﻿In this episode we are visiting some spectacular monuments and historic places in the city of
Spoleto in Umbria, Italy. You'll see the ancient bridge and the castle up on the hill overlooking
it. We'll take you inside the castle and show you the historic exhibits from the Middle Ages. The
other great landmark of Spoleto is the Cathedral that dates back to the Romanesque days. We'll
have a visit inside. We'll also go into an ancient house dating back to the Roman days,
and have a look at a Roman arch and a Roman theater,
with a little museum, next to it, showing some artifacts of the ancient Roman life – sculptures,
weapons and jewelry. And meet some students out on a field trip studying their history.
This will be a tour of the monuments, museums, the castle and Cathedral of Spoleto.
We're starting our visit into the past at the great Rocca. It's a castle up on the
hill overlooking the city. Fortunately, you don't have to walk all the way up the hill. There is an
escalator and there is an elevator that will bring you right up. That is a free service
provided by the city of Spoleto. They've got 3 different escalator systems in the old town and
this convenient elevator. It will take you to the top of the hill, which is quite helpful. After all
we're in Umbria, famous for its hill towns like Spoleto. Even on a day when the sun is shining,
conditions can change pretty quickly. Typical of the weather here, sometimes you'll get a little
mist or a fog bank rolling through, but they pass quickly. Then we stepped right into the castle.
The fortress towering above Spoleto is really quite a sight to see.
It's a castle, constructed in the 1360s by the Pope. It only took 10 years to construct it, and
today it's open as a museum of medieval history. It was built by the popes as part of the campaign
to retake the papacy from the Avignon Popes. There was a battle going on in the mid-14th century,
In the great Schism, and several different popes all competing for power. And this fortress
was constructed for of Pope Innocent the 6th and Pope Urban the fifth. And it was the largest of
their strongholds, constructed to win back the papal power. It's at the highest point of the
town. And from here you get some views looking down on the town, and down on the valley below.
The official name of the fortress is Rocca Albornoziana,
named after a Spanish Cardinal Albernoz, who was sent here by the Pope in the 14th century
to construct the castle. He enlisted the services of Gattapone, a famous architect from Umbria who
came and built the fortress, and the bridge behind it that we will be seeing shortly.
The interior is now a museum with many paintings and sculpture and artifacts of the day. For a
while it had been the residence of the duchy, the governors of the city, and papal legates, back in
the 15th century, 16th-century, and some of the interior displays reflect that period. We'll give
you a quick look now at some of the frescoes and artifacts here, most of which date from the late
14th century to the early 17th century. This Byzantine painting has a reliquary on top with
some bones of important religious figure, s preserved as items of worship. It would've hung in
a church. Sarcophagi and tombstones and sculpture also illustrate various religious rituals.
This fortress palace resisted many attacks and it remained well-preserved for centuries,
but gradually fell into decay, and then in 1817 it was turned into a prison until 1983.
And so much of the interior was damaged, but fortunately there was major restorations that have
brought it back somewhat to its former glory. Now it's the National Museum of the Dukes of Spoleto,
and you walk through the 15 halls on both levels. And then outside you can see some of the
interesting nearby buildings, along with some more views looking down into the city. There is a small
admission charge to go into the fortress, but it's free to walk around on the outside of it to admire
the exterior of these very old structures. Then take a walk on the outside path that goes all the
way around the fortress. This walk is the famous "giro della Rocca." It goes for one kilometer all
the way around the castle, and it's really one of the most charming promenades in town. Ponte
delle Torri will be your great reward for taking this walk. You just go past the castle gateway
and walk along the road for a little while, a 100 meters or so. It gets a little misty sometimes up
here. The walkway is level, and you'll go around the bend, you'll see there's a nice café on the
corner with some outdoor tables with a view. Blazing fall colors still visible here during
our visit, which was in the month of November. When you walk around the bend you are going to get
a view of one of the largest stone constructions of the ancient age, it's Ponte delle Torri. It's a
bridge that provided a major access route into the city of Spoleto and it was also an aqueduct. Ponte
delle Torri was built in the 13th century, and the architect built it on top of the foundations of an
earlier ancient Roman bridge. This medieval bridge is really an incredible engineering feat. It's
80 meters high above the valley floor and the bridge spans 230 meters. It's huge!
The bridge reaches across the ravine, linking the fortress with the slopes of the Monteluco
mountain. On the far and you see the tower of a smaller fortress. Two columns in the middle are
hollow inside. See two small windows for what had probably been the rooms of a guardhouse,
and those of the tallest columns, reaching down to the stream. You see how it functioned both
as a bridge, with this walkway, and also as an aqueduct on top of the wall bringing water from
the hill into the city. Normally it's possible to walk across the bridge freely, no charge. However,
unfortunately, there was a minor earthquake a few years ago, after I photographed these scenes,
and that destabilized the bridge, so that pedestrians are no longer allowed.
Repairs are delayed and they're hoping that it might reopen by the year 2025. But now you
can still enjoy the views of the outside of the bridge. The view looking back from Monteluco hill
is most spectacular, with the bridge in the foreground and the fortress rising up on the hill
behind. In addition to appreciating the grandeur of Ponte delle Torri, you will enjoy the beautiful
countryside all around it. You're going to see thousands of olive trees covering the hillside,
and there are some hiking trails that you can take on the other side of Monteluco.
When you come back around in front of the fortress you'll get more of those beautiful views looking
down at the city. There is a number of churches, of course, with their towers standing high.
We will be visiting one of them towards the end of the program,
San Gregorio Maggiore. You can go back downhill the same way, using those escalators if you like,
but it's actually a very short walk that we're taking now from the fortress to the Cathedral.
It's called the Duomo of Santa Maria Assunta. It was built in the Romanesque style between
the years 1175 and 1227. The interior evolved over the centuries with a mix of Renaissance
and Baroque style, with many important works of art, featuring sculpture, painting and beautiful
architectural details. Behind the altar are the most important paintings in all of Spoleto,
featuring stories of the Virgin. Her coronation, the Annunciation, Nativity scene, and the Death
of the Virgin. It's the final masterpiece of Filippo Lippi, who died here while painting
these frescoes – buried here in a tomb designed by his son Filippino Lippi. Pinturicchio painted
the Madonna and Child with Saints, and many other artists are represented here, such as a Annibale
Carracci and Bernini. Next to the Cathedral is an attached ecclesiastical building with two
levels of loggia. The Cathedral's front porch or portico features a geometric tile floor and sturdy
columns. The Cathedral façade includes statues of bees, the symbol of the Barberinis, the noble
family who promoted the renovation of the Duomo in the 17th century. The grand piazza out front
is sometimes a setting for major outdoor concerts. And there's this elegant stairway leading away,
called the via dell' Arringo, which leads us to some lanes bringing us to our next destination,
the Roman House, Casa Romana. It dates to the beginning of the first century,
and it was discovered by archaeologists in 1885 – quite amazing to have a Roman house with this
quality of preservation still standing. You'll see rooms with barrel vaulted ceilings made of brick
and original floors with mosaic tile patterns. It's believed that this house belong to the
mother of the ancient Roman Emperor Vespasian, who built the Coliseum. The house remained
in use continuously all away up through the early medieval period, when it was probably partially
destroyed by a fire, and further damaged by some construction in the vicinity. But it has been
restored so well you feel like you're walking back 2000 years into an original Roman house. A few
blocks away, just beyond the main market square is another great Roman structure, the Arch of Druso
and Germanico, dating from the year 23 A.D. It's on a busy little street with two-way traffic going
right through it. Notice the existing street level on the right side and then down below,
the original Roman level, with paving. It's a cross-section in time showing how levels rise
with dirt coming in and subsequent constructions. The arch was built in honor of the adopted son of
the Emperor Tiberius. It's not the only arch in the neighborhood because just around the corner
we got the Arch of Monterone, another one of the five main gate into the ancient Roman city.
A similar pattern of smaller arches is found in many Spoleto streets, connecting buildings
and stabilizing them. This street leads to the archaeological museum, with extensive
Roman remains, including the ancient theater that was built in the first century BC. The theater
is still used for performances and plays today, thanks to some renovations and stabilizing work
that's been done. The semicircular flat area in front was the orchestra with premier seats,
with some of the original polychrome marble floor still preserved. The Romans used the theater until
the 4th century, and then in the early Middle Ages it was converted into a jail and then later,
was taken over by the Benedictine nuns and became part of the monastery's cloister. Rediscovered
in 1891, it was brought back to life through archaeological excavations between 1954 and 1960.
Your ticket to the adjacent museum also provides access to the theater, where you can
freely walk around and through these arcades and tunnel passageways. It's almost like
stepping back into ancient Rome itself, with this is immersive experience. The museum has
a number of finds that were discovered with the excavations in and around Spoleto and the region,
including statues, busts, inscriptions, vases, household items, tombstones with carved script
identifying the date and person buried. Display boards and labels help you understand what you're
looking at. The exhibits are in several rooms with hundreds of items, of course with lots of
pottery the basic vessel of storage and cooking, and there's a loom showing how they wove fabric.
There are architectural fragments, and you get a nice view looking out the window down at the
Roman theater. Spoleto has many fine churches worth visiting, such as Chiesa San Domenico,
which opened in the 14th century. One of Spoleto's most important churches is San Gregorio Maggiore.
It was built between the 11th and 12th centuries. Originally built in the Romanesque style, there
has been some long-lasting transformations and restorations of the original lines,
and renovated in the 16th and 18th centuries, but still it reflects the influence of the Longobard
Romanesque architecture. There is an impressive series of frescoes along the wall on the left
aisle depicting the Madonna and Child with several saints, created in the 14th century. Three arches
form the portico of the 16th century façade. Now we are heading towards the final monuments of the
program. We're walking along via dell' Anfiteatro, to the old medieval wall that still goes around
this part of the town. Looking from above you'll see the church tower of San Gregorio Maggiore in
the background, and the wall in the foreground. It protected the town from attack, and flooding
of the nearby river. Its massive size shows this was a fortified wall, and it has slits in it
for firing out with your cross bows to repel the enemy in those perilous days of the Middle Ages.
Even more amazing here, are the remains of the ancient Roman amphitheater – dates back
to the 2nd century A.D. The oval structure is a smaller version of the Roman Coliseum. You can see
the rough outline in the aerial view from Google Earth. Not open to the public, It has not yet been
restored. At the end I ran into a group of local school kids looking at it on a history field trip.
(kids talk and
laugh)
We have other movies about Spoleto covering walking tours in the pedestrian zone in the
heart of the Old Town. Be sure to look for them in our collection. We frequently upload new movies,
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have questions about the destination, make note and we will answer them. Thanks for watching