Pergola

In 1946, in the countryside of this comune, at Cartoceto, the gilded bronzes were found: the group is now in a museum in the town, and it is the reason most people come. The town itself is younger than one might think. Pergola was born as a free comune in 1234, and it was born on purpose: Gubbio, which had jurisdiction over this territory, wanted a place that would give work and trade to the people of the castles round about — and that at the same time would take ground from Cagli, whose possessions stretched along this same fertile valley of the Cesano. It worked: within a few decades the place filled with workshops and became an important centre of trade, contested by the Sforza, the Malatesta, the Montefeltro and the Della Rovere.

A town made by a single act had, however, a singular inside. Within the walls there were four parishes, and each answered to somebody else: Santa Maria della piazza to the abbot of Sitria, San Marco to the abbot of Nonantola, Sant'Andrea to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana and San Biagio to the bishop of Cagli — so that the bishop of Gubbio, who ought to have had jurisdiction, had it only in name. The rest is titles and money: Benedict XIV made Pergola a City in 1752; in 1796 a mint was set up here, which struck coins for three years; and in 1819 Pius VII gave it a diocese of its own, joined to Cagli only in the person of the bishop, who was obliged to reside six months in one place and six months in the other.