is a town and comune
in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia
) It is located on the first slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines
The city's origins are very ancient: as Ikuvium
, it was an important town of the ancient Umbrian
people in pre-Roman times, and is famous for the discovery there of the Eugubine (or Iguvine) Tables
, a set of bronze tablets that together constitute the largest surviving text in ancient Umbrian. After the Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC — it kept its name with only a slight change (Iguvium
) — the city remained important, as attested by its Roman theater, the second-largest surviving in the world.
Gubbio became very powerful in the beginning of the Middle Ages. The town sent 1000 knights to fight in the First Crusade under the lead of Count Girolamo Gabrielli, and according to an undocumented tradition, they were the first to penetrate into the Holy Sepulchre when the city was seized (1099).
The following centuries were quite turbulent and Gubbio was engaged in wars against the surrounding towns of Umbria. One of these wars saw the miraculous intervention of its bishop, Saint Ubaldo Baldassini, who secured Gubbio an overwhelming victory (1151) and a period of prosperity.
In 1350 Giovanni Gabrielli, count of Borgovalle, a member of the noblest family of Gubbio, seized the power and became lord of Gubbio. However his rule was short and he was forced to hand over the town to Cardinal Albornoz, representing the Church (1354).
A few years later, Gabriello Gabrielli, bishop of Gubbio, proclaimed himself again lord of Gubbio (Signor d’Agobbio). Betrayed by a group of noblemen which included many a relative of his, the bishop was forced to leave the town and seek refuge at his home castle at Cantiano.
With the decay of the political prestige of the Gabrielli family, Gubbio was thereafter incorporated into the Montefeltro State, and eventually became part of the Papal States when this family extinguished (1631).
In 1860 Gubbio was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy along with the rest of the Papal States.
The historical center of Gubbio is of decidedly medieval aspect: the town is austere in appearance because of the dark grey stone, narrow streets, and Gothic architecture.
A fair number of the houses in Gubbio date to the 14th and 15th centuries, and were originally the dwellings of wealthy merchants; they often have a second door fronting on the street, usually just a few inches from the main entrance. This secondary entrance is narrower, and a foot or so above the actual street level. This type of door is called a porta dei morti (door of the dead) because it is commonly stated that it was used only for removing the bodies of any who might have died inside the house. This is almost certainly false, but there is no firm agreement on the true purpose of the secondary doors. One of the most likely theories is that the door was used by the owners to protect themselves when opening to unknown persons, leaving them in a dominating position.
The main monuments of the city include:
- The Roman Theatre, built in the 1st century BC using square blocks of local limestone. Originally, the diameter of the cavea was 70 meters. During summer it is used for lectures about ancient poets and authors.
- The Roman Mausoleum (sometimes said to be of Pomponius Graecinus, but on no satisfactory grounds)
- The massive Palazzo dei Consoli (first half of the 14th century), housing the museum with the Eugubine Tables.
- The Palazzo and Torre Gabrielli
- The Duomo (Cathedral), built in the late 12th century. The most striking feature is the rose-window in the facade with, at its sides, the symbols of the Evangelists: the eagle for St. John, the lion for St. Mark, the angel for St. Matthew and the ox for St. Luke. The interior has latine cross plan with a single nave. The most precious art piece is the wooden Christ over the altar, of Umbrian school.
- The Palazzo Ducale, built from 1470 by Luciano Laurana or Francesco di Giorgio Martini for Federico da Montefeltro. Famous is the inner court, reminiscent of the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino. The ducal studiolo, with carved wooden panels is now at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
- The Church of S. Francesco (second half of the 13th century), the sole religious edifice in the city having a nave with two aisles. The vaults are supported by octagonal pilasters. The frescoes in the left side date from the 15th century.
- The Church of Santa Maria Nuova, a typical Cistercian edifice of the 13th century. In the interior is a 14th century fresco portraying the so-called Madonna del Belvedere (1413), by Ottaviano Nelli. It also has a work by Guido Palmerucci. Also from the Cistercians is the Convent of St. Augustine, with some frescoes by Nelli.
- The Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, with a nave and four aisles is a sanctuary outside the city. Noteworthy are the marble altar and the great windows with episodes of the life of St. Ubaldo, parton of Gubbio. The finely sculpted portals and the fragmentary frescoes give a hint of the magnificent 15th century decoration once boasted by the basilica.
- The Museo Cante Gabrielli in the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo (which once belonged to the Gabrielli).
Gubbio is best known for its palio
, the Corsa dei Ceri
, a spectacular run held every year on May 15
, in which three teams, devoted to S. Ubaldo (the patron saint of Gubbio), S. Giorgio, and S. Antonio, run through throngs of cheering supporters (clad in the distinctive colours of yellow, blue and black, with white trousers and red belts and neckbands), up much of the mountain from the main square in front of the Palazzo dei Consoli to the basilica of S. Ubaldo, each team carrying a statue of their saint mounted on a wooden octagonal prism, similar to an hour-glass shape 4 meters tall and weighing about 280 kilograms.
The race has strong devotional, civic, and historical overtones and is one of the best-known folklore manifestations in Italy; the Ceri were chosen as the heraldic emblem on the coat of arms of Umbria as a modern administrative region.
A celebration like the Corsa dei Ceri is held also in Jessup, Pennsylvania. In this small town the people carry out the same festivities as the residents of Gubbio do by "racing" the three statues through the streets. This remains an important and sacred event in both towns.
Gubbio was also one of the centres of production of the Italian pottery (maiolica), during the Renaissance. The most important Italian potter of that period, Mastro Giorgio, was active in Gubbio during the first half of XVI century.
The city is the setting for the popular story of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, recorded in the medieval Fioretti di San Francesco.
Frazioni (municipal subdivisions)
(territorial subdivisions) of the comune
of Gubbio are:
Branca, Torre Calzolari, Spada, Padule, San Marco, Colpalombo, Carbonesca, Biscina, Belvedere, Scritto, Ponte D'assi, Cipolleto, Ferratelle, Semonte, Casamorcia, Raggio, Monteleto, Mocaiana, Monteluiano, San Martino in Colle, Loreto, Camporeggiano, Burano.
The Gubbio Layer
Gubbio is also famous among geologists and paleobiologists as the discovery place of the so-called Gubbio layer, an exposed sedimentary layer exposed by a roadcut outside of town. This thin, dark band of sediment marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary geological periods roughly 65 million years before present, and was formed by infalling debris from the gigantic meteor impact responsible for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and their contemporaries. It is extraordinarily rich in iridium, a heavy metal rare on Earth's surface but plentiful in extraterrestrial material such as comets and asteroids. It also contains small globules of glassy material called tektites, formed in the initial impact. Discovered at Gubbio, it is also visible at many places all over the world. The characteristics of this boundary layer support the theory that a devastating meteorite impact, with accompanying ecological and climatic disturbance, was directly responsible for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.