What to See in Città di Castello: Attractions & Sights

More places of interest

Abbazia di Santa Maria e Sant'Egidio di Petroia

The abbey of Santa Maria e Sant'Egidio di Petroia, known as Badia Petroia, stands in the hamlet of that name in Città di Castello. It was founded by the Benedictines around the middle of the tenth century at the wish of Ugo of the Marquises of Colle, the house from which the Marquises of Monte Santa Maria descended. A document of 972, in which Count Guido, Ugo's son, makes a donation to the monastery, calls it «Sanctae Mariae de Petruvio»; its possessions reached as far as the districts of Perugia and Cortona. Abandoned by the monks, in 1571 it was granted in commendam, an arrangement that lasted until the mid-nineteenth century.
What to see
The complex was built reusing Roman materials and rebuilt several times after earthquakes. The church originally had three naves and three apses on three levels; the present façade, from the fifteenth century, closed off the space that had been the monks' choir, separating it from the rest. The façade is adorned with carved panels showing figures and geometric motifs in Lombard taste, perhaps salvaged from an earlier phase, and the doorway of the inner courtyard has a porch of two arches on small marble columns.
Beneath the presbytery is the twelfth-century crypt, a single hall with three apses, divided by columns with reused Roman and late antique capitals. Parts of the side aisles are now roofless.
Visiting
The bell tower no longer exists: damaged by an earthquake in 1917, it was pulled down two years later and never rebuilt. Openings and visits should be checked with the parish or the Pro Loco of Badia Petroia.
Our editors' tip
The name of Saint Giles is a late addition: it first appears in the papers of 1781, when Pius VI granted many of the abbey's assets on long lease to the Rossi brothers, while for centuries the dedication had been to Saint Mary alone.
Collezione Burri

The Collezione Burri is the collection of Alberto Burri's works in Città di Castello, run by the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, founded in 1978 at the painter's own wish with a first donation of 32 works. It is divided between two venues: Palazzo Albizzini, in the centre, and the former Tobacco Drying Sheds, opened in July 1990.
What to see
Palazzo Albizzini is a building of the second half of the fifteenth century, Renaissance in character with Florentine influence, restored by the Cassa di Risparmio di Città di Castello and lent free of charge to the Foundation. It holds about 130 works in twenty rooms, in chronological order: the Tars, Moulds, Sacks, Woods and Irons of the fifties, the Plastics of the sixties, the Cretti of the seventies, the Cellotex and the Multiplex. There are also a library on modern and contemporary art, the artist's photo archive and the archive.
The former Seccatoi are sheds built between the late fifties and the mid-sixties to dry the tropical tobacco of the Upper Tiber Valley, and closed in the seventies. In 1978 the owning company gave Burri the use of one shed, where in 1979 he presented the cycle Il Viaggio; the Foundation bought the whole complex in 1989. Today 128 large works are shown there in cycles, from Orsanmichele and Sestante to Rosso e Nero, Annottarsi, Grandi Neri and Il Nero e l'Oro. The pavilions are painted black at Burri's wish, and on the lawn stand three large painted iron sculptures.
Visiting
The two venues are opened to the public by the Foundation: opening times and tickets should be checked on its website.
Our editors' tip
The Seccatoi had already saved a piece of heritage once before: in 1966, after the Florence flood, the tobacco company made its plant and workers available to dry thousands of books from the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale.