Palazzo dei Priori
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Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Umbria
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
, central Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
As in other Italian medieval commune
Medieval commune
Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...
s, it was the seat of the priori ("first citizens"). This magistrature was established in Perugia in 1303: the palazzo had been called the Palazzo Nuovo del Popolo ("New Palace of the People") to that point. During intractable civic quarrels, a podestà
Podestà
Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...
might be established, housed in a separate structure, the Palazzo del Podestà, of which only the Loggia added by Braccio da Montone
Braccio da Montone
frame|Braccio da Montone.Braccio da Montone , born Andrea Fortebracci, and also known as Braccio Fortebraccio, was an Italian condottiero.-Biography:...
flanking the Cathedral of San Lorenzo e San Ercolano remains. When the palazzo of this rival to the power of the Priori burned in 1534, significantly, it was not replaced, but fragments from it were incorporated into the archbishop's palace, also fronting the main piazza.
The Magistratura dei Priori that was housed in the structure consisted of ten representatives of each of Perugia's main guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s from among the forty-four that existed, permitted a tenure of only two months. The money-changers, who were housed in their own adjoining quarters in the fifteenth century, had the privilege of always being represented among the Priori, and the merchants' guild was represented by two members instead of one. After the Salt War
Salt War (1540)
The Salt War of 1540 was a result of an insurrection by the city of Perugia against the Papal States during the pontificate of Pope Paul III . The principal result was the city of Perugia's definitive subordination to papal control. Perugia had been a free commune until 1370 when it was de jure...
of 1540 with Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
, the Priori were renamed “Conservatori dell’Ecclesiastica Obbedienza” ("Keepers of Ecclesiastical Obedience") and, the Palazzo del Podestà having been destroyed, the Palazzo dei Priori became the seat of the Papal Legate, the new governor of Perugia. When Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III , born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from 7 February 1550 to 1555....
restored the Priori, the grateful Perugini commemorated him with the bronze statue next to the Cathedral.
The structure commands the corner where the main artery of medieval Perugia, Corso Vannucci, enters the city's main square; a first section was constructed in 1293-97, at first as the Palatium Novum Populi, the "new Palace of the People", with ten bays along the Corso and three facing the piazza. Two more bays and a grand entrance portal were added to the piazza façade in 1333-37, together with the arcaded loggia, where decrees were publicly read. Later in the fourteenth century the palazzo was extended along the Corso, with six bays and a richly carved entrance doorway worthy of a cathedral. Rising above, a tower surmounts and controls the arched access to Via dei Priori, the ancient way that descends to the Etruscan gateway, the Roman Porta Trasimena, which was Christianized as the Arca di S. Luca. A further section down the Corso was built in 1429-43, still keeping to the Gothic tripartite fenestration, to house the Collegio del Cambio, the "money exchange" that was the financial center of Perugia.
The perimeter of the roof was originally crenellated all around, less for actual defensive purposes than as a symbol of Perugia's independence. Significantly, the crenellations were removed in 1610, when Perugia had submitted at last to papal armies. When Perugia was joined to a united Italy
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, the crenellations were triumphantly restored.
The grand portal in the Piazza is surmounted by the city's symbols, the griffin of Perugia and the Imperial Guelf lion, in bronze; the originals were probably cast in the Arsenal of Venice
Venetian Arsenal
The Venetian Arsenal was a complex of state-owned shipyards and armories clustered together in Venice in northern Italy. It was responsible for the bulk of Venice's naval power during the middle part of the second millennium AD...
, in 1274, the first European bronze castings in the round achieved since Antiquity. Above the door, strung on a bar hanging from chains the keys to the gates of Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
were triumphantly displayed, following the victory of Perugia at the battle of Torrita, 1358.
The portal leads to an austere vaulted undercroft with the stairs leading to the vaulted frescoed Sala of the former council chamber of the Priori on the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
; the Sala was allocated to the notaries guild in 1582, as the Sala dei Notari, when their former quarters, the Palazzetto dei Notari, on the opposite side of the Corso were partially demolished in a street widening. On the left is the entrance to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria is the Italian national paintings collection of Umbria, housed in the Palazzo dei Priori, Perugia, in central Italy. Its collection comprises the greatest representation of the Umbrian School of painting, ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, strongest in the...
one of the most outstanding provincial Italian collections of art.