Comune di Cagli Assessorato al Turismo Assessorato per i Beni Culturali e Monumentali English CAGLI THE HISTORIC ART & HISTORY CENTRE The walled town of Cagli has a certain austerity and of their surrounding countryside”. Indeed of appearance, the compactness and severity “the towns of Urbino and Cagli participated on of its imposing buildings reflecting the stern an equal basis in the pact of February 1376” 11thC teachings of St Peter Damian, prior of the with the Montefeltro lords. nearby Abbey of Fonte Avellana who condemned Despite the blow dealt by the fire of 1287, decorative architecture as a form of “visual Cagli soon returned to being a prosperous arrogance”. centre. A register of taxes paid to the Gazing at the palaces and squares around which Church in 1312, revised after a heavy fall in the town is built, the eye is attracted by the green population due to famine, shows that Cagli Apennine mountains, the ever-present backdrop then numbered around 7,200 inhabitants. that in autumn is infused with the red and yellow Shortly afterwards, in the Constitutiones foliage of the season. Aegidianae of 1357, Cagli appeared among A BRIEF HISTORY Cagli, one of the 6thC strongholds of the Byzantine the nine major cities in the Marca (along with Pentapolis, was regularly mentioned in itineraries Pesaro, Fano and Fossombrone). from ancient Roman times. Servius Honoratus, The economic development of the city centred in his 4thC Latin commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, mainly on the manufacture of woollen cloth made reference to Cales [modern-day Calvi] in the (later also silk) and the tanning of hides, Campania region, which was not, he said, to be industries that grew considerably under the confused with Cale [Cagli] on the Via Flaminia. dukes of Urbino. The free Comune of Cagli was founded at the end When the Duchy of Urbino was handed over of the 12thC and quickly subdued more than 52 to the Papal States in 1631, Cagli became surrounding castles, overthrowing the rural lords subject to the same economic policies as the and threatening the feudal powers of the abbots. rest of the Marche region, principally cereal Its expansion established the borders of the cultivation. The low yields in the upland diocese of Cagli and, in the 4thC Greciano became Apennine areas brought about an unstoppable its first bishop. decline. When the city was partially destroyed by fire, started Gradually the city found itself excluded from by Ghibelline factions in 1287, it was moved new movements in art history. The town’s down from the slopes of Monte Petrano and rebuilt notable artistic heritage, already damaged by anew on flatter land, incorporating the pre-existing the violent earthquake of 1781, was further suburb. The rebuilding of the city, under the reduced by Napoleonic plundering. patronage of Pope Nicholas IV, followed Arnolfo di The Unification of Italy stirred up strong Cambio’s grid-pattern town plan. The state-of-the- anticlerical feelings. The building of the Fano- art urban layout may have inspired Leon Battista Fabriano-Rome railway, the construction of the Alberti in his design for The Ideal City. Some of the new Municipal Theatre, and new public spaces features in this famous painting may be the work gave substance to the progressive vision of the of Laurana (Alberti’s close collaborator), including, future. At the same time, the confraternities in the background, a mountain very similar to the were stripped of their roles in city life and the plateau of Monte Petrano. monasteries were confiscated. The relationship between The Ideal City and Cagli Cagli’s destiny was now absorbed within the is not just a simple coincidence: the Montefeltro wider context of Italy’s national history. The family displayed a particular interest in Cagli railway line was destroyed by Nazi forces in over a long period. What is more, according to 1944 and the Via Flaminia lost its importance Franceschini, the lands of the Montefeltro family, as a major road, marking a long period of until they became a part of the Papal States, decline for Cagli and the surrounding valleys, formed a “regional state, an expression of the which was to be reversed only towards the end princely family, of the cities of Urbino and Cagli of the second Millennium. MUNICIPAL THEATRE - with the great chandelier from the workshop (Piazza Niccolò IV) 13 of Francesco Pucci - features the allegorical The city’s third theatre was opened in 1878 with figures of the Liberal Arts. Venanzi’s painted a performance of the opera Violino del Diavolo, stage curtain depicts Frederick Barbarossa’s written especially for the occasion by Agostino encampment on the edge of the city in 1162. Mercuri. Its original 19thC theatrical machinery The Teatro Comunale, in which Mario del still survives, together with backdrops and wings by Monaco made his debut, is one of the region’s Girolamo Magnani, Giuseppe Verdi’s favourite set main theatrical centres. Companies come here designer. The theatre was built to plans by Giovanni to rehearse their shows before setting off on Santini (creator of theatres at Orvieto and Narni), tour around Italy’s major theatres, ensuring that with modifications by Coriolomo Monti, and is an Cagli’s stage is filled throughout the year. outstanding example of eclectic style. The internal decorations - the work of Alessandro Venanzi - surprise both for their sumptuousness and the quality of their detail. The ceiling of the auditorium TOWER-SECRET PASSAGE-FORTRESS AND PALAZZO BERARDI MOCHI-ZAMPEROLI CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE AND POLO CULTURALE DI ECCELLENZA (Via del Torrione) 14 (Via Imbriano Alessandri, 39) 8 The fortified complex, built in 1481, was This imposing palazzo was enlarged at the designed for Duke Federico da Montefeltro beginning of the 17thC, to designs by Anton by Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The famous Francesco Berardi. Its architecture was further military architect, in his Treatise, places Cagli refined in the 18thC by another Berardi as first among his six outstanding fortresses, (Anton Francesco junior) who was a pupil of and describes it in great detail with a certain Fontana and worked alongside Murena, a close degree of pride. Particularly unusual is the collaborator of Vanvitelli. secret passage (the soccorso coverto) that Beneath the frescoed upper rooms, decorated links the tower to the imposing ruins of the by pupils of Barocci, on the ground floor is the diamond-shaped fortress (demolished in Polo Culturale di Eccellenza, with libraries and 1502). archives (in preparation), while on the top floor The fortifications date back to that productive is the Centro di Documentazione della Scultura period of transition, when artists such as PRINCIPAL MONUMENTS (in preparation) with drawings and models of Francesco di Giorgio Martini were testing out public sculptures by 20thC Italian artists. On innovative solutions to the problems posed by IN THE HISTORIC CENTRE the main piano nobile various art exhibitions new developments in artillery. take place during the year. Since 1989, the rooms of the tower – which have a certain sculptural form themselves – have hosted the Centre for Contemporary Sculpture, containing specially commissioned works by sculptors of international renown such as Alamagno, Coletta, Gastini, Icaro, Kounellis, Lorenzetti, Mattiacci, Nagasawa, Nunzio, Paolini, Porcari, Uncini, and Zorio. CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA MISERICORDIA (Piazza San Francesco) 29 (Via Marconi) 33 The church, dating from 1234, is the pivot The church bears the same name as the confraternity around which Cagli was rebuilt in 1289, that has been based here since 1301. The sturdy portal, under the patronage of the first Franciscan dating back to 1537, is topped by a 16thC fresco of Pope. the Madonna della Misericordia. The interior was The marble portal with its inlaid lintel and decorated with frescoes, of which several large fragments spiral columns (with the stylized owl on the still remain: the Martyrdom of St Apollinia (1455) is lower left-hand side) dates from 1348. by Jacopo Bedi from nearby Gubbio, while the others Inside, the recent dismantling of the 19thC have elements that are reminiscent of the Basilica of vaulting above the apse has brought to San Francesco in Assisi. light medieval vaulting above with a cycle The main altar, with its 15thC canopy with the Four of frescoes dating from the 1340s. These Evangelists, also has a remarkable polychrome group in frescoes are believed to be the work of Mello the niche depicting the Madonna della Misericordia. On da Gubbio and show influences of the Sienese the two side altars are works by Claudio Ridolfi, thought artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti. to date from 1625, and the predella showing the The two fragments of 14thC frescoes on the Massacre of the Innocents by Girolamo Cialdieri (1634). counter façade are from the circle of the Maestro of Montemartello. On the side altars the principal works (anticlockwise from the right) are: two fragments of framed frescoes, once attributed to Antonio Alberti da Ferrara, now attributed to the Secondo Maestro dell’Oratorio del Battista of Urbino; the Miracles of the Snow by Ernst van Schayck (1617) and the young Gaetano Lapis (1730); a wooden processional crucifix, from the Northern European school, from the second half of the 15th century; an altarpiece by Raffaellino del Colle (1540). The organ – attributed to Baldassarre Malamini - is the oldest in the Marche region and dates from the second half of the 16thC. Beside it, on CHURCH OF SANT’ANGELO MINORE the left, is one of three wash drawings by (Via Lapis) 27 Battaglini da Imola from 1529 (the other two Passing through the loggia (built in a 15thC style, are beside the main altar). though erected in 1560), the interior has an In the piazza in front of the church is a bronze elaborate main altar dating from the mid-17thC.