PERUGIA, a city of Italy, the chief town of the province of Perugia (formerly Umbria), lies 1550 feet above the sea on a beautiful and green-clad hill, which affords a magnificent view over a wide sweep of the Apennines and the great Umbrian plain through which the Tiber flows. The railway station at the foot of the ascent, more than a mile from the city-gate, is 48^ miles south-east of Arezzo and 152 miles north of Rome. The walls, which follow a very irregular ground-plan, have a circuit of 8300 yards, and the length from Sant’ Angelo in the north-west to Porta San Costanzo in the south-east is 2500 yards. Of the forty-two towers which could be counted in the 14th •century only three or four—the Torre degli Scalzi, &c.— remain; but away from the line of the present enceinte there are several relics of the ancient Etruscan and Roman fortifications, notably the so-called arch of Augustus, a magnificent gateway in the Piazza Grimana, with the ancient inscription Avgvsta Pervsia on the archivolt and a beautiful Renaissance loggia boldly crowning one of its towers. The Cittadella Paolina—a great fortress erected by Paul III. on a site previously occupied by ten churches, two monasteries, the palaces of the Baglioni, and a number of private houses—was destroyed by the citizens in 1848, and its place has been partly taken by a substantial block of public offices (the museum, <fcc.). In modern Perugia the great centre of interest is the Piazza del Duomo at the north end of the Corso. On one side stands the cathedral of San Lorenzo, a Gothic structure of the 14th and 15th centuries, in the plan of a Latin cross; on the other side is the Palazzo Pubblico, presenting a fine Gothic façade of the first half of the 14th century with the figures of the Perugian griffin ...and the Guelf lion above the outside stair; and in the centre rises the great marble fountain constructed about 1277 by Bevignate, Frate Alberto (both Perugians), and Boninsegna (a Venetian), and adorned by statues and statuettes sculptured by Niccolò and Giovanni Pisano. The cathedral contains the burialplace of the three popes, Innocent III., Urban IV., and Martin 1V., and a reputed relic of great celebrity in Italy— the Virgin’s wedding-ring; and at the north-west corner, in the Piazza del Papa, is a sitting statue of Pope Julius III. by Vincenzio Danti, erected about 1555 by the people of Perugia in gratitude for the restoration of their civic privileges. On the decoration of the Sala del Cambio or old exchange, contiguous to the Palazzo Pubblico, Perugino (q.vf) put forth the full force of his genius. Most of the movable paintings for which Perugia is famous have since 1863 been collected in the Pinacoteca Vannucci, established in the same Monte Morcino monastery of the Olivetans which now accommodates the university; besides a considerable number of pieces by Perugino, there are specimens of Pinturicchio, Niccolò Alunno, Bonfigli, <fcc. This centralization has somewhat impaired the interest of several of the churches; but others remain with undiminished -wealth. San Domenico, a Gothic edifice originally designed by Giovanni Pisano, but rebuilt in 1632, contains that artist’s magnificent monument of Pope Benedict XI., and in its east front a beautiful stained-glass window by Bartolommeo da Perugia. San Pietro de’ Casinensi (outside the Porta Romana) is a basilica with a triple nave, founded in the beginning of the 11th century by Vincioli, and remarkable for its conspicuous spire, its granite and marble columns, its walnut stall-work designed by Raphael, and its numerous pictures (by Perugino, Parmigiano, Raphael, <fcc.). The Chiesa Nuova (formerly San Giovanni
Rotondo) possesses the tombs of Baldassare Ferri, the Perugian musician, and Vermiglioli, the leading Perugian antiquary. The university, which is not one of the “royal universities,” though it dates from 1307 and has faculties of law, science, and medicine, numbers only seventy-nine students (1881-82). Other educational and benevolent institutions are a botanical garden, a meteorological observatory, a commercial library founded in 1582 by Prospero Podiani, the Santa Margherita lunatic asylum, and the hospital of Santa Maria. Woollens, silks, wax candles, and liqueurs are manufactured on a small scale. The population of the city was 16,708 in 1871, and 17,395 in 1881; that of the commune 49,503 and 51,354 respectively.
À notice of ancient Perugia (Perusia) has been given under Etruria, vol. viii. p. 635. After the disasters of the Perugian war (41 b.c. ) the city was rebuilt by Augustus and took the title Augusta; and at a later date it became a regular colony, Colonia Vibia. Its recovery from the Goths by Belisarius in 537, its protracted siege and sack by Totila (549), its restoration to the Eastern empire by Narses in 552, and its long occupation by the Lombards are the main points in the history of Perugia previous to the 9th century. At that time, with the consent of Charles the Great and Louis the Pious, it passed under the supremacy of the popes; but for many centuries the papal authority existed rather in name than in reality, and the city continued to maintain an independent and enterprising life, warring against its enemies and subduing many of the neighbouring lands and cities,—Foligno, Assisi, Spoleto, Montepulciano, &c. It remained true for the most part to the Guelfs. On various occasions the popes found a personal asylum within its walls, and it was the meeting - place of the conclaves which elected Honorius II. (1124), Honorius IV. (1285.), Celestine V. (1294), and Clement V. (1305). But Perugia had no mind simply to subserve the papal interests. At the time of Rienzi’s unfortunate enterprise it sent ten ambassadors to pay him honour; and, when papal legates sought to coerce it by foreign soldiery, or to exact contributions, they met with vigorous resistance. In the 15th century the real power, after passing from despot to despot, was at last concentrated in the Baglioni family, who, though they had no legal position as rulers or magistrates, defied all other authority, and filled the streets of the city with their broils and butcheries. Gian Paolo Baglioni was lured to Rome in 1520, and beheaded by Leo X.; and in 1534 Rodolfo, who had slain a papal legate, was defeated by Pier Luigi Farnese, and the city, captured and plundered by his soldiery, was deprived of its privileges and given over to the “worse tyranny of priests and bastards.” In 1797 Perugia was occupied by the French; in 1832, 1838, and 1854 it was visited by earthquakes; in May 1849 it was seized by the Austrians; and, after a futile insurrection in 1859, it was finally united, along with the delegation, to Piedmont in 1860.
See B. Rossi Scotti, Guida di Perugia ; Bonazzi, Storia di Perugia (1875, &c.); J. A. Symonds, Sketches in Greece and Italy (1874).
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