
Pietralunga is a city in the Province of Perugia, located in the north-east of the Tiber Valley. The city lies 566 meters above sea level along the Umbria-Marche Apennines, between the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic seas. The origin of the city dates back to the Umbrian people, who gave the old town the name of
Tufi. It seems, however, that around the fifth century B. C. the Gauls (name by which the Romans called the Celts) took over the land, so that the dialect pietralunghese was added to the Gallo-Italic. During Roman times, the city was known with the name of
Forum Julii Concupiensium. Over the centuries, the territory expanded greatly, and the name of the city was changed to
Pratalonga (which later became the current
Pietralunga).
A list of the most interesting places to visit when you are in Pietralunga:
- Church of Santa Maria (VIII-X century)
- Church of the Gonfalone (XIV century)
- The pentagonal Lombard fortress - Right in the center of the town square you can admire the remains of the access door to the defensive structure, that was built in Lombard times around the VIII century AD
- The former convent of S. Agostino
- Palazzo of the Capitano del Popolo - Built in the early XV century.
- Clock Tower (XVII century)
- Palazzo of Gonfaloniere (XIV century)
- Palazzo Fiorucci - Built in 1612
- The Town Hall - Built in 1500 right over a portion of the Lombard fortress, the palace, before becoming the seat of the Municipality of Pietralunga, was used by the Holy Order of the Middle-age and Renaissance
- The Sanctuary of Madonna dei Rimedi - In the early XVI century, for a miracle, the Virgin appeared to some girls and some nuns of the local Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria del Ponte. The site then became a center of Marian devotion so intense that, in the XVII century, it was enlarged and part of it was rebuilt over the existing Romanesque church where, according to tradition, in 1224, St. Francis had spent the night when coming back from Verna, after receiving the stigmata. The Church is located to the south, along the provincial road to Umbertide, approximately a kilometer away from Pietralunga. Each year, on the second Sunday of September, the town celebrates the feast of Madonna dei Rimedi
- The Pieve de' Saddi - Early Christian Church, it was built over an earlier Roman temple to preserve the remains of St. Crescenziano martyr