Foligno is among the rare cities in Umbria which are built across the plain and it rises until the banks of the River Topino.

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.

HIGHLIGHTS

It is located 40 kilometres (25 miles) south-east of Perugia, 10 km (6 mi) north-north-west of Trevi and 6 km (4 mi) south of Spello.

While Foligno is an active bishopric, one of its civil parishes, San Giovanni Profiamma, is the historical site of the former bishopric of Foro Flaminio, which remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

Foligno railway station forms part of the main line from Rome to Ancona, and is the junction for Perugia; it is thus an important rail centre, with repair and maintenance yards for the trains of central Italy, and was therefore subjected to severe Allied aerial bombing in World War II, responsible for its relatively modern aspect, although it retains some medieval monuments. Of its Roman past no significant trace remains, with the exception of the regular street plan of the centre. Other resources include sugar refineries and metallurgical, textile, building materials and paper and timber industries. After the war, the city’s position in the plain and again its rail connections have led to a considerable suburban spread with the attendant problems of traffic and air pollution, as well as a severe encroachment on the Umbrian wetlands. Foligno is on an important interchange road junction in central Italy and 2 km (1 mi) away from the centre of the city there is the Foligno Airport.

Main sights

Main attractions of the city include:

• Palazzo Comunale, built in the 13th century and rebuilt various times during the 16th and the 17th centuries. Its present Neo-Classical façade was carried out between 1835 and 1838. The bell tower is still the original from the 13th century.
• Adjoining the Palazzo Comunale is the Palazzo Orfini, built in Renaissance style, where the first printing shop opened by Emiliano Orfini around 1470. An inscription on the current façade (built in 1507) commemorates the printing in April 1472 of Dante‘s Divine Comedy here by Johann Neumeister, a former pupil of Gutenberg. This was the first book printed in the Italian language.
• Cathedral of San Feliciano or Duomo (1133–1201), episcopal see of the present Diocese of Foligno : a Romanesque building (the interior, however, was completely reworked in the 18th century). There is a copy of original Saint Peter’s baldachin designed by the Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
• Santa Maria Infraportas, the oldest church in town, although the present edifice dates to the 11th century.

First edition of the Divine Comedy, printed in Foligno in 1472.

• The Church of San Giacomo dates from 1402.
• Trinci Palace (1389–1407), which houses an archaeological museum, the city’s picture gallery, a multimedia museum of Tournaments and Jousts and the Civic Museum. The façade was rebuilt in Neoclassicist style after the earthquakes in 1831–1832. It houses frescoes from the early 15th century, some attributed to Gentile da Fabriano.
• Ospedale Vecchio : a stately Renaissance building (1517–1520) with an eleven-arch portico on the Corso Cavour
• Palazzo Cantagilli (15th century), Palazzo Morotti (17th century) and Palazzo Roncalli (16th century) on the Corso Cavour
• Church of S. Agostino (18th century) : brickwork façade with four Corinthian columns (on the Piazza Garibaldi)
• Church of S. Salvatore (12th century): the façade (14th century) was built with alternating rows of red and white stone and has three ogival portals. (on the Piazza Garibaldi)
• Church of the Suffragio (18th century) was built with a Greek cross-layout and an Ionic style façade.
• Oratory of Nunziatella, built in Renaissance style by (attributed to) Francesco di Bartolomeo da Pietrasanta after a miraculous event in 1489. The rectangular oratory contains two altars on the back wall and one altar on each sidewall with paintings from several periods. Its most famous painting is “Baptism of Jesus” by Perugino (1507), commissioned by Giovanni Battista Morganti. A fragment of the miraculous image of the Virgin was enclosed in a tabernacle of gilded wood. It was placed in front of a fresco by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi da Pesaro (1575), representing the Holy Spirit among angels with St. Feliciano and the Blessed Pietro Crisci. The sacristy contains a damaged fresco of the Pietà, recently attributed to Giannicola di Paolo. In the same room stands the printing press on which the first edition of Dante‘s Divina Commedia was printed on 11 April 1472.
• The Abbey of Sassovivo, 5 km (3 mi) to the east, with cloisters of 1229 with pairs of small columns supporting arches, and Cosmatesque decorations.

Culture

The name of Foligno was famous for a noteworthy school of painting in the 15th century, and its name is carried by the Madonna of Foligno, now in the Vatican, was painted by the Urbinate artist Raphael for the nobleman Sigismondo di Comitibus.

The first printed edition of Dante’s Divina Commedia was printed in the Orfini Palace at Foligno on 5 and 6 April 1472 by Johannes Neumeister and Evangelista Mei, when the sheets for 300 copies were made.

The city is also notable as the birthplace of St Angela of Foligno (1248–1309).

Quarters

The historical centre of Foligno is traditionally divided into twenty rioni (“quarters”). Only ten of those are officially recognized and can take part in the Giostra della Quintana :

• Ammanniti
• Badia
• Cassero
• Contrastanga
• Croce Bianca
• Giotti
• La Mora
• Morlupo
• Pugilli
• Spada

Ten “defunct” rioni have been absorbed by the ones above: Borgo, Fonte del Campo, Cipischi, Croce, Falconi, Feldenghi, Franceschi, Menacoda, Piazza Vecchia and Spavagli.

The Giostra della Quintana is a knight ring jousting tournament based on a historical event. It takes place in the town of Foligno. Actually the challenges take place in June (1st Challenge) during a Saturday night and September (the counter-challenge) the 2nd or 3rd Sunday of September. The definition of Quintana comes from the 5th road of the Roman military Camps, where the soldiers were trained to the lance fighting. They run against a dummy-soldier, trying to catch a ring hanging from an arm of the dummy. Here the origin of the tournament’s name, but the first definition and documented “Quintana” as a knights’ jousting tournament during a festival, dates back to 1448. Since then, Foligno’s “Quintana” was held uninterruptedly every year. In 1946 the actual “Giostra della Quintana” was reborn. In 1613 the Priors included the Quintana in the events of Carnival festivals, and all has been historically documented. There are ten knights, each representing a quarter of the town. Rushing at gallop, they have to catch 3 rings having smaller size at each tournament. The rings are hanging from a rotating statue represent Mars, the Roman God of War. The statue is in oak original dating back until 1613 (17th century) having a shield and a straight arm. A number of happenings involve the whole town and a parade of 800 persons dressed in original-like precious dresses walk in the town the day before the joust takes place.