) Balestieri with their banner |
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) Palio della Balestra |
) Commemorative Parade |
Sansepolcro is a pleasant and interesting town located on the plains of the Upper Tiber Valley, in the southeast of Tuscany, bordering Umbria and The Marches. It is worth visiting for its ambiance, for its art works, to a lesser extent for its architecture, and if possible for the Palio della Balestra (crossbow tournament) held every year on the second Sunday of September when large numbers of citizens dress in mediaeval costume.
Click here for a map of Sansepolcro
Balestieri with their banner |
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Palio della Balestra |
Commemorative Parade |
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Sansepolcro is situated in an area of Italy historically populated by Etruscans
whose principal cities were
Perugia,
Cortona and
Arezzo (all within a
60 km radius of Sansepolcro). The Upper Tiber valley was covered in walnut trees
that were a source of timber to both Etruscans and Romans. The Romans succeeded
the Etruscans in the area and Birtugia, a Roman camp, was built where
Sansepolcro is situated today. A number of Romans, including Pliny the Younger, build their summer villas in the
Valtiberina, and Pliny praises the climate and the health of the natives in a
famous letter.
According to tradition, Sansepolcro was founded in the 10 C by two pilgrims, Arcanus and
Aegidius, who, returning after a long stay in Holy Land, brought with them a fragment of
the Holy Sepulchre. They constructed an Oratory which, because of the holy relic, became an important spiritual site.
The first historical records date from slightly later and refer to the
construction of a Benedictine Abbey. The historical centre Sansepolcro reached its current size around 1400, and in 1500 Giuliano da
Sangallo ordered the construction of its walls. Sansepolcro has been ruled by Milan, the Malatesta
of Rimini and then Florence.
Sansepolcro was initially a fiefdom of the monastic order of the Camaldolesi but because of its important geographical position on the trade routes linking central Italy with the Adriatic, various city states have fought for control of it since the Middle Ages, beginning with the Camaldolesi (12 C), followed by Arezzo, represented by Uguccione della Faggiola (13 C) and the Signoria of the Tarlati family (14 C), passing under the power of the Ghibelline League for a short time and then in 1351 returning to the Tarlati family. In 1352 an earthquake practically destroyed the town. While rebuilding was underway, the Holy See of Città di Castello, represented by Guglielmo di Grisak, granted the town to Galeotto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini. In the 15 C, Sansepolcro was acquired by Florence, with the support of Pope Eugene IV. In the 16 C, Pope Leo X conferred upon Sansepolcro the title of City under Florentine territorial jurisdiction. In the 18C, Sansepolcro passed under the control of Duke of Lorena.
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Palazzo
delle Laudi
Sansepolcro is surrounded by the fertile plains of the upper Tiber valley where
tobacco is a major cash crop, and it was in Sansepolcro that Giulia Boninsegni and Gio Batta Buitoni started their production of pasta in
1827, the first pasta factory in Italy, and one of their old factories still
stands inside the town. The durum wheat used in pasta was imported mainly from
Apulia. Buitoni now belongs to Nestlé but retains a strong presence in the
area.
But Sansepolcro is above all the birthplace of the painter
Piero della Francesca
(ca. 1416 -1492).
Other famous artists born here include Santi di Tito, Matteo di Giovanni and Raffaellino del Colle,
one of Rafael’s best pupils.
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Click here for a map of Sansepolcro
• The Civic Museum of Sansepolcro (Palazzo della
Residenza, constructed in the 13 C and 14 C) houses four
works by Piero della Francesca. Its highlights are two of his main works: “La Resurrezione” and “La Madonna della Misecordia”.
It also houses important works by Santi di Tito and other artists mostly from churches of
Sansepolcro and the surrounding area.
• The Cathedral of Sansepolcro (The Duomo, dedicated to S. Giovanno
Evangelista) replaced the ancient Oratory
on the same site and was enlarged in the 14 C and subsequently modified over the
years. However, in the 1930s nearly all the alterations were torn out so that the cathedral has reverted to roughly how it was in the
1300s, with three naves supported by Romanesque columns and showing Gothic
influence. The only noticeable addition that remains, dating from the 1600s, is
a chapel in baroque style in the right-hand apse. The cathedral retains many beautiful
works of art and its masterpiece is “Il Volto Santo”, an unusual carved wooden Crucifix
of Carolingian origin made from a single walnut log between the 8 C and 9 C. It was restored between
1983 and 1989, and its polychrome finish was largely recovered.
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• The Fortress of Sansepolcro was built in the 14
C reconstructed in the 16 C by Giuliano da Sangallo. In 1800 was transformed into a farm. It is private property.
• The Palazzo Pichi Sermolli from the 15 C
• The Palazzo Vescovile (the Bishop's Palace), erected on the site of an pre-existing Abbey, first
Benedictine then Camaldolese.
• The Palazzotto Giovagnoli, of 13 Cy origin, with renaissance windows.
• The Porta Fiorentina, closing Via XX Settembre, the
mediaeval “Porta della Pieve”, the only remains of the ancient urban walls.
• The Palazzo Alberti, constructed in the 17 C, has
a bust of Cosimo II
Medici
on the facade.
• The Church of S. Maria delle Grazie, from 1518, has
an unusual 16 C wooden door worked in bas relief with small skeletons.
• The Church of S. Agostino, initially the parish church of Santa Maria, it was
rebuilt in 1771 in Baroque style. The bell tower is adapted from an antique mediaeval tower.
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