|
|
The heart of Todi is Piazza del Popolo, formerly central point of the Roman town, and closed in the Middle Ages by four doors. From the coffee bars enliving the square one can have a panoramic view of the beautiful rectangular space where are situated the palaces symbol of the spiritual and civil life of the municipality.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, with beautiful and original façade, rectangular in shape, is a Gothic church dating to the early 12th century; in the 14th century the bell-tower was added, than, in the 16th century, the magnificent central rose-window. During the Roman period the site on which it stands was occupied by one of the buildings surrounding the central area of the Forum, perhaps a temple; the primitive nucleus, represented by the crypt and the apse, dates back to the 8th century. The interior is divided into nave and aisles by pillars and columns decorated with wonderful capitals representing a syntesis of the last Romanesque forms and the first French Gothic ones.
|
The beautiful choir stalls were carved and inlaid in 1530 by Antonio and Sebastiano Bencivenni da Mercatello, who made also the panels of the door: these panels, destroyed in the 17th century, can be considered a starting point for the tradition of classic furniture created by Filippo Morigi in the 19th century.
The Palace of the Priors, just in front of the Cathedral, built in the 14th century, enlarged and finished in 1334-1337, with atypical medieval aspect; in the 15th century was built the tower and hundred years later the Renaissance windows. Up on the wall we admire the eagle in bronze made by Giovanni di Gigliaccio in 1339: symbol of the town, it grasps a pole with a cloth and, in earlier times, it held in the semi-opened wings two small eagles representing the vassal towns of Terni and Amelia. The building had been built to offer a suitable seat to the Priors - with the workshops at ground level; then it was occupied by the excise office and later by the papal governor.
|
|
|
|
|
The Mayor's Palace/b>, constructed at the end of the 13th century in the Italian Gothic style, has an imposing portico on the ground level, than the first and second floors with elegant three-light and four-light windows. Nowadays it houses the Town Museum, containing Etruscan, Roman and Medieval finds; pottery, coins, statuettes; interesting frescoes and valuable paintings of 15th, 16th and 17th centuries: among the most considerable the "Incoronazione della Vergine" by Spagna; moreover there are rooms dedicated to antique cloths, dresses and church vestments.
|
The Palace of the People, connected to the former by a large staircase, is a Gothic-Lombard structure dating back to the 13th century; it was called 'Comune Vecchio'; this building too is characterized, at ground floor level, by a portico supported on flattered arches; the façade is adorned with four-light mullioned windows, and, on the top, a fine crenellated roofline in Ghibellino style. There is also a tower-bell, built in 1330, on the top of which was placed a clock in 1523. First Priors' residence, in 1236 it housed Pope Gregorio IX, and from the 18th to the 19th century it was converted into a theatre, La Scaletta. A side of this building faces Garibaldi square, with the monument to this famous personage; there is also a very tall cypress, planted in 1849 by two Todi citizens to remind people the coming of Garibaldi, and a wonderful panoramic view…
|
|
|
|
|