| Todi |
 | | Country |
 Italy | | Region | Umbria | | Province | Perugia (PG) | | Altitude | 410 m | | Area | 223 km² | Population
- City
- Density |
17,075 (as of December 31, 2004)
74/km² | | Time zone | CET, UTC+1 | | Coordinates | 42°47′N 12°25′E | | Frazioni | Asproli, Cacciano, Camerata, Canonica, Casemascie, Cecanibbi, Chioano, Collevalenza, Cordigliano, Duesanti, Ficareto, Fiore, Frontignano, Ilci, Izzalini, Loreto, Lorgnano, Montemolino, Montenero, Monticello, Pantalla, Pesciano, Petroro, Pian di Porto, Pian di San Martino, Pontecuti, Ponterio, Ponterio Stazione, Porchiano, Quadro, Ripaioli, Romazzano, Rosceto, San Damiano, Torrececcona, Torregentile, Vasciano | | Telephone Prefix | 075 | | Postal Code | 06059 | | Gentilic | Tuderti or Todini | Patron:
- Saint
-Day |
St. Fortunate
October 14 | | Mayor | Catiuscia Marini (since May 26, 2005) | | Website | www.comune.todi.pg.it |
 The so-called Nicchioni, Roman constructions of uncertain function. Todi, town and comune (township) of the Province of Perugia (Umbria) in Italy. It is perched on a tall two-breasted hill overlooking the east bank of the Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction. Image File history File links Todi-Stemma. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ...
The Regions of Italy were granted a degree of regional autonomy in the 1948 constitution, which states that the constitutions role is: to recognize, protect and promote local autonomy, to ensure that services at the State level are as decentralized as possible, and to adapt the principles and laws...
Umbria is a region of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany to the west, the Marche to the east and Lazio to the south. ...
In Italy, the province (in Italian: provincia) is an administrative division of an intermediate level, between municipality (comune) and region (Regione). ...
Perugia (It. ...
Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. ...
A square metre (US spelling: square meter) is by definition the area enclosed by a square with sides each 1 metre long. ...
Density (symbol: Ï - Greek: rho) is a measure of mass per unit of volume. ...
December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time. ...
Central European Time (CET) is one of the names of UTC+1 time zone, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. ...
It has been suggested that leap second be merged into this article or section. ...
A frazione, in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other subdivisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere: these are the lowest subdivisions of the country. ...
A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. ...
October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in Leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 180 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 180 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 224 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 224 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Perugia is the capital city in the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber river, and the capital of the province of Perugia. ...
Umbria is a region of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany to the west, the Marche to the east and Lazio to the south. ...
Tiber River in Rome The River Tiber (Italian Tevere), the third-longest river in Italy at 406 km (252 miles) after the Po and the Adige, flows through Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches in two branches that cross the suburbs of...
 The Duomo in the sloping piazza. Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 127 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 127 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
History
According to the legend, said to have been recorded around 1330 BC by a mythological Quirinus Colonus, Todi was built by Hercules, who here killed Cacus, and give the city the name of Eclis. Hercules and his nephew, helper and eromenos Iolaus. ...
In Greek mythology, Cacus was a fire-breathing giant. ...
Historical Todi was founded by the ancient Italic people of the Umbri, in the 8th-7th century BC, with the name of Tutere (Pliny, Naturalis historia). The name means "border", being the city located on the frontier with the Etruscan dominions. It probably was still under the latter's influence when it was conquered by the Romans in 217 BC. According to Silius Italicus, it had a double line of walls that stopped Hannibal himself after his victory at the Trasimeno. In most Latin texts, the name of the town took the form Tuder. The Umbri, also called Umbrians in English, were an ancient Italic tribe. ...
Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ...
Naturalis Historia Pliny the Elders Natural History is an encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder. ...
See: Etruscan civilization Etruscan language Etruscan alphabet Etruscan mythology See also: Tyrrhenian, Lemnian, Pelasgian. ...
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ...
Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC - 210s BC - 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC Years: 222 BC 221 BC 220 BC 219 BC 218 BC - 217 BC - 216 BC 215 BC...
Silius Italicus, in full Titus Catius Silius Italicus (AD 25 or 26 - 101), was a Latin epic poet. ...
Bust of Hannibal Hannibal (247 BC – 183/182 BC; sometimes referred to as Hǎnnibal Barca) was a Carthaginian politician and statesman who is considered to be one of the finest military generals in history. ...
Combatants Carthage Roman Republic Commanders Hannibal Gaius Flaminius †Strength 30,000 soldiers 30,000-40,000 soldiers Casualties 1,500 soliders about 15,000 The Battle of Lake Trasimene (June 24, 217 BC, April on the Julian calendar) was a Roman defeat in the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians...
Christianity spread to Todi very early, through the efforts of St. Terentianus. Bishop St. Fortunatus became the patron saint of the city for his heroic defense of it during the Gothic siege. In Lombard times, Todi was part of the Duchy of Spoleto. Combatants Eastern Roman Empire Ostrogoths Franks Visigoths Commanders Belisarius Narses Mundalias Germanus Liberius Theodoric the Great Witigis Totila See also Gothic War (377–382) for the war on the Danube. ...
The Lombards or Longobards or Langobards were the Germanic tribe who gave their name to Lombardy, an administrative entity in Northern Italy. ...
The independent Duchy of Spoleto was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in southern Italy by the Lombard dux Faroald. ...
After the 12th century the city started to expand again: the government was held first by consuls, and then by podestà and a people's captain, some of whom achieved wide fame. In 1244 the new quarters, housing mainly the new artisan classes, were enclosed in a new circle of walls. In 1290 the city had 40,000 inhabitants. Communal autonomy was lost in 1367 when the city was annexed to the Papal States: the local overlordship shifted among various families (the Tomacelli, the Malatesta, Braccio da Montone, Francesco Sforza, etc.). Although reduced to half of its former population, Todi lived a brief period of splendour under bishop Angelo Cesi (1556-1606), who rebuilt several edifices or added new ones, like the Cesia Fountain that still bears his name. This article is about the year 1244. ...
Events Battle of Najera, Peter I of Castile restored as King. ...
The Papal States (Gli Stati della Chiesa or Stati Pontificii, States of the Church) was one of the major historical states of Italy before the boot-shaped peninsula was unified under the Piedmontese crown of Savoy (later a republic). ...
Braccio da Montone, byname of Andrea Fortebracci (July 1, 1368 - June 1424) was an Italian condottiero. ...
Portrait of Francesco Sforza, ca 1460, by Bonifazio Bembo: Sforza insisted on being shown in his worn dirty old campaigning hat. ...
In July of 1849 Todi received Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was fleeing after the failed democratic attempt of the Republic of Rome. 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
Garibaldi in 1866 Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 – June 2, 1882) was an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento. ...
Military flag of the Roman Republic. ...
Todi is the birthplace of the Franciscan poet Jacopone da Todi, who is buried in a special crypt in the church of S. Fortunato. A modern collection of Jacopones Laudi, with a portrait. ...
Main sights Almost all Todi's main medieval monuments — the co-cathedral church (Duomo), the Palazzo del Capitano, the Palazzo del Priore and the Palazzo del Popolo — front on the main square on the lower breast of the hill: the piazza is thus one of the most picturesque in Italy and is often used as a movie set. The whole landscape is sited over some huge ancient Roman cisterns, with more than 500 pits, which remained in use until 1925.
The Cathedral The Cathedral (11th century) is a striking Gothic edifice on the Lombard plan, said to be erected over an ancient Roman building, probably a temple dedicated to Apollo (here an ancient bronze head[1], now at the Vatican Museum, was found). The current church was almost totally rebuilt after a fire in 1190. The main feature of the squarish façade is the central great rose-window, added in 1513. Of the same period is the wooden door of the portal, by Antonio Bencivenni from Mercatello, of which only the four upper panels remain today. See also Gothic art. ...
Statue of Apollo at the British Museum. ...
1513 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The church follows the plan of the Latin cross, with a nave and two aisles. Bonifacio VIII allegedly had a second aisle on one side, commonly known as "La navatina". The counter-façade is occupied by a giant fresco depicting the Universal Judgment by Ferraù Faenzone, a work commissioned by Cardinal Angelo Cesi, in which the influence, if nowhere near the genius, of Michaelangelo is easily discerned. The choir includes the Gothic altar and a magnificent wooden choir-enclosure (1521) with two floors. An important artpiece is a 13th century Crucifixion of Umbrian school.
Palazzo del Popolo The Palazzo del Popolo ("People's Palace") is a Lombard-Gothic construction already existing in 1213, and is one of the most ancient communal palaces in Italy. It comprises two great halls: the "Sala Grande Inferiore", or "Sala delle Pietre", and the "Sala Grande Superiore", housing the local Gallery. Events September 12 - Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester defeats Peter II of Aragon, the king of Aragon at the Battle of Muret. ...
Palazzo del Capitano The "Captain's Palace", in Italian Gothic style, was built around 1293 and named "New Communal Palace" to differentiate it from the former one. It is on two distinct levels: the first floor housed the Justice Hall (currently, seat of the Communal Council), with the Judges's offices in the lower. The latter is now occupied by the City Museum, with findings and remains of Todi's history. It includes a saddle used by Anita Garibaldi. Some rooms are frescoed with histories of the city and portraits of its most illustrious men. Anita Ribero di Garibaldi Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva di Garibaldi (1821-1849) was the Brazilian-born wife and comrade-in-arms of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. ...
Palazzo dei Priori It is located in the southern side of the Piazza, facing the Cathedral. It was began in 1293 and later enlarged as seat of the podestà, priors and the Papal governors. The trapezoidal tower was originally lower, and had Guelph merlons. The façade includes a big bronze eagle by Giovanni di Giliaccio (1347). A merlon, in architecture, forms the solid part of an embattled parapet between the embrasures, sometimes pierced by loopholes. ...
Palazzo Vescovile Located at the left of the Cathedral, it was built in 1593 by Cardinal Angelo Cesi at his own expense. His crest is visible over the great portal, attributed to Vignola. The upper floors include a room frescoed by Faenzone and a gallery frescoed by Andrea Polinori in 1629. Events May 18 - Playwright Thomas Kyds accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe. ...
The five orders, engraving from Vignolas Regole delle cinque ordini darchitettura set the standards Giacomo (or Jacopo) Barozzi da Vignola (Vignola, near Modena, October 1, 1507 - July 7, 1573) was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism, also known as Vignola. ...
Events March 4 - Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter. ...
 The unfinished façade of San Fortunato.
 Santa Maria della Consolazione, early 16th century: the central Greek-cross plan with apsidal transepts recalls Bramante's first plans for St Peter's. Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 157 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 157 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1200x1600, 147 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Download high resolution version (1200x1600, 147 KB)Photo taken in September 2004 by Fantasy :-) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
This article is about an architectural feature; for the astronomical term see apsis. ...
Interior view, with the nave of the Cattedra in the back St. ...
Other attractions - The church of S. Fortunato and the sparse ruins of a medieval fortress (Rocca) lie on the other breast of the hill on which the city is built. San Fortunato is a Palaeo-Christian temple (7th century) of which two lion sculptures on the entrance portal remain. In 1292 the contstruction of a new Gothic edifice was begun by the Franciscans, with a "hallroom" structure. Works, however, were halted during the plague of 1348. The lower part of the façade was finished in the second half of the 15th century. The nave and the two aisles have a portal each: these are enriched by fine decorations portraying saints and prophets, with briars representing Good (the vine) and Evil (the fig). The whole apse is occupied by a wooden choir finished in 1590 by Antonio Maffei, from Gubbio. The crypt houses a sepulchre containing the reimains of St. Fortunate and other saints, as well as the tomb of Jacopone da Todi. Another noteworthy artipiece is a Madonna and Child by Masolino da Panicale.
- Todi's most striking church, however, is on the flank of the city hill, just outside the walls: the beautifully sited domed Renaissance church of S. Maria della Consolazione (began in 1508), often attributed, although without sufficient reason, to Bramante. It has a Greek cross plan: three apses are polygonal and that on the north side is semicircular. Architects who worked buld it include Cola da Caprarola, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Galeazzo Alessi, Sanmicheli, Vignola and Ippolito Scalza. The church was inaugurated only in 1607. The apse is surmounted by a square terrace with 4 eagles at the corners, from which the dome rises. In the interior, the altar houses a miraculous image of the Madonna, which, according to the tradition, was discovered by a worker during the founding works. 12 niches in the first three apses house giant statues of the apostles. Also noteworthy is the wooden statue of Pope Martin I, a native of the Todi area.
Todi is surrounded by three more or less complete concentric walls: the outermost is medieval, the middle wall is Roman, and the innermost is recognizable as partly Etruscan. Sights include also a colossal Roman niched substructure of uncertain purpose (the Nicchioni), the slight ruins of a Roman amphitheatre, about a dozen smaller churches, and a few Renaissance or classical palazzi, among which the most important is one by Vignola, round out the sights. The neighbourhood of the city has many historical castles, fortresses and ancient churches. For broader historical context, see 1290s and 13th century. ...
The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ...
Events April 7 - Charles University is founded in Prague. ...
The Annunciation (1425-30) Tempera on panel 148 x 115 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington Masolino da Panicale (also known as Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini) (Panicale, Umbria c. ...
1508 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 - March 11, 1514), Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St. ...
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (or Antonio Cordiani) (April 12, 1484 - August 3, 1546) was a Florentine architect active during the Italian Renaissance. ...
Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481—6 January 1537) was an architect and painter, born at Siena and died at Rome. ...
Galeazzo Alessi (1512- December 30, 1572), Italian architect, was born at Perugia, and was probably a pupil of Caporali. ...
Events January 20 - Tidal wave swept along the Bristol Channel, killing 2000 people. ...
Martin I, born near Todi, Umbria in the place now named after him Pian S. Martino, was pope from 649 to 655, succeeding Theodore I in June or July 649. ...
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ...
In the early nineties Richard Levine from the University of Kentucky made a study and found that Todi was the "most sustainable city".
External links
Interiors of Todi's churches | | | Counter-facade of the Cathedral | Santa Maria della Consolazione | |
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