Cagli

Cagli, a courtly little town at the confluence of the Bosso and the Burano, set against a backdrop of some of the highest peaks in the northern Marches, has welcomed strangers for over two thousand years, since the days when ancient Rome made it an important staging post on the Via Flaminia, one of the oldest and most important Roman roads in Europe. Cagli seems to have borne the name Cale, 24 miles north of Helvillum (now Sigillo) and 18 miles southwest of Forum Sempronii (now Fossombrone).

In the 6th century it was one of the strongholds of the Byzantine Pentapolis,along with Gubbio, Urbino, Jesi and Fossombrone. It was donated by Pepin the Short to the Roman Church (in 756) and having experienced the vicissitudes of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the latter partially destroyed Cagli (1287), subsequently the town (1289) in the lower level was rebuilt.

As a free community it experienced considerable growth and was subsequently incorporated into the Duchy of Urbino. The hand of the great military architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini is unmistakable in the dramatic oval torrione or tower to the west of the piazza, all that remains of the citadel that Duke Federico da Montefeltro had built above Cagli towards the end of the 15th century. From the same period are the medieval Town Hall (today the seat of the Municipality and the Archaeological Museum), as well as the medieval church of San Francesco and the Church of S. Domenico, both with valuable paintings.

In the church of San Domenico, for example, there is a fresco of the Madonna and Child with Saints by Giovanni Santi; the angel to the left of the picture is said to be a portrait of Santi’s better known son, Raphael. Similarly, the Cathedral, the churches of S. Angelo Minore, S. Maria della Misericordia, San Giuseppe, Santa Chiara, San Filippo and San Bartolomeo all have many fine works of art. Among the public buildings Palazzo Brancaleoni from the 15th Century, the 16th century Palazzo Tiranni-Castracani and theCity Theater from the 19th century are worth mentioning. The remarkable Ponte Mallio is a Romanesque monuments of great importance.

The beauty of Cagli as a town, however, is overshadowed by the natural splendour of its setting amidst some of the Marche’s most uncontaminated countryside A tortuous 10 km drive up from the town will take you to the windswept meadows 1108 m up on the summit of Monte Petrano, olympian views and a mass of wild daffodils in late spring.

To the east of Cagli stand the twin peaks of Monte Catria (1700m) and Monte Acuto (1527m), an untouched wilderness with breathtaking views. A road from the nearby village of Acquaviva winds up through meadows and beech woods to within a few hundred metres of each peak, before dropping back down towardsFrontone, or to Cantiano, beneath the western slopes. The journey is especially rewarding in May and June when the alpine flora in the upland meadows is in full bloom.

Events in Cagli:

On Good Friday the Easter liturgy reaches its climax in the Procession of Cristo Morto. The late afternoon procession, after the deposition in the Cathedral, end in front of the Church of San Giuseppe, where the two images of Our Lady of Sorrows and Christ are brought before each other. In the evening, four hundred confraternity members, barefoot and hooded, from five confraternities form the religious procession that precedes the carriage bearing the veiled statue of the Dead Christ, in a ritual that has remained unchanged since the 16th. C.

By the end of April or beginning of May the Slow Food Organization and the city of Cagl organize the national charcuterie fair “Distinti Salumi”. During the three days of the festival Cagli opens its ancient noble buildings and turns them into tasting rooms, educational tours and educational sensory experiences. 

At the beginning of June Cagli celebrates Corpus Christi in a beautiful procession. The streets are carpeted with flowers, arranged by local people and worshippers, as a demonstration of popular piety. In the procession a priest carries the consecrated host under a rich canopy, accompanied by memebers of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, in a tradition that has continued uninterruptedly since the 15th Century.

Gubbio

Gubbio is located in the north-east of Umbria, on the border with Marche (east), 26 km from Cagli. Predominantly mountainous area, bounded on the east by the Apennine range and west from the valley of the Tiber River, it is rich in natural beauty and treasures of art, where history, culture and landscape living together in a harmonic symbiosis.

Gubbio is famous for its festival of the Ceri. It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest Italian folklore display. The festival has always played a fundamental role in the heart of the Eugubina community. Its origins are obscure according to some documents it seems that the festival is a solemn act of devotion on the part of the Eugubini towards their Bishop Ubaldo Baldassini which started in 1160, the year of his death.

Since then, every 15th May, the eve of the day of mourning, the devotional offering to the patron Saint is a fixed appointment for the people of Gubbio who are said to have taken part in a great mystical procession, carrying candles all around the town and up Mount Ingino (where since 11th September 1194 the body of Saint Ubaldo lies, in the church which bears his name). Certainly, the Eugubini dearly loved their important townsman, especially from 1154 onwards, when Gubbio conquered no less than 11 allied cities. The victory seemed miraculous, and was also thanks to the intervention of Bishop Baldassini. The wax candles, offered by the Arts and Crafts corporations, probably became difficult to transport with the passing of time, and towards the end of the 16th century were substituted by three wooden structures, which were agile and modern. They have been replaced a number of times. They have kept their original form up until today and on the same date; they follow the same route to the same place.