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Cortona (Tuscany)
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Cortona is a beautiful Tuscan hilltown close to Lake Trasimeno and the border with the region of Umbria. The town dates back to the time of the Etruscans, the people who lived in the area before and during the time when Rome conquered the Italian peninsular. The Etruscans were clever engineers and used massive stone blocks to construct the town walls. You can still see the Etruscan stones in the lower parts of the town walls. Wealthy families built elaborate tombs and there are several located in the countryside below the town. The artefacts discovered in the tombs have been moved the MAEC museum in the centre of Cortona. The museum has recently been redesigned and is well worth visiting if you want to find out more about the Etruscans. I advise buying a combined ticket for the Museo Diocesano, a small art gallery which houses works of art from the town’s churches. There are a couple of paintings by Luca Signorelli, Cortona’s famous Renaissance painter and an absolutely stunning Annunciation by Fra Angelico, the Dominican friar / artist from Fiesole, near Florence. |
| The architecture in Cortona is mainly pre-Renaissance, dating back to the town’s heyday as an independent city state. A small town such as Cortona could not remain independent for ever and once the town was ruled by the Florentines it went into decline. Its perpheral position near the border with the Papal States meant that it suffered from the burden of high taxation and low investment. |
Many visitors to Cortona see only the centre. If you want to see more you can download a free pdf of a walk.
http://www.tuscanyumbria.com/cortona-walk.html
This takes you out of the centre, through a park, past Bramasole, (the house made famous in Under The Tuscan Sun) and up to the Medici Fortress high above the town. You then return through steep medieval streets to the centre
The Etruscan Museum, Cortona. |
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