Bookstore
Available as paperback
and as e-book.
Gubbio Attractions
Start your explorations at hilltop Piazza Grande (to avoid the climb, take the free elevator at the junction of Via Repubblica and Via Baldassini, which runs daily 7:45am–7pm). After marveling at the airy view over the valley below, turn around to admire the rambling Palazzo Ranghiasci behind you, on the north side. That the facade resembles an 18th-century neoclassical British country house is no accident: A nobleman of the time married an English lady and brought her back to Gubbio, where she languished in homesickness before fleeing. To lure his wife back, the heartbroken duke commissioned an architect to rebuild the front of his palace in the latest British fashion, but to no avail—his bride never returned. Note that one of the Greek-style columns has been clumsily replaced with bricks—it needed patching after the Allies lobbed a shell into the piazza to dislodge Nazi occupiers at the end of World War II. Next head for the Fountain of the Madmen in Largo Bargello, a short walk west of the piazza along Via Consoli, but approach with care—it’s said that if you circle the monument three times you are sure to go mad.
Steep, narrow lanes switchback up the hill to Gubbio’s sturdy Duomo and fortresslike Palazzo Ducale at the top of the town, where church and state could keep an eye on the citizens below. (In 1472 Duke Frederico da Montefeltro commissioned for his palace the Gubbio Studiolo, a glorious room decorated with wood inlay; to see this treasure nowadays, however, you’d have to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.) As you approach the ducal palace on Via Federico da Montefeltro, through a gate you’ll see the Botte dei Canonici (Canon’s Barrel), a humongous vessel capable of holding more than 5,000 gallons of wine. Monks in the monastery above, or so the story goes, could serve themselves by dipping a ladle through a trapdoor in the ceiling.
9 Results
- Religious Site
Duomo
On your way up Via Montefeltro toward the cathedral, peek through the grate over the basement storeroom of the Palazzo dei Canonici, where sits the huge Botte dei Canonici (15th-century wine barrel), boggling the mind with its 19,350-liter (5,112-gal.) capacity. Those that would… - Museum
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche Palazzo Ducale di Urbino
Wise and worldly Duke Federico da Montefeltro (1422–82) paced the halls of this palace and contemplated his vast holdings from the study window, all the while dreaming up some of the most enlightened ideals of the Renaissance. One of the palace’s most enchanting rooms is that study,… - Park/Garden
Monte Igino
Outside Porta Romana, a left up Via San Gerolamo leads to the base of the funivia, a ski-lift contraption that dangles you in a little blue cage as you ride up the side of Mt. Ingino (you can also walk up steep Via San Ubaldo from behind the Duomo, a vertical elevation of 300m/984… - Museum
Museo del Palazzo dei Consoli
The former home of the town government is a solidly Gothic-looking palace, almost improbably so, with crenellations, a tower, and an imposing stone staircase that seems to demand you climb up from Piazza Grande. The main hall, where the medieval commune met, houses the sleep-inducing… - Landmark
Museo della Ceramica-Torre di Porta Romana
The 13th-century Porta Romana is the only survivor of the six identical defensive towers that guarded Gubbio's entrances. Its private owners are serious history buffs who have restored the gate tower and set up an eclectic but worthy ceramics museum inside. The museum's most valuable… - Historic home/museum
Raphael’s Birthplace
One of the great artists of the High Renaissance (you can see his work at Cappella di San Severo in Perugia, and his best efforts at the Vatican) was born here in 1483. You can see his earliest known work, a modest boyhood fresco, “Madonna and Child," on one of the walls. Compare it… - Religious Site
San Domenico
Via dei Priori crosses the river into Piazza G. Bruno and the 14th-century church of San Domenico. The interior was remodeled in 1765, but some 15th-century frescoes remain in the first two chapels on the right and the first on the left. Piles of books were left lying around in wood… - Religious Site
San Francesco
One of the earliest churches built in honor of St. Francis, this bulky structure with three Gothic apses and an octagonal bell tower was raised in the mid-13th century. Inside, all three apses were painted with high-quality frescoes by the Eugubine school. (There's a free light… - Religious Site
Sant'Agostino
The entire interior of this 13th-century church was once covered with frescoes. Remaining today are the exquisitely detailed and colored cycle of the Life of St. Augustine, covering the walls and vaulting in the apse, and a Last Judgment on the arch outside it. The work was carried…
