PERUGIA, the chief town of the province of Perugia, in the States of the Church, is built on a high hill which forms two summits, on the left bank of the Tiber, 82 miles N. from Rome, and has about 19,000 inhabitants, including the suburbs. It is surrounded by walls in the form of a polygon. The streets are wide, and the squares are lined by massive old buildings. It has also numerous churches with lofty domed., fine gates, and retains all the appearance of an important though now somewhat decayed city. Perugia is a bishop's sec, and it has a long-established university, which is attended by between 300 and 400 students. In connection with the university are a library of 30,000 volumes with some valuable manuscripts, a botanical garden, a collection of minerals, and a cabinet of antiquities, rich in Etruscan inscription., bronzes, vases, and medals. The Academy of the Fine Arts hiss a collection of pictures by natives of Perugia and its terri tory; there are also several private galleries of paintings. Perugia has • school of music, two theatres, a dramatic academy, assembly rooms, and a literary club. The circumference of the walk is above six miles, but much of the area within is not built upon. The citadel, from which there is a splendid view, was built by Pope Paul Ill. Perugia has manufactories of Bilks, woollens, and soap ; brandy and • considerable trade in the products of its fertile territory—corn, oil, wool, wine, and cattle. Large cattle-fairs are held in August and November.
Among the many churches of Perugia, said to be above a hundred, the most remarkable are—the Doom°, or cathedral, which Is built in the gothic style and decorated with good paintings. A celebrated painting by Perugino, representing the Marriage of tho Virgin, which adorned this church, was taken away, with many other master-pieces, at the first Invuion of Bonaparte. The church of San Francesco formerly contained the Desceut from the Cross, by Raffaelle, now in the Borghesee Gallery. The emit Benedictine convent of San Pietro is decorated with several pajntingi by Vasari. The church of San Domenico has a tine coloured-glass window in the choir; it contains also the finely-sculptured tomb of Pope Benedict Xi., who died at Perugia in 1304. The town-house (Palazzo del Priori), a vast gothic
building, and the residence of the delegate and of the municipal autho. rities, coutaina the archives of Perugia. The old exchange is adorned with beautiful frescoes by l'erngino. The square before the cathedral contain, a fine fotnttalu, with sculptures by Giovanni da Piga. In the square Del I ape in the bronze statue of Julius I11, seated to a chair, cast by Vincenzo Dauti of Perugia. The Place Griniana has a hand some gate, said to be of Etruscan construction, but called the Arch of Augustus. The church of San Angelo is built un the site and with the material, of an ancient temple. About a mile from the walls of the town there is an ancient Etruscan sepulchral structure, with an arched vault and an Etruseen inscription. Marry objects of remote antiquity have been discovered in the immediate vicinity of the city, which are deposited in the Archreological Museum.
Perusia was one of the principal cities of ancient Etruria, but it seem. to have been built before the Etruscan dominion by a colony of Umbri from Sarsina. (Servius, x. 201.) It acted a principal part in the wars of the Etruscans against Rome ; its troops were defeated by the consul L Fabius Maximus, and then Perugia, together with Arre tiutn, sued fur peace and paid tribute to Rome, B.C. 294. (Livy, x. 31, 37.) In the second Punic war Perusia was one of the allied towns that sent timber and provisions to Scipio to fit out his arms ment against Africa. During the second triumvirate, the cousul Lucius Antoniue shut himself up iu the town of l'erusia, where he sustained a long siege, and at last, through famine, was obliged to surrender to Getavianue, who gave up the town to plunder. Perusia was on that occasion nearly destroyed by fire. It was afterwards rebuilt under the name of Perusia Augusta. At the fall of the Western empire it was devastated by the Cloths under ruffle. It afterward, ruled itself for a time as a free muuicip dity, had its fac tions of Guelphs and Ghibelines,it.s own tyrants, and at last submitted voluntarily to the rule of Breech, dn Montooe, one of the best chief tains of the middle ages. Pope Paul III. united it to the Papal State.