglected

L'infiorata

The festival L'infiorata di Spello takes place on the Italian Corpus Christi weekend. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the streets are decorated with pictures of flowers specially designed for this purpose. All night long, the residents of Spello lay these works of art made of millions of colored flower petals, over which the Corpus Christi procession draws to the church the next day.

L'infiorata
detail
detail
detail

Community partnerships

Italy Italy : Alfonsine , since 1974
Portugal Portugal : Murça , since 2012

sons and daughters of the town

Francesco Vettori (1693–1770), antiquarian, antiquities collector and papal museum curator
Giovanni Benedetti (1917–2017), Roman Catholic Bishop of Foligno
Giovanni Battistelli OFM (1933–2011), Franciscan Father and from 1998 to 2004 Curator of the Holy Land