Last minute Itinerari Pietralunga

The town Pietralunga

Dipped in the green of its hills, Pietralunga dominates from the hish one of its 550 meters of altitude the valley on the river Carpinella. The antiquity of its origin is testified by the recovery of an Etruscan "Flute on human tibia", and today preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Perugia. The city plant reveals evidently its medieval nature, which central body is constituted by the Rocca Longobarda, a castle erect around the VIII century, of which remains an imposing pentagonal plant tower.

Exploiting a part of the Longobard fortification, between 1498 and 1502 on commission of Mons. Giulio Vitelli, the actual City-hall was built as centre of representation. From the beginning of the XVII century it was used by the members of the Sacred Order of the Malta Knights, to become than in the 1888 centre of the City-hall.

Close to the City-hall it's erected the Pieve di Santa Maria, built in the VIII-IX century, which possesses a refined façade and a precious portal in Romanesque style. In its inside they are preserved: a fresco of the "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastiano", attributed to Raffaellino del Colle, one among the brightest followers of Rafael in Umbria and the copy of the Polittico of Ottaviano Nelli, artist from Gubbio, which original is located in Perugia at the National Gallery of Umbria.

Not too far from Pietralunga, about 12 kilometres, there's Pieve de' Saddi to three aisles in rectangular plant and semicircular apse. It's a magnificent example of palaeo-Christian Basilica, enriched from an elegant tower of the IX century. In the inside there is a crypt where the body of San Crescenziano was guarded, represented in the action to kill the dragon in a bas-relief of the VIII century situated above the left staircase.