Spoleto

Spoleto was a flourishing Roman town whose signs are still evident in the arc of Druso and Germanic (23 a.C.), in the Roman Theatre (I cent. a.C.) and in the Roman House. From the IV century it became an Episcopal centre developing a solid ecclesiastical organisation. The city, developed, then, a fundamental political role, shortly after the arrival of the Longobards in Italy, Faroaldo constituted the Dukedom longobardo of Spoleto. The Dukedom of central Italy with Spoleto as its capital, maintained independence until 729 a.C, when its was subjected to the Longobard King. In 1362 cardinal Albornoz chose Spoleto as strategic centre for the re-conquest on the Vatican States. The last great period of Spoleto occurred when it became the head town for the department of Trasimeno, which went from Rieti to Perugia, from 1808 to 1815, during the Napoleonic Empire. The basilica of Saint Salvatore allowed Spoleto to be included in the list of cities nominated as World Patrimony by the UNESCO

Must see:

• Palazzo Comunale – The oldest elements of the palace date back to the 1200(the bell tower). It was restored and notably magnified at the end 1700.
• Palazzo della Genga – The Palace, a gift to the town from Annibale della Genga, who was to become Pope Leon XII dates to the XVI-XVII century .
• Palazzo Collicola – Built in the first half of the XVIII century is the work of the Roman architect Sebastiano Cipriani, on behalf of the Collicola family.
• Palazzo Ancaiani – Built by the Ancaiani family. Restored in 1960 after decades of abandonment, only the façade has preserved its integrity.
  Today the building entertains the centre of the Italian Centre of Studies On the High Middle Ages and that of the Spoleto academy.
• Palazzetto Ancaiani -The plaza of the Liberty up to the beginning of the 1800 was a kind of private court of the family Ancaiani.
• Palazzo Mauri – contains the Town Library, currently in phase of resto-ration, it was commissioned by Andrew Mauri between the XVI and the XVII century. Its façade is adorned with a series of elegant windows and the interior still preserves the frescoes of the 1600s and 1700s.
• Teatro Nuovo – The Theatre was inaugurated the 3rd of August of 1864; for that occasion the opera Guisemberga of Spoleto was written on libretto of Charles d’Omerville, by the Roman composer Filippo Sangiorgi.
• Teatro Caio Melisso – one of the first theatres of Italy,after numerous transformations of an ancient Spoleto theatre, that was constructed in XVII on the incomplete area of the “Palazzo della Signoria”.
• Teatro Romano
• Basilica San Salvatore.