SPOLETO

Spoleto was the location for the weeklong seminar that matt attended. The seminar was organized by the "italian institute for the study of the early middle ages" and the seminar is dedicated to a different topic each year. This year's theme was "sexuality in the early middle ages."

the institute is houseed in a renaissance palazzo.

the palazzo was built in turn at the edge of the roman amphitheater
in spoleto, which has been restored and where modern plays are staged.

spoleto is not a very touristy place, although it is known in italy for
a summer jazz festival, but there are lots of picturesque street scenes.

I had some time after lunches and dinners to explore the town,
and especially liked all of the public fountains from different eras.

the oldest church in town is the church of
st. Euphemia, built in the 12th century.

the cathedral in Spoleto is beautiful, despite being a
mishmash of different styles: a romanesque tower (12th c),
a gothic facade (13th c), and a renaissance porch (16th c).

one of spoleto's best known monuments is the medieval
"bridge of the towers," built also as an aqueduct.

spoleto provides evidence of its Roman past, in such monuments at the triumphal arch of Drusus, built in A.D. 23 for the son of the emperor tiberius, now half enclosed in a building. Note also how much higher the modern street level is than in the Roman era. (the arch here is seen from both sides.)

another roman era monument is the Casa Romana or Roman House, said to have been the residence of Vespasia Polla, mother of the emperor Vespasian, but dating to the beginning of the Christian Era.

the town walls provide the most interesting evidence for the long history of spoleto. the town was first built and fortified by the Umbrians, an ancient people settled in northeast Italy. Those are the large, rough-hewn stones at the bottom of the wall. In 241 B.C. the town was conquered by the Romans, who partly destroyed and later rebuilt the walls. Those are the large, square blocks of stone. In the Early Middle Ages, the town was conquered by the Lombards, a German tribe from northern Europe, who refortified it as the capital for one of their duchies. Those are the small, flat stones. At the end of the Middle Ages, as the popes were expanding the papal states, they repaired the walls again, and those provide the top, finished layer to the walls!

Some of the town gates also survive.

outside the old town is the 12th-century church of St. peter.
It has fascinating medieval sculptures still intact on the facade.

Here, a person lying dead in bed is the background for a battle between demons and angels, with scales to weigh the good and bad deeds of the soul. (In the lower image, it appears as though the demons have won, because they drag the body off by the hair while the angel walks away.)

here, a farmer ploughs a field with a pair of yoked oxen and a dog.

Two allegorical scenes of deceit: a fox pretends to be dead to trick two crows,
and a wolf wears a monk's cowl and reads from a book, while a sheep relaxes.

the archangel michael triumphs over the devil in the form of a dragon.

back in the old town, the crypt of st. isaac, dating from the 12th century, houses a beautiful medieval sarcophagus said to contain the remains of st. isaac, a hermit from syria who lived in the hills outside of spoleto in the 5th century A.D.