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Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Citta di Castello
Citta di Castello
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Citta 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, when its ancient name of Tifernum. The city lies North from Perugia 46 kilometers and South from Cesena 104 kilometers on the S3bis. It is connectet to the A1 Rome-Florence Highway by the SS 73 from Arezzo.
In 550 it was took and largely destroyed during the Ostrogothic campaign by Fantalogus, by order of king Totila. The town was subsequently rebuilt around a castle, and hence renamed first Castrum Felicitatis and later Civitas Castelli.
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 Citta di Castello joined in the insurrection of other cities of the States of the Church. Cardinal Robert of Geneva, undertook to recapture it with Breton mercenaries, but was repulsed.
Towards the end of the 20th century, the city has seen a considerable expansion northwards toward S. Giustino, with industrial parks tracking the river, railroad and main highway area produces farm machinery, textiles, ceramics and furnishings. The city is mostly 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 Vasari.
The much reworked cathedral, essentially 18th century, is a noble monument of architecture, and has among its treasures an altar-front of chiselled silver dating back 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 tableware with Christian motifs.
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