|
Todi is a little town of 15.000 inhabitants
but it has a long history like many of the towns in the centre
of Italy. It was founded at least 3.000 years ago on a hill
top near the valley of the Tiber.
Its first inhabitants were Umbrian, but towards 500 B.C. the
town was conquered by the Etruscans who used it as a rampart
on the east side of their confederation. Around 300 B.C. Todi
fell under the rule of the Romans. Many Etruscan and Roman
remains can still be seen.
At the end of the Roman Empire (476 A.D.) Todi entered to
be part of the kingdom of the Germanic barbarian tribes, the
Goths . They were originally from the island of the Baltic
Sea and had during the last five centuries migrated down through
Eastern Europe and the Balcans. Goths were finally driven
away about 530 by the Byzantine Emperors of Constantinopole.
In 565 the Lombards arrived in Italy. They too came from Scandinavia
but their level of civilization was much lower than the Germans
and they were able to resist against the Byzantines.
Consequently Italy was divided by the Barbarian Kingdom and
the Roman Empire of the East (they spoke Greek).
The boundaries between Lombard rule and the Byzantine one
passed exactly through Todi and Spoleto. Todi remained Byzantine
while Spoleto became the capital of a Lombard Dukedom.
A little before 800 A.D. the Papal rule took over. A formal
ruling that was not able to stop, after 1000 A.D., the making
of free independent towns fighting amongst themselves.
From 1100 to 1450 Todi and Orvieto fought for the control
of the Tiber valley.
This period is the most splendid moments of the city. Its
most important buildings are Palazzo del Popolo and the Duomo
(the first half of 1200), the Palazzo del Capitano and the
San Fortunato church (the second half of 1200) and the Palazzo
dei Priori (1300).
Jacopone, a holy monk of the Catholic Church, lived in this
period and was one of the first poets to abandon Latin for
Italian.
During the Renaissance Todi also passed through moments of
splendor. The Temple of the Consolation and many other buildings,
of which Palazzo Astancolle is one, were built around 1580.
When the Popes re-established their rule, Todi declined and
remained, economically, a poor depressed area until a few
decades ago. Now there is a big revival to make the most of
the moment of Umbria's natural and cultural beauty.
|
