Last minute Itinerari Gubbio

All of what there's to see in Gubbio

From via Perugina, descending in Piazza Quaranta Martiri, conjunction point and of link of the different streets that bring to Gubbio. The tour can begin from the adjacent St. Francis Church, sets on its right side to delimit the circumference of the square. The building is refined and elegant, built in the XIII century, perhaps work of the architect Frà Bevignate. The church is the point of arrival of the Franciscan Path of the Peace, that departing from Assisi and passing for Valfabbrica, arrives to the place in which St. Francis was welcomed by the Spadalonga family that hosted him after the escape from the native city and the renounce of   family goods. The tradition wants that the family Spadalonga gave to the Saint of Assisi a tunic to wear after he had put off the rich dresses, which became subsequently the typical Franciscan habit. This tradition is the most believable, since in the apse situated in the right part that welcomes the Chapel of St. Francis, have been recovered the rests of the native house of the family Spadalonga, protagonist of the episode. The apse of left is important for the rich frescos that decorate it, works of the painter Ottaviano Nelli, famous interpreter of the Gothic style. Annexed to the church there's the Convent of St. Francis, inside which opens a Cloister, a suggestive environment.

From the opposite side of the Piazza Quaranta Martiri stands the Loggia dei Tiratori. This ancient place was the location of the Wool Corporation and built toward the end of the 5^th Century. The building is the result of the elevated development that the workmanship of the wool had reached in Gubbio, when the cloth produced was exported all over the world. The proper centre of the Tiratori is the exterior open gallery, where, after having been coloured, the cloths were stretched in the sun. The interior part of the Loggia is occupied by the hospital and the Church of Santa Maria dei Laici (said also "of the Whites").

Leaving back the open gallery on the left, facing the slope of Via della Repubblica, after few meters on the left we enter in Piazza San Giovanni, where the San Giovanni Church rises, built in the XIII century, from the sober and elegant façade with a mighty bell tower in Romanesque style.

Down back to Via della Repubblica to continue up to the end and arriving in Piazza della Signoria, where Palazzo dei Consoli stately and mighty dominates the whole city. It's certainly one of the wonder of the Italian Middle Ages, of insuperable elegance and beauty, from the high of its strategic position dominates the city and the whole surrounding panorama. Palazzo dei Consoli, as well as the opposite square and Palazzo Pretorio, was commissioned in 1321by the Judges of the city, destined to become the political fulcrum of the urban centre. The selected place for these buildings introduced however numerous problems because of the narrow space and the steep nature of the ground. The adopted solution is quite visible: the buildings were set on a hanging square supported by ample arcades as base and support for the buildings. Palazzo dei Consoli has the form of a rectangular parallelepiped from the solid Romanesque plant, but underlines proper features of Gothic style, clues of the future research that will take place in the Renaissance. Inside the Building is prepared Civic Museum, where, besides the Picture-Gallery, in which marvellous paintings can be admired, and where are also preserved the Eugubine Tables, which contains an ample and detailed description of the social and religious life of the Umbrians, in Umbrian, Latin and Etruscan languages.

From Piazza della Signoria, keeping on ascending, entering in Via Ducale and toward left, up to when it does appear the Palazzo Ducale, pearl of the Renaissance settled among the medieval treasures. The Building is dated around the second halves the XV century, wanted by the duke of Urbino Federico di Montefeltro, born in Gubbio, who was invited in the city by its fellow citizens tired of bishop Gabriello Gabrielli's dominion. In the intentions of Federico the architect, Laurana had to repeat in Gubbio the pomp of the Urbino's buildings, but the construction was completed by another illustrious artist of that epoch, Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Close to the Palazzo Ducale there's the Duomo, built in the XII century on wish of the bishop of Gubbio Sant'Ubaldo, subsequently to a dreadful fire that damaged the city. The façade is simple and bare, while the inside is rich and bright, composed by a team of ample ogival arcs.

Crossing Via della Catterdale, the road that departs where Via Ducale finishes, after some hundred meters turning to the left up to reach Via dei Consoli and to cross it, you reach Piazza San Martino. Here there's the San Domenico Church, from the incomplete medieval façade built in 1186. The inside contains frescos of one among the brightest students of Rafael, the "Virgin with Child", of Raffaellino del Colle, while of Ottavianos Nelli are the "Histories of San Pietro and San Vincent Ferrari."

Now you have to go back a section of street, to again return in Via dei Consoli up to when the street doesn't open on the Palazzo del Bargello to the feet of which the Fontana dei Matti is found. Palazzo del Bargello is a construction of the communal period, an admirable example of Gothic style applied to the civil architecture. The building was destined to entertain authority that administered the city police. The fountain of the 1500 belongs to the local folklore and since according to the tradition, anyone turns three times of run around it is considered citizen of Gubbio and "worthy" to receive the licence of "crazy". Crossing Via Baldassini and passing under Piazza della Signoria at the end of which the road takes the name of Via Savelli della Porta, which ends in front of the Church of Santa Maria Nuova. Its construction has roots in the XV century, the façade is sober but embellished by an unusual Gothic portal trilobate, decentralised on the left part. Inside you can visit the wooden Sarcophagus in which the body of Sant'Ubaldo was contained.

The tour of the civil and religious monuments contained inside the walls of boundaries ends with the visit of the Church of San Pietro, attainable going down in Via Nelli and continuing in Via Armanni, until you arrive in Piazza San Pietro, which takes the name from the homonym church. The native construction is of the XI century, but suffered remaking in the XIII and XVI century, while the whole building probably rises above the rests of an ancient pagan temple, as the stones set to its base allow to suppose. Inside it entertains two refined masterpieces of wooden inlay of the end of 1500, applied to the huge organ and the marvellous greater altar, work of Maffei brothers.

Not too far from the boundaries, surrounded by a green lawn, is situated the ancient Roman Theater, work of the I century B.C., but completed probably in the I century A.C., as it's deduced by a registration that points out in Satrio Rufo the promoter of the restoration. The spectacular complex clarifies the greatness and the importance reached at that epoch from Gubbio, which was founded in a privileged position towards Rome, especially in virtue of the alliance pact tightened in the 295 B.C. The structures have notable dimensions, with a diameter of the quarry of 70 meters, could contain up to 15.000 spectators. Currently is used as suggestive summer frame for shows and great theatrical representations.

From the top of the Ingino Mount, the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo extends its influence on Gubbio and on the whole underlying valley, tutelary of the city, essential reference of the popular devotion in honour of which every year is celebrated the Corsa dei Ceri. The Basilica is also the point of arrival of the party, and it is also the place in which the body of Sant'Ubaldo is guarded, remained intact during the centuries. In its inside they find suitable set-up the Ceri, to rest for the whole year and waiting for moving to the city for the Run. It's definitively the symbol place of Gubbio, that contains deep meant that firmly ties the social fabric.