PERUGIA (anc. Perusia), a city and archiepiscopal see of Italy, the capital of the province of Perugia in Umbria situated ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1931) 30,741 (town); 79,270 (commune). The town is finely situated upon a group of hills nearly i,000 ft. above the valley of the Tiber. Its outline is very irregular; from the centre of the town, at the junction of several ridges, parts of it extend for a considerable distance along their summits, being divided from one another by deep valleys. This is the extent enclosed by the mediaeval walls; within them are considerable remains of the lofty terrace walls of the Etruscan period. The so-called Arco di Augusto is a town gate with a Decorated superstructure of the Etruscan period, bearing the later inscription Augusta Perusia; above this again is a Renais sance loggia. Five other gates of the Etruscan period can still be traced.
The citadel was erected by Pope Paul III. in 1540-46, after the plans of Antonio da Sangallo the younger, and demolished in 186o. On one side of the Piazza del Duomo stands the cathedral of San Lorenzo, a Gothic structure of the 14th and 15th centuries, in the plan of a Latin cross; on the other the Palazzo Comunale with two fine Gothic facades (1297, completed in 1429-43), with the figures of the Perugian griffin and the Guelph lion above the outside stair; and in the centre the marble fountain constructed in 1277-80 by Arnolfo di Cambio, and adorned with statues and statuettes by Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano. In the Palazzo Comunale is the Pinacoteca Vannucci, with an important collec tion of Umbrian pictures, of ceramics, and illuminated mss. On the decoration of the Sala del Cambio, close by, Perugino put forth the full force of his genius. San Domenico, a Gothic edifice originally designed by Giovanni Pisano but rebuilt in 1614, con tains the monument of Pope Benedict XI., and in its east front a large Gothic window with 15th century stained glass. San Pietro de' Cassinensi (outside the Porta Romana) is a basilica with nave and aisles, founded at the end of the loth century, re markable for its conspicuous campanile, its ancient granite and marble columns, its walnut stall-work of 5 by Stefano de' Zambelli da Bergamo and its numerous pictures (by Perugino, etc.). The oratory of S. Bernardino has an early Renaissance polychrome facade, richly sculptured, of 1457-61, by Agostino d'Antonio di Duccio of Florence. S. Severo contains Raphael's first independent fresco (15o5). The circular church of S. Angelo, with antique columns in the interior, probably dates from the 5th century. The university dates from 1307, and has faculties of law, science and medicine; it had 346 students in 1925-26. It con
tains an important museum of Etruscan and Roman antiquities. Three miles to the S.S.E., lay the Etruscan necropolis. The large tomb of the Volumni (2nd century B.c.) hewn in the rock, with its carved cinerary urns, is interesting. (See E. Galli, Il Museo Funerario del Palazzone all' Ipogeo dei Volunni, 1921.) The ancient Perusia first appears in history as one of the I2 confederate cities of Etruria. It took an important part in the rebellion of 295 B.C. and was reduced, with Vulsinii and Arre tium, to seek for peace in 294. In 216 and 205 it assisted Rome in the Hannibalic war; in B.C., L. Antonius took refuge there, and it was reduced by Octavian after a long siege. A number of lead bullets used by slingers have been found in and around the city. The city was burnt, we are told, with the exception of the temples -of Vulcan and Juno—the massive Etruscan terrace-walls, naturally, can hardly have suffered at all. It must have been re built almost at once, but is hardly mentioned except by the geographers until the middle of the 6th century.
In the 9th century, Perugia passed under the popes; but for many centuries the city continued to maintain an independent life, warring against many of the neighbouring lands and cities. It remained true for the most part to the Guelphs. On various occa sions the popes found asylum within its walls, and it was the meeting-place of the conclaves which elected Honorius II. (1124), Honorius IV. (1285), Celestine V. (1294), and Clement V. (1305) ; but when papal legates sought to coerce it by foreign soldiers, or to exact contributions, they met with vigorous resist ance. In the 15th century power was at last concentrated in the Baglioni family. Gian Paolo Baglioni was lured to Rome in 152o and beheaded by Leo X. ; and in 1534 Rodolfo, who had slain a papal legate, was defeated by Pier Luigi Farnese, and the city, captured and plundered by his soldiery, was deprived of its privileges. The citadel was begun six years later "ad coercendam Perusinorum audaciam." In 1797 Perugia was occupied by the French; in 1832, 1838 and 1854 it was visited by earthquakes; in May 1849 it was seized by the Austrians; and, after a futile insurrection in 1859, it was finally united, along with the rest of Umbria, to Piedmont, in 186o.