Itinerary
1:
Cortona
(11 km - 15 Minuts)
Cortona’s
origins are lost in the mists of time: its foundation goes
back to the mythical times of Dardanus, whose name is still
carried by one of the city’s most important streets.
The hero subsequently moved to the Asian region of Pontus
where he founded Troy and started a lineage which in later
times was with Aeneas, an exile of the war told by Homer,
to travel back to the Italian shores and give birth to the
city of Rome, whose imperial glory held sway over the world
and whose first emperor, Julius Caesar, would have the nobleness
of his Gens Iulia date back to Aeneas’s son Iulo.
Villanovian civilization and Iron age settlements were also
confirmed to exist on the topmost part of the Cortona hill.
Moving
on to historical times for which greater evidence is available
the Etruscan times definitely played an important role for
the city: a cyclopean stone wall is still to be seen in
some parts of the city though much of it was altered in
medieval and Renaissance times. Cortona soon took on a very
important role within the Etruscan world and was deservedly
chosen as one of the twelve city-states ( called Lucumonies),
that is the most influential cities forming the Etruscan
League. Altough Cortona never grew to be militarily equal
to other neighbouring cities such as Chiusi, Orvieto or
Perugia, it still enjoyed unparalleled importance as a sacred
and religious centre. Extremely significant archaeological
finds were made in the burial sites recently unearthed and
located at the foot of the hill upon which Cortona is sited.
A sensation was caused by a number of recent finds such
as the golden furnishings of the Melone II of Sodo tomb
and the Tabula Cortonensis, a bronze plate made with a lost
wax casting technique whose inscriptions rate amongst the
most significant for the study of the Etruscan language
and civilization.
With the decline of the Etruscan civilization Cortona too
was caught up in the expansion of the Roman Empire. Romans
rationalised the “within the walls” city-layout
and oriented the city-streets on the cardus-decumanus axis,
still visible to this day, which perpendicularly crossed
into the city forum. Today, the ancient Cardus-axis, oriented
north to south, runs along Via Dardano and Via Guelfa whereas
the Decumanus-axis, oriented east to west, includes Via
Roma and Via Nazionale (locally known as “Rugapiana”).
What once was the forum is today Piazza della Repubblica,
where the Palazzo del Comune stands tall. In Roman times
Cortona mainly played a role of strategic control over the
rich Valdichiana, which used to be one of Rome’s most
important granaries. During the second Punic War Hannibal
travelled through the Valdichiana on his descent to the
hated Rome wreaking havoc on the crops and thus drawing,
in the year 217 B.C., Consul Flaminius’s legions to
one of the worst defeats the Urbis ever suffered: the Trasimeno
battle. Cortona witnessed from its high perch the complete
annihilation of the legions as they were ambushed while
chasing after the Cartaginians in the Trasimeno Lake area
and the very same Flaminius was killed as Titus Livius and
Plutarcus recounted.
Moving from Roman to medieval times Cortona rose, after
a brief period of decadence due to the upheaval following
the fall of the Western Roman Empire, to new life and splendour
in its golden period, the medieval communal period. The
lack, in central and northern Italy, of a strong central
power, like that of Rome used to be, caused a host of towns
of all sizes, which were later to gain full recognition
and independence from higher authorities, to thrive and
bring about a completely new local self-governance system
deriving its power from the lower ranks, based on economy
and trade and claiming a place within a then seigniory-ruled
world. Towns like Cortona thrived, coined their own coinage,
built new palaces, like the original core of the Palazzo
Comunale, to better administer their newly acquired power
and converted the old roman urban layout into a structure
that better complied with the new defensive needs: the old
cardus and decumanus took on a curvier course and were remoulded
into a spiral-like structure so as to allow defenders to
be more protected in case of attack; part of the Etruscan
walls came to surface again. The military importance of
Cortona, from communal times all the way to the Renaissance
period, may well be witnessed by the positions the town
adopted towards the neighbouring towns. This medium-sized
Ghibelline town challenged several times the Guelph city
of Arezzo into open war, succeeded in breaking through its
walls in 1232 and was in turn pillaged by aretinian invaders
in 1248. This was just a moment of transition in the town’s
history which certainly does not cast a shadow over the
significance the town was to take on in that period from
a religious and mystical point of view: St. Francis who
laid the first stone of the original core of the Eremo delle
Celle, a convent located right outside the town walls in
a secluded and blessed place and a twin of the assisian
convent of Le Carceri; Frate Elia, St. Francis’s first
disciple and after his death the General of the Order, was
born in Cortona and here built the church of St. Francis.
St. Leo the Great was originally from the Cortona area and
finally St. Margaret, born in the Siena area and later adopted
by the town when, the widow of a nobleman from Montepulciano,
she was thrown out of native Laviano and came as a penitent
woman to Cortona where she catered for the poor and the
needy. She was very much loved in Cortona, was considered
a saint in life and an example for everyone for her extreme
fasts and penances, performed miracles and founded the first
hospital of the Misericordia. Her incorrupt body was enshrined
ever since her death (1297) and is to this day worshipped
by the faithful in the namesake Basilica overlooking town.
The Cortonese still attribute the town’s welfare throughout
earthquakes and wars to the Saint’s devotion.
With the ascent to power of the Casali dynasty, which was
to last for 84 years, Cortona too enjoyed, starting from
1325, its Seigniory years during which a number of famed
artists such as Beato Angelico started working in Cortona.
The Casali dynasty was ousted in 1409 through a popular
uprising which handed over the power to king Ladislaus of
Naples who, in turn, sold the town and its territory for
60000 gold florins to the Florentine Republic; Cortona lost
thus its independence and followed since the fate and was
subject to the influence of Florence. From 1531, with the
ascent to power in Florence of the Medici family, Cortona
too made its entrance into the Renaissance and pursued its
artistic and cultural rise as a political and strategic
centre due to its proximity to Arezzo and Siena on the on
side and the Pontifical state on the Lake Trasimeno side.
During the Medici period the town’s urban layout was
once again revised and some of the medieval suburbs were
torn down to be replaced by new renaissance defensive structures
after the fashion of a number of fortifications Antonio
da Sangallo had built for other Medici towns adjusting existing
structures to the changed defensive needs bound up with
the massive introduction of fire-arms. And so the medieval
walls were restyled and fortified with ramparts built by
the town gates and the Girifalco fortress was completely
built over on plans by Antonio da Sangallo. Cortona, though,
was not embellished only by military architecture but also
by the works of some of the greatest artists in history
such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the architect of the
extraordinary church of Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio,
and other locally born artists such as Luca Signorelli and
Pietro Berrettini (also known as “Il Cortona”)
which were later to come to international fame. Works by
these artists may be viewed in the two remarkable town museums,
the Museo Diocesano and the Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca
or by simply visiting churches and palaces.
In later times Cortona, though losing more and more political
independence, never ceased to be a vital cultural centre;
Cortona fully lived the Enlightenment period which culminated
in the foundation in 1726 of the Accademia Etrusca, an institute
still active to this day in the systematic and methodical
study of Italian antiquities which managed to create an
exchange and research environment which measured up to the
Florentine academies. After the demise, in 1737, of the
last Medici Cortona cast its fate with the rest of Tuscany
and came under the governance of a branch of the Austrian
Lorraine family. Under the Lorraine, following on the footsteps
of the enlightened Medici, Tuscany was governed in an extremely
liberal and reforming way, death penalty was abolished for
the first time in the world, the Valdichiana swamps were
reclaimed and civil life and trade were fostered. This was
a new thriving period for the town which was to put its
goods on display before the obscurantism of the Pontifical
State.
As the 19th century and the Italian “Risorgimento”
came along Cortona, still in the footsteps of the rest of
Tuscany, joined the Italian Kingdom in 1860 and became later
one of Italy’s largest municipal territories. With
the annexation of the town to the Italian Kingdom the artistic
inspiration of Cortona did not, however, run out: here was
born in 1883 one of the greatest artists belonging to the
Futurism movement, Gino Severini, who, after being expelled
from all the schools in the Kingdom for trying to steal
some exam papers, fled to France where he developed his
art. Still to be seen in town amongst Severini’s works
are number of paintings preserved in a special section of
the Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca, the superb mosaic
tabernacles of the Via Crucis leading from Piazza Garibaldi
(previously known as “Carbonaia”) all the way
up to the Basilica of Santa Margherita, and the magnificent
mosaic façade of the church of ST. Marc.
Events:
o Steak Festival (15 August)
o Antique Fair (September)
o Copperware Fair (March)
o Joust of the Archidado (April)
o Tuscan Sun Festival (August – September)
The
Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca
The
Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca, housed in the premises
of Palazzo Casali, the ancient residence of the Casali family
in the 14th century, can offer its guests a wealth of unique
and impressive collections which place it, despite its reduced
dimensions, in the same league as some of Italy’s
most notable museums.
The Museum was created little after the foundation of the
Accademia Etrusca, which it is an offshoot of, and was enriched
throughout the centuries thanks to donations and the findings
made in the Cortona territory.
Collections range from the Egyptian collection assembled
in the 19th century by Mons. Corbelli, including mummies
and sacred furnishings dating to the intermediate period
dynasty, to the Etruscan collection featuring unique pieces
such as the Lampadario di Bronzo (Bronze Lamp) to which
the golden furnishings found in the Melone II of Sodo burials
and the Tabula Cortonensis, a bronze plate made with a lost
wax casting technique whose inscriptions rate amongst the
most significant for the study of the Etruscan language
and civilization, were recently added. The museum also features
roman collections, a number of paintings by Luca Signorelli
and Pietro Berrettini and the Gino Severini collection.
The Accademia Etrusca also includes, on the lower floors,
a rich library housing over 22000 volumes, 1172 parchments,
633 manuscripts and 133 incunabula amongst which stands
out the Laudario Cortonese, one of the first and oldest
collections of religious chants in the Italia language.
The
Museo Diocesano
The
Museo Diocesano, housed in the historic 16th century premises
of the church and oratory “del Gesù”,
located across from the Cortona Cathedral, offers the visitor
a gallery rich in unique works of art and featuring fine
architectural and decorative details. In the museum are
housed a handful of absolute masterpieces such as the large
panel of the Annunciazione by Beato Angelico works by artists
which carried out work in Cortona such as Pietro Lorenzetti,
Bartolomeo della Gatta, Luca Signorelli and his school and
preparatory cartoons for the Via Crucis by Gino Severini.
The museum also includes a unique as well as rich collection
of ecclesiastical furnishings and sacred jewellery coming
from various churches of the territory and bearing witness
to the important role the Cortonese Diocese played throughout
the centuries ever since it was instituted in 1325. Particularly
interesting is the winding alleyway named “Via del
Gesù” running alongside the museum and still
preserving its peculiar medieval character with houses featuring
projecting upper floors resting on wooden rafters.
Itinerary
1:
Cortona
(11 km - 15 Minuts) |
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