Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian

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...

 province of Perugia

Province of Perugia

The Province of Perugia is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia...

 in east central 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...

 on a foothill of the Apennines

Apennine mountains

The Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...

. It is 20 km (12.4 mi) S. of Trevi

Trevi

Trevi is an ancient town and comune in Umbria, Italy, on the lower flank of Monte Serano overlooking the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is 10 km SSE of Foligno and 20 km north of Spoleto....

, 29 km (18 mi) N. of Terni

Terni

Terni is a city in southern Umbria, central Italy, capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It is 104 km N of Rome, 36 km NW of Rieti, and 29 km S of Spoleto.-History:...

, 63 km (39.1 mi) SE of Perugia

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....

; 212 km (131.7 mi) SE of Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

; and 126 km (78.3 mi) N of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

History

Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia

Via Flaminia

The Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley...

, which forked into two roads at Narni

Narni

Narni is an ancient hilltown and comune of Umbria, in central Italy, with 20,100 inhabitants, according to the 2003 census. At an altitude of 240 m , it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni. It is very close to the Geographic center of Italy...

 and rejoined at Forum Flaminii, near Foligno

Foligno

Foligno is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system...

. An ancient road also ran hence to Nursia

Norcia

Norcia is a town and comune in the province of Perugia in southeastern Umbria, located in a wide plain abutting the Monti Sibillini, a subrange of the Apennines with some of its highest peaks, near the Sordo River, a small stream that eventually flows into the Nera...

. The Ponte Sanguinario of the 1st century BCE still exists. The Forum lies under today's marketplace.

Located at the head of a large, broad valley, surrounded by mountains, Spoleto has long occupied a strategic geographical position. It appears to have been an important town to the original Umbri

Umbri

The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is currently occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria....

 tribes, who built walls around their settlement in the 5th century BC, some of which are visible today.

The first historical mention of Spoletium is the notice of the foundation of a colony there in 241 BC; and it was still, according to Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 colonia latina in primis firma et illustris: a Latin colony in 95 BC. After the Battle of Lake Trasimene

Battle of Lake Trasimene

The Battle of Lake Trasimene was a Roman defeat in the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians under Hannibal and the Romans under the consul Gaius Flaminius...

 (217 BC) Spoletium was attacked by Hannibal, who was repulsed by the inhabitants During the Second Punic War

Second Punic War

The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...

 the city was a useful ally to Rome. It suffered greatly during the civil wars of Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

 and Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...

. The latter, after his victory over Crassus, confiscated the territory of Spoletium (82 BC). From this time forth it was a municipium

Municipium

Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

.

Under the empire it seems to have flourished once again, but is not often mentioned in history. Martial

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...

 speaks of its wine. Aemilianus

Aemilianus

Aemilianus , also known as Aemilian, was Roman Emperor for three months in 253.Commander of the Moesian troops, he obtained an important victory against the invading Goths and was, for this reason, acclaimed Emperor by his army...

, who had been proclaimed emperor by his soldiers in Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...

, was slain by them here on his way from Rome (253), after a reign of three or four months. Rescripts of Constantine (326) and Julian

Julian the Apostate

Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....

 (362) are dated from Spoleto. The foundation of the episcopal see dates from the 4th century: early martyrs of Spoleto are legends, but a letter to the bishop Caecilianus

Caecilianus

Caecilianus, or Caecilian, was archdeacon and then bishop of Carthage in 311 AD. When archdeacon, he resolutely supported his bishop Mensurius in opposing the fanatical craving for martyrdom...

, from Pope Liberius

Pope Liberius

Pope Liberius, pope from May 17, 352, to September 24, 366, was consecrated according to the Catalogus Liberianus on May 22, as the successor of Pope Julius I. He was regarded as a saint in the early Church, but his name was later removed from the Roman Martyrology, however, he is once again...

 in 354 constitutes its first historical mention. Owing to its elevated position Spoleto was an important stronghold during the Vandal

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 and Gothic

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 wars; its walls were dismantled by Totila

Totila

Totila, original name Baduila was King of the Ostrogoths from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the territories in Italy that the Eastern Roman Empire had captured from his Kingdom in 540.A relative of...

.
Under the Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

, Spoleto became the capital of an independent duchy, the Duchy of Spoleto

Duchy of Spoleto

The independent Duchy of Spoleto was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard dux Faroald.- Lombards :The Lombards, a Germanic people, had invaded Italy in 568 and conquered much of it, establishing a Kingdom divided between several dukes dependent on the King, who had...

 (from 570), and its dukes ruled a considerable part of central Italy. In 774 it became part of Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

. Together with other fiefs, it was bequeathed to Pope Gregory VII

Pope Gregory VII

Pope St. Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal...

 by the powerful countess Matilda of Tuscany

Matilda of Tuscany

Matilda of Tuscany was an Italian noblewoman, the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy. She is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments...

, but for some time struggled to maintain its independence. In 1155 it was destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa. In 1213 it was definitively occupied by Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...

. During the absence of the papal court in Avignon

Avignon Papacy

The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown....

, it was prey to the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...

, until in 1354 Cardinal Albornoz

Gil Alvarez De Albornoz

Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz was a Spanish cardinal and ecclesiastical leader.-Early years:Albornoz was born at Carrascosa del Campo, early in the 14th century. He was the son of Gil Állvarez de Albornoz and of Doña Teresa de Luna, sister of Jimeno de Luna, archbishop of Toledo and a member...

 brought it once more under the authority of the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

.
After Napoleon's conquest of Italy, in 1809 Spoleto became capital of the short-lived French department of Trasimène

Trasimène

Trasimène is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after Lake Trasimeno. It was formed in 1809, when the Papal States were annexed by France. Its capital was Spoleto. It was divided into the following arrondissements:* Spoleto* Foligno* Perugia* TodiIt...

, returning to the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

 after Napoleon's defeat, within five years. In 1860, after a gallant defence, Spoleto was taken by the troops fighting for the unification of Italy. Giovanni Pontano, founder of the Accademia Pontaniana of Naples, was born here. Another child of Spoleto was Francis Possenti who was educated in the Jesuit school and whose father was the Papal assesor, Francis later entered the Passionists and became Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Main sights

Ancient and lay buildings

• The Roman theater
  Roman theatre (structure)
  The characteristics of Roman to those of the earlier Greek theatres due in large part to its influence on the Roman triumvir Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Much of the architectural influence on the Romans came from the Greeks, and theatre structural design was no different from other buildings...
  
  , largely rebuilt. The stage is occupied by the former church of St. Agatha, currently housing the National Archaeological Museum.
• Ponte Sanguinario ("bloody bridge"), a Roman bridge 1st century BC. The name is traditionally attributed to the persecution
  Persecution
  Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
  
  s of Christians in the nearby amphiteatre.
• Roman amphitheater
  Amphitheatre
  An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
  
   (2nd century AD). It was turned into a fortress by Totila in 545 and in Middle Ages times was used for stores and shops, while in the cavea the church of San Gregorio Minore was built. The stones were later used to build the Rocca.
• The Palazzo Comunale (13th century).
• Ponte delle Torri, a striking 13th-century aqueduct
  Aqueduct
  An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
  
  , possibly on Roman foundations: whether it was first built by the Romans is a point on which scholarly opinion is divided.
• The majestic Rocca Albornoziana, built in 1359–1370 by the architect Matteo Gattapone of Gubbio
  Gubbio
  Gubbio is a town and comune in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia . It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. See also Mount Ingino Christmas Tree.-History:...
  
   for Cardinal Albornoz. It has six sturdy towers which formed two distinct inner spaces: the Cortile delle Armi, for the troops, and the Cortile d'onore for the use of the city's governor. The latter courtyard is surrounded by a two-floor porch. The rooms include the Camera Pinta ("Painted Room") with noteworthy 15th‑century frescoes. After having resisted many sieges, the Rocca was turned into a jail in 1800 and used as such until the late 20th century. It is currently under repair.
• The Palazzo Racani-Arroni (16th century) has a worn graffito
  Graffito
  Graffito is the singular form of the Italian graffiti, meaning "little scratch".Graffito may also refer to:*Graffito *Graffito...
  
   decoration attributed to Giulio Romano
  Giulio Romano
  Giulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
  
  . The inner courtyard has a notable fountain.
• Palazzo della Signoria (14th century), housing the city's museum.
• The majestic Palazzo Vigili (15th-16th centuries) includes the Torre dell'Olio (13th century), the sole mediaeval city tower remaining in Spoleto.

Churches

• The Duomo (Cathedral) of S. Maria Assunta
  Cathedral of Spoleto
  Spoleto Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia created in 1821, previously that of the diocese of Spoleto, and the principal church of the Umbrian city of Spoleto, in Italy...
  
  , begun around 1175 and completed in 1227. The Romanesque
  Romanesque architecture
  Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
  
   edifice contains the tomb of Filippo Lippi
  Filippo Lippi
  Fra' Filippo Lippi , also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Italian Quattrocento .-Biography and works:...
  
  , who died in Spoleto in 1469, designed by his son Filippino Lippi
  Filippino Lippi
  Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter working during the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy.-Biography:...
  
  . The church also houses a manuscript letter by Saint Francis of Assisi.
• San Pietro extra Moenia
  Extra moenia
  Extra moenia is a Latin phrase that means outside the walls or outside the walls of the city.The phrase is commonly used in reference to the original attributes of a building, usually a church, where it was built outside the original city walls...
  
  was founded in 419 to house Peter's relics over an ancient necropolis. It was rebuilt starting from the 12th century (though the work dragged on until the 15th century), when a remarkable Romanesque façade was added: this has three doors with rose-windows, with a splendid relief
  Relief
  Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
  
   decoration by local artists, portraying stories of the life of St. Peter. Together with S. Rufino in Assisi, it is the finest extant specimen of Umbrian Romanesque. The church is preceded by a large staircase. In the 17th century the interior, having a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles, was remade in Baroque style; also in Roman Baroque style is the elliptical dome.
• The basilica of San Salvatore (4th-5th century) incorporates the cella
  Cella
  A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...
  
   of a Roman temple
  Roman temple
  Ancient Roman temples are among the most visible archaeological remains of Roman culture, and are a significant source for Roman architecture. Their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion. The main room housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was...
  
   and is one of the most important examples of Early Christian architecture. It was remade by the Lombards
  Lombards
  The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
  
   in the 8th century. In 2011, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a group of seven inscribed as Longobards in Italy. Places of the power (568-774 A.D.).
• San Ponziano is a notable complex lying outside the city's walls, dedicated to the patron saint of Spoleto. The church was built in the 12th century in Romanesque style, but was later modified by Giuseppe Valadier
  Giuseppe Valadier
  Giuseppe Valadier was an Italian architect and designer, urban planner and archeologist, a chief exponent of Neoclassicism in Italy.-Biography:...
  
  . The crypt, however, has remained untouched, with its five small naves and small apses with cross-vault, ancient Roman spolia
  Spolia
  Spolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments...
  
   columns and frescoes of the 14th-15th centuries.
• Santa Maria della Manna d'Oro, is an edifice on an octagonal plan sited near the Cathedral. It was built in the 16th-17th century to thank the Madonna for her protection of Spoletine traders.
• San Domenico (13th century) is a Gothic
  Gothic architecture
  Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
  
   construction in white and pink stone. The interior has notable frescoes and a painting by Giovanni Lanfranco
  Giovanni Lanfranco
  Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.-Biography:Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti...
  
  . The crpyt is a former church dedicated to St. Peter, with frescoed walls.
• San Gregorio Maggiore (11th-12th century), is a Romanesque church which has been restored to original lines only in recent times. The façade has two slopes and a porch of the 16th century that includes the Chapel of the Innocents (14th century) with a noteworthy font. The main external feature is the high belfry, finished only in the 15th century. The interior has three naves with spolia columns and pillars.
• The former church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo is a Romanesque edifice featuring, on the exterior, a 13th century fresco
  Fresco
  Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
  
   portraying Madonna with Saints. The interior frescoes, from the 13th-15th centuries, include some of the most ancient representations of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket
  Thomas Becket
  Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
  
  , by Alberto Sotio, and of St. Francis
  Francis of Assisi
  Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
  
  .
• Santa Eufemia (12th century), a striking example of Romanesque architecture with influences from Lombardy and Veneto. The interior has three naves with spolia columns.
• San Paolo inter vineas (10th century) is a typical Spoletine Romanesque church. Its main feature is the rose-window of the façade.
• The former church and Augustinian convent of San Nicolò (1304) is a rare example of Gothic style in Spoleto. The small church has a single nave with a splendid polygonal apse with mullioned windows. Under the apse is the church of Santa Maria della Misericordia. There are two cloisters, the more recent one pertaining to the 15th century.
• San Filippo Neri is a Baroque
  Baroque architecture
  Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
  
   construction of mid-17th century, designed by the Spoletine Loreto Scelli and inspired by churches in Rome of the same period.
• Sant'Ansano was created in the 18th century over a series of former buildings including a Roman temple
  Temple
  A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
  
   (1st century AD) and the Mediaeval St. Isaac's crypt
  Crypt
  In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
  
  . It has a cloister from the 16th century.

Culture

The Festival dei Due Mondi

Festival dei Due Mondi

The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...

(Festival of the Two Worlds) was founded in 1958. Because Spoleto was a small town, where real estate and other goods and services were at the time relatively inexpensive, and also because there are two indoor theatres, a Roman theatre and many other spaces, it was chosen by Gian-Carlo Menotti as the venue for an arts festival. It is also fairly close to Rome, with good rail connections. It is an important cultural event, held annually in late June-early July.

The festival has developed into one of the most important cultural manifestations in Italy, with a three-week schedule of music, theater and dance performances. For some time it became a reference point for modern sculpture exhibits, and works of art left to the city by Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...

 and others are a testimony to this.

In the United States, a parallel festival — Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...

 — held in Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 was founded in 1977 with Menotti's involvement. The twinning only lasted some 15 years and, after growing disputes between the Menotti family and the Spoleto Festival USA board, in the early '90s a separation was consummated. However, following Menotti's death in February 2007, the city administrations of Spoleto and Charleston started talks to re-unite the two festivals which would climax in Spoleto mayor Massimo Brunini's attending the opening ceremony of Spoleto Festival USA in May 2008. The mayor of Charleston, Joseph P. Riley, returned the visit and attended the opening ceremony of the festival in Italy, on 27 June 2008.

For a short period of time, a third parallel festival was also held in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1992, the Spoleto Arts Symposium was initiated with the purpose of bringing talented people from all around the world to study in Spoleto. The program apparently ceased in 2009, to be replaced by a similar program, started by the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM)

University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

The University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music is the performing arts college of the University of Cincinnati and is one of the nation's leading music conservatories. In its most recent rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cincinnati sixth nationally among university programs...

 of the University of Cincinnati in 2010.

Sport

Spoleto gained its main results in sport with the local Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

 team, Olio Venturi Spoleto, who classified in the quarter-finals of the Italian championship in sport.

Sister cities

Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

, USA Schwetzingen

Schwetzingen

Schwetzingen is a German town situated in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, around southwest of Heidelberg and southeast of Mannheim.Schwetzingen is one of the 5 biggest cities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district and it is a medium-sized centre including the cities and municipalities of...

, Germany Cajamarca

Cajamarca

Cajamarca may refer to:Colombia*Cajamarca, Tolima a town and municipality in Tolima DepartmentPeru* Cajamarca, city in Peru.* Cajamarca District, district in the Cajamarca province.* Cajamarca Province, province in the Cajamarca region....

, Peru Orange

Orange, Vaucluse

Orange is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It has a primarily agricultural economy...

, France

Frazioni

Acquaiola, Acquacastagna, Ancaiano, Azzano, Baiano, Bazzano Inferiore, Bazzano Superiore, Beroide, Camporoppolo, Campo Salese, Cerqueto, Cese, Collerisana, Collicelli, Cortaccione, Crocemaroggia, Eggi, Fogliano, Forca di Cerro, Madonna di Baiano, Maiano, Messenano, Milano, Montebiblico, Monteluco

Monteluco

Monteluco is a frazione of the comune of Spoleto, in Umbria, central Italy. Having a population of just 27, it is located on a limestone mountain covered by woods, at 780 meters over the sea level....

, Monte Martano, Morgnano, Morro, Ocenelli, Palazzaccio, Perchia, Petrognano, Pompagnano, Pontebari, Poreta, Protte, Rubbiano, San Brizio, San Giacomo, San Giovanni di Baiano, San Martino in Trignano, San Nicolò, San Silvestro, Santa Croce, Sant'Anastasio, Sant'Angelo in Mercole, San Venanzo, Silvignano, Somma, Strettura, Terraia, Terzo la Pieve, Terzo San Severo, Testaccio, Uncinano, Valdarena, Valle San Martino, Vallocchia.

External links

• Official Site
• Charleston & Spoleto's Sister City Web Site
• Official web site of the public and private turistic operators of Spoleto
• Pro Loco Spoleto
• Spoleto OnLine
• Spoleto Festival
• Spoleto Storia
• Festival of the Two Worlds
• UmbriaOnline: Spoleto