Under The Sign Of The Eagle

A legend tells us that the ancient Tuder was founded by an eagle that indicated the location where the city should be built. Todi is a jewel evinced in its stone, its walls, its palaces, its churches, the grand square. In the Middle Ages, with its 365 castles, Todi controlled an important territory as far as Terni and Amelia. Today the city is serene and industrious, far from the mystical and feverish rage of its most difficult son, Jacopone, and possessor of great artistic wealth. A visit should not leave out the vision of the choirs of the most important churches, the cathedral and the Temple of St Fortunato, whose magic atmosphere is augmented by the choirs’ floral inlay work depicting scenes of the town and still life ahead of its time. Todi is another important town on the left of the Tiber. The perimeter wall dates to 1244, is 4 km long and provided with three gates. There are many Etruscan remains: the temple of San Fortunato and the Cathedral are on the two hills where the Etruscans developed the city. The same people and then the Romans filled the valley in between with earth and containment walls similar to what was done in Perugia and digging deep wells for water. Todi was sacked by the Goths in the 5th century, then by the Byzantines and then by the Longobards. In 760 it became a Church dominion . Romanised perhaps in the 4th century, it obtained Roman citizenship in 89 (Tuder) - a municipality with the right to make its own coins and then it became a colony under Augustus. The recent discovery of a Roman brick factory on the banks of the Tiber attests to the economic importance of the city. After 1000 it became a commune and in order to control the surrounding countryside it fought with Orieto, Narni and Spoleto. It allied itself with other Guelph cities against the emperor Frederick II of Svevia (1240). In the 1200’s Jacopone da Todi, an intellectual elevated to the highest level of Franciscan studies, wrote some wonderful sacred poems. Todi was at its highest peak of power and learning with its lands extending to Amelia and Terni. After continual internal struggles, the city was beginning to weaken and in 1367 the brother of Pope Urban V brought it to submission. By now in crisis, it had to endure the troops of the Perugian captains Biordo Michelotti and Baglioni, the Angiò, Braccio Fortebraccio and the Sforza. After the passing invasion of the Lanzichenecchi and the plague, the city started to show signs of economic, cultural and artistic recovery. Bishop and patron, Angelo Cesi, was responsible for many of the fine monuments in the city but at the end of the century it passed definitively to the Church. It was an administrative centre of the Department of Trasimeno set up by Napoleon but afterwards it returned under Church control again.
The survey of 1923 significantly reduced its boundaries.
The town remains medieval in character but also rich in cultural vitality. It is today still a vibrant medieval-looking city, also a modern cultural centre.
Tempio di Santa Maria della Consolazione It appears unexpectedly to the visitor as one goes around the curve, a Renaissance church inspired by Bramante, dating from 1509. The architects working on it were Sangallo, Vignola and Peruzzi. Inside it is based on a Greek cross, the cupola sitting on a terrace with baluster with 4 side temples covered with half domes. It is beautifully rich and ornate.
Palazzo dei Priori Built opposite the cathedral as a sign of challenge or accord and finished in the late 1300's, through joining or restructuring other buildings. It was the seat of the papal legates and so was also called the “palace of the governor". It is decorated with Guelph crenellation. There is a trapezoid tower which had to be the highest in the city and a double layer of large windows was added in the 1500's to illuminate the interior.
Cattedrale di S. Maria Annunziata Is from the 8th century, redone and finished in the 15th and erected on one of the two hills. The towers and geometric lines make it look almost military. There are three naves and some famous paintings and sculptures. It has three huge Gothic doors with rose windows over the top. The tower gives it an almost military appearance.
Palazzo del Capitano e Palazzo del Popolo Are side-by-side and date back to the 1200's. Both are accessed by a steep stairway that is over a loggia with very low vaults that accentuate the compactness of the building. The Palazzo del Popolo is crowned with crenellations from the Ghibellines and has many-sided windows to allow more light inside as well as it seeming less austere outside. Chiesa di San Fortunato Erected in the13th on a preexistent religious building, it rises up a steep flight of steps and its façade, unfinished, presents a beautiful marble portal. The crypt hosts the tomb of the most famous medieval citizen of Todi, Jacopone. It is possible to climb up the high bell tower, from which you have a wonderful view.
La Rocca The base of a tower is all that remains of the fort, erected in the second half of the 1300’s and destroyed at the beginning of the 1500's. Nicchioni del Foro Romano Are the four big open shells of the forum which open onto the square of the marketplace, near the Etruscan doorway Marzia. Perhaps they were from a Roman basilica, but it was a public building not a religious one.
Chiesa di S. Ilario Was consecrated in 1249. The façade is Romanesque and unadorned . It has a bell tower alongside.
The Roman Cisterns Over five kilometres of tunnels and galleries, more than thirty cisterns of pre-Roman, Roman and medieval origins and 500 wells of various periods form Todi’s most prized subterranean asset. A rare example of Roman hydraulic engineering of 1st century B.C., it concerns an articulated system of hypogean architecture that crosses the hill in its interior. The spring waters and the infiltration of rainwater flowing through the tunnels have limited the erosion of the geological strata caused by the highly unstable natural conditions.