Historic Evolution
The Period of the Communes
In thirteenth and fourteenth century Umbria, the secular conscience was as strong as the religious spirit.
The political power redesigned its squares in a way they would manifest the pride and power of public institutions, by means of the harmony of space and the monumentality of the buildings.
In Perugia, the marvellous Fontana Maggiore of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, preciously embellishes the square where the grand Palazzo dei Priori and the Duomo are edified. In Gubbio, the ingenuity of medieval urbanity "invents" the Piazza Grande for the Palazzo dei Consoli. In Todi, the Piazza del Popolo is a noble level ground scenario (for the whole city is built on a slope) for three judiciary palazzi and a cathedral.
Refined Gentleman and Cultured Abbots
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the affirmation of pontifical power goes along with the appearance of Lordships: the Trinci in Foligno, the Baglioni in Perugia, the Monaldeschi in Orvieto, the Gabrielli in Gubbio, the Vitelli in Città di Castello.
The cultured and refined lord courts become promoting centres for artists and new ideas. The Trinci had Ottaviano Nelli decorate their palazzo in Foligno, while the Vitelli actually remodelled the entire aspect of Città di Castello, and invited Raphael and Giorgio Vasari to work in the city. Luca Signorelli worked in a centre of Tiferno for the Dominicans before transferring to Orvietoto paint the extraordinary series of frescos of the Last Judgement (started half a century before by Beato Angelico). Pietro Perugino, born in Città della Pieve, is the main character of Umbrian Renaissance. This city created a school and a style destined to mark the figurative Umbrian culture for centuries, influencing also ceramics and carvings. The construction of the grand "tempio della Consolazione", built in Todi at the beginning of the sixteenth century, is of great importance because of its forms, which were influenced by Bramante.
The Pope's granari
From the second half of the XVI century until the nineteenth century Umbria becomes part of the vast Papal State, and consequently its greatest provider of wheat, wine and oil.
While local fair and markets flourished (of which some still exist) during this time, the thriving inter-regional mercantile and artisan economies slowly declined. The relationship between city and country changes also in this period. While in the country large possessions of property are created and sharecropping is established, in urban centres, the new nobility constructs spectacular palazzi as a symbol of the newly acquired wealth. The ecclesiastic hierarchy and its allied aristocracy generously supported art, by importing works and artists from the capital. They embellished towns and churches, even in mountainous areas, which still display amazing mannerism and baroque influences. Like in the case of Amelia, which unexpectedly became in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a centre for late Roman mannerism succeeding in S. Maria degli Angeli near Assisi.
The Industrial Revolution
Between the nineteenth and twentieth century, the dome of the great maul from Terni's Steelworks was the symbol of Umbrian industrial revolution. This is how the myth of the "steel city" or Italy's Manchester was born. Terni was admired for its steel workshops, which many claimed to be "the most beautiful ones in the world".
Today, whatever time and the last war bombings have left of these workshops, are considered monuments of industrial archaeology. Also the great factory worker's neighbourhood, constructed in a rationalist avant-garde style in the beginning decades of the century, falls under this category. Terni is now a new economic centre with highly advanced technologies, like Perugia. Perugia is a service and culture city with two universities that go back to its mediaeval Perugian learning roots.
As a whole, the image of Umbria as a cross path of men and ideas has not changed in time. This region is developing at the international level by means of its immense artistic and civic patrimony, and by its interest in organising cultural manifestations and events. This initiatives are of absolute importance and portray the culture and courage of thousands of years of history.
Source: http://www.umbria2000.it |
