Umbertide () is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (township) of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, in the

province of Perugia The Province of Perugia ( it, Provincia di Perugia) is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia. The province covered al ...

and in northwestern

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, at the confluence of the Reggia river and the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest List of rivers of Italy, river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where ...

. It is 30 km (19 mi) North of

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

and 20 km (12 mi) South of

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north of ...

. With 16,607 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, Umbertide is one of the larger towns of Umbria; and basically flat. It is an industrial center producing machine tools, textiles, packaging material, and ceramics. Olive oil is produced, especially in Pierantonio and in its southwestern part.

Economy

Umbertide is an important centre of automotive factories. There is the headquarters of Tiberina holding, a car components group. Other important companies are Proma, Modulo and

Terex Terex Corporation is an American worldwide manufacturer of lifting and material-handling plant for a variety of industries including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, recycling, energy, mining, shipping, transportation, refining and ut ...

Genie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

History

Umbertide or the surrounding area was inhabited in pre-

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and Roman times. At the top of Monte Acuto has been discovered an umbrian fortification ("castelliere").
The nineteenth‑century archaeologist Mariano Guardabassi even attributed a small building at Lame, about 1 km from the center of the modern town, to the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

, although this is by no means certain The Roman town of ''Pitulum Mergens'', destroyed by

Totila Totila, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of the Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the t ...

in the mid-6th century, may account for Roman remains in S. Maria delle Sette. In its present incarnation, Umbertide was founded in the 8th or 10th century, depending on the scholar; its original name was Fratta, and it received its present name in 1863 in honor of then Crown Prince Umberto and of Uberto or Umberto

margrave of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

, whose four sons, Adalberto, Ingilberto, Benedetto and Bonifacio, according to tradition, rebuilt the town in 796 on the ruins of ''Pitulum Mergens''.

Main sights

Although there are remains of the medieval walls, a few medieval houses, and part of the Rocca of Umbertide, or citadel, many of Umbertide's best monuments are of later periods. *Churches **'' Santa Maria della Reggia'' is the main church in town, a collegiate church often referred to simply as the ''Collegiata'': it is an octagonal 16th century brick building topped by an elegant cupola, housing a few paintings by Niccolò Circignani. ** ''Santa Maria della Pietà'' with the attractive funerary chapel of the counts of Sorbello, is late medieval and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

church. ** ''Santa Croce'' is a 17th‑century church, now housing a painting gallery, including a ''Deposition'' by

Luca Signorelli Luca Signorelli ( – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–15 ...

. ** ''San Francesco'' is the largest church, built in

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...

: in the early 21st century it was undergoing a major restoration that promised to be protracted. **''Cristo Risorto'' twentieth‑century church. Beyond the city limits, the township's principal monuments are: *Castle of Civitella Ranieri, 5 km (3 mi) NE, one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Umbria. *Abbey of S. Salvatore di Montecorona 4 km (2.5 mi) S, which has a beautiful eleventh‑century crypt with early Romanesque capitals and naïve 18th century painted ceilings. * Castle of Polgeto, a medieval structure *Abbey church of S. Bartolomeo de' Fossi, sited on a sharp ridge with distant views on either side * Borgo Santa Giuliana: a walled medieval village of

References

External links

Official Site
''(Incorporates text from Bill Thayer's site, by permission.)''
{{authority control Archaeological sites in Umbria Etruscan sites Cities and towns in Umbria Castles in Italy