RECORDS FROM THE PAST
for
an essential history of our town
If
we wanted to trace a short chronicle of the
events which took place in our town, we should take into consideration some
documents that bear witness to the ancient life of every epoch. Through them it is possible to understand the widest
historical picture, excluding the details and giving some new information. We
will report some evidences that are either new or beyond
the local interest.
THE "LAKE OF GUALDO"
- In geological times this plain was a lake as well as the nearby plains
of Gubbio and Spoleto; it was surrounded by the Appennines on the east and their
hilly spurs on the northbound west,. The
lake was then drained by the streams flowing to the far Tiber river and the
present plain of Gualdo was formed. Primitive tombs made of stone, with
bones and grave goods, have been recently discovered in the site which
was probably the bank of the river in the quartier of Cartiere.
IN PREHISTORIC TIMES - The first human settlements were not in the marshy
plain but on the surrounding slopes. Among the most suggestive traces of these
ancient times are a group of bronze objects - chisels, knives, needles, fibulas,
shaped as violin bows - and two
discuses of gold leaf, embossed with geometrical decorations. The find is
very important both for the quality of the objects ( the golden discuses may be
considered among the most ancient examples of goldsmith's art in Italy) and for
the place of origin, the Santo Marzio's Valley. The most probable dating of the
set is at the end of the Bronze Age (12th century B.C.). According to
the historian Annibaldi, who was the first to study them, the two discuses may
be identified as objects involved in the cult of the Sun.
Very interesting prehistoric finds can be found in the hill of the Mori,
stretching along the pass of
Valsorda, about 900 metres above sea level.
THE "TOTA" AND THE "TRIFU
TARSINATER" OF THE TABLES OF GUBBIO
- The first time that the "Tadinati" (inhabitants of Tadinum) were
named is in the famous Tables of Gubbio: seven bronze tables written on
both sides, in the Umbrian language and using both Umbrian and Latin characters.
They contain ritual cult formulas and,
according to scholars, they date back, in their primitive version, to 3th
century B.C. The alien populations
and among them the inhabitants of Tadinum, city-state of the Umbrians, were
excluded from the cerimonies, accordind to custom. The "Tadinati" were
classified, such as the "Eugubini" ( inhabitants of Gubbio), in
"TOTA" (town) and "TRIFU" (surrounding territory) and as
they lived nearby they were not so different. These notes from the historian
Devoto are very topical: actually, it is possible to deduce the social
composition of Tadinum and of its region (the "Tadinato" as the
medieval chroniclers called it): they must have had the same mithology, the same
magistracy, the same social classes. All these things should be studied more
deeply in order to find the first signs of our ancestors. But maybe it is better
to quote a text of the "exterminatio" or exclusion, which wanted not
only to exclude the aliens from the local cult, but it was a violent curse,
perhaps for ancestral rivalry:
"Slaughter for the ones who belong to the town
and to the county of Tadino, for the ones who belong to the line of the Tuski,
Naharci, Iapuski, their magistates in charge or not, their youth up in arms or
not. You, Gods, put them in precipitous flight, prostrate them (let them bite
the dust), wipe them out, submerge them, flagellate them, beat them, ulcerate
them, leave them beaten". "And you, Gods, be benign with your peace on
the town of Ikuvio, on its citizens, on its magistrates in charge or not, on its
youth up in arms or not and on its race".
THE "VIA FLAMINIA"
- In 220 B.C. the consul Flaminio had the road which took its name built; it
started from Rome and it ended in Rimini, where it met the "Via
Emilia" and it continued with other roads towards the North and towards the
continental Europe. The Flaminia was one of the main Roman roads. Armies,
wayfarers, traders, pilgrims passed there for centuries: one of the pilgrims
died and he was venerated here. He also gave his name to a village: San
Pellegrino. The road was strewn with towns and
villages, which in this way did not find themselves on
the fringes
of history, being so near to Rome, "caput mundi". In our plain,
coming from Nocera, it crossed Gaifana and went straight to Fossato, according
to the Roman custom. Lots of little roads, coming from the hills nearby, met it.
Till now it is possible to go along the primitive route again in the middle of
the plain; unfortunately, it is reduced to a country path, as in 1500 the
Municipality of Gualdo, built a new route nearer to the town and ordered the
destruction of the bridges so that the travelers were compelled to pass through
the new road. It is advisable to
trace and walk along the ancient route because it is an experience full of
charme.
THE ROMAN "TADINUM"
- The "tota Tarsinater",
the Umbrian city- state of the inhabitans of Tadinum, was situated on the hill,
while the "trifu" extended all around. However, it is believed that
the Roman "Tadinum" developed along the Flaminia and concentrated
mostly on the east of the hill of Taino, which still bears the same name.
Despite many centuries of tillage, remains of buildings come to light in these lands, and
the remains of a Roman
well in good condition can be seen. Unfortunately,
the finds are not numerous: a beautiful front of a sarcophagus with figures,
kept in the town museum, and some few tombstones are noteworthy. As a matter of
fact, in 1300 significant traces were still visible, because some medieval
chroniclers claimed that some churches in Perugia were decorated with the
marbles extracted from Tadino and also the shrine of Pope Benedetto XI (died
1304) was made with them. Some
other finds about the Roman "Tadinum" were studied by the young
scholar Stefano Borgia in the 18th century.
THE "EPISCOPUS TADINENSIS"
- Two famous letters by Pope
Gregory The Great (599 A.D.) for the election of the bishop of Tadino,"deprived
of its priest for long" are important literary documents both for the
religious and civil history of the Roman Tadino. In harmony with the custom of
the time, the electorate was both the clergy and the people, who had to choose
among the priests from Tadino, unless there was no-one worthy of this function:
an impossible occurrence, according to the great Pope. Saint Gregory did his
best to reconstruct the social organization of Italy devastated by the barbaric
invasions and the bishops were direct successors of the distraught civil
authority.
These
letters are the unique, real and wide evidence of our diocese before the year
1000. It
had its evangelization and Christian organization early on, owing to its
location along the Flaminia.
Tradition assigns the bishop Saint Facondino from Tadino to this period,
and tradition must not be undervalued if we want to make agiographical
chronological deductions (or corrections) from some documents from Rimini for
the four Saints revered in the Tadino valley: Felicitas, Facundinus Juventinus,
Peregrinus.
THE GOTHIC WAR AND THE "TAJNAS"
BATTLE. - In 552 the famous battle
of "Taghinas" was fought in our plain, where the King of the Goths,
Baduilla also called Totila (immortal) was defeated and killed by Narsete, the
commander of the Byzantine army of Justinian, who wanted to regain the Italian
lands of the Empire. This battle ended both the Gothic war and the gothic
dominion in Italy and maybe it was a decisive step for the future of our
country. Since long, historians have disputed about the precise place of the
battle; the dispute has been caused by some measures of stadia that Procopio, a
contemporary historian who, actually, did not witness the battle, calculated in
the movements of the two armies. However, the places he reported are definetely
from Tadino: The Appennines, the Tuscia (i.e. Umbria), Taghinas (from Tadino,
Taino), Capras, where the heroic and unfortunate Gothic King, dying forever
buried the great plan for a national unity of the peninsula.
THE DESTRUCTION AND THE DESERTION OF THE TOWN
- The first millennium of our history ended with few and sad news, common to
other Italian towns: invasions, wars, devastations, political and military
upheavals; this situation was accentuated for Tadino as it was along the
Flaminia Road, from which it had advantages and disadvantages. Maybe the
destruction was neither unexpected nor total, but the town was at this point
uninhabitable, and the people were compelled to move to the mountains which were
more distant and naturally defended; There some castles and villages were built.
The same episcopacy of Tadino had to move, and maybe reunite on the
fortified fortress of Nocera, according to the custom of the times (the first
bishop of the so reunited diocese was Adalberto, monk of the Abbey of Saint
Benedict "de plano Gualdi" - 1007-). It extended its
jurisdiction on the whole dominion of the Counts of Nocera. This fact had a
great influence on the future of the destroyed Tadinum: the bishop's palaces of
our towns had an enormous importance for the civil organization.
NO MORE TADINUM BUT GUALDUM
- The name of the town too
disappeared: the new municipality that sprang up was no more called Tadinum but
Gualdum, a Longobard name: Gualdo from "wald", namely wood. The
dispertion of the population and the desertion from the native land, were not
and certainly could not be definitive. According to a movement common to the
whole Italy, the people tried to reunite and found free towns, escaping from the
vassals / (fuedatories). This was the period of the Commons, a very alive and
bellicose epoch. In those centuries the inhabitants of Tadinum reconstituted
their area born from the "tota", the Umbrian city-state and from the
Latin "civitas".
The attempts to reconstruct the town were three, according to a Trecento
chronicler:
The
first, about 1180, was in the plain, not far from the Roman Tadinum, near the
Flaminia Road and on the banks of the river Feo, in the proximity of the
powerful St. Benedict's Abbey (the Abbots were like religious vassals);
unfortunately, the attempt had a short duration owing to the ostility both of
the men and of the environment. Today, what is left is the memory in the name
"Old St. Benedict" on a little elevation, fascinating for the view.
Some years later, around the year 1200, the inhabitants were compelled to
find a higher place, on the slopes of the Appennines, in the valley which
nowadays is called Santo
Marzio, "finding there an ancient Umbrian place again".
But this little urban centre was destroyed by a fire caused by a woman called Bastola
("quaedam foemina nomine Bastula" told the chronicler)
who either acted fraudulently or with negligence. The historian
Bucari, in his fine historical novel "La Bastola", weaved a romantic
and dark plot about witches, treasons, kidnappings, fires and deaths. However,
the Bastola was not a fictitious character, but a real person.
THE "GUALDUM" ON ST. MICHAEL HILL:
GUALDO AS IT IS NOWADAYS (1237) - The dramatic quest for a homeland
ended in 1237. The date 30 April 1237 represents the day of the registration of
the act by which the Abbot Epifanio ceded to the major Pietro di Alessandro, in
perpetual emphyteusis, the hill of St. Angel where the third Gualdo, the Gualdo
of today, was built.
The
contribution of Frederic II, who supervised the restoration of the Rocca Flea
and the construction of the town wall, was significant. In conclusion, the course
of the inhabitants of Gualdo (the Tadinatum) was: on the hill during the Umbrian
period, on the plain, during the Roman period (along the Flaminia road), and
eventually back on the hill again since the Middle Age.
A TYPICAL
URBAN MEDIEVAL STRUCTURE - Our town develped in 1200, even
though the events of the times and the vicissitudes of life introduced
significant changes.
Its structure is typically medieval: the fortress on the hill, the central square ("Piazza Grande") with the Priory palace, the cathedral (actually an Abbey in this period), the Franciscan churches or belonging to other Orders, the high way where all the other streets converge, the alleys, the town walls with the towers, the four gates with the relative quartiers of St. Benedict, St. Facondino, St. Donato and St. Martin ( so called for the existence of four extra-urban churches to which the four gates led). To the east, the high Appennine chain with woods and prairies, to the west the plain and the fertile hills. It was a people of mountain dwellers, farmers and artisans.
A GHIBELLINE AND MYSTICAL TOWN - The enthusiasm of the
construction during those two centuries was extraordinary and uninterrupted. The
name of Frederic II rightly recurs, as a protector of the new Gualdo. The
inscription on a very
old console, put in evidence within
the fornix of the St. Benedict's gate, says:
" St. Benedict's gate, reigning Emperor Frederic, in the fourth
month of the Lord's year 1242" It is the birth certificate of the town
walls.
Gualdo was a Ghibelline town, posing itself as a free
city-state since its origin: a freedom that was always yearned for but rarely
conquered. It was supported by the powerful Abbey that in the meantime had moved
from the plain within
the walls (the plaque in the side of the Cathedral says: "In the Lord's
year 1256 during the time of Abbot William, this coenoby was transferred within
Gualdo)
The town received a direct religious influence from the Benedectine abbot, maybe superior to the bishop's. In the meantime, Perugia extended its power towards the east and this fact proves that the political sense of Dante's "heavy yoke" for which Nocera with Gualdo cry, is not so imaginative. Actually, the period of the city-statewas both of freedom and subjugation necessarily imposed by the different fronts.
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS UNREST: FRANCISCANISM
AND HERMITISM - Nowadays historians are putting in evidence both the
researches on the Economy, on which there are very few documents, and the
religious movements. Their reciprical interferences with the civil life of that
period were common. The primitive Franciscan movement had a significant
relevance and the already existing hermitism lasted until 1400: it was so
intense that the overlooking mountain got its name, SERRA SANTA MOUNTAIN, from
it. There were saints coming from the common people: San Facondino, the Beato
Angelo (patron of Gualdo), the Beato Marzio, the Beato Majo, San Tomasuccio,
eschatologic preacher, and some other less famous men.
The
religious Orders with their big churches were numerous: the Benedectines of San
Donato, and later the Silvestrini monks; The Franciscans of St. Francis in
Gualdo and those ones of the "Annunziata"; later on, the Capuchins and
two Nuns' monasteries settled here. It is necessary to mention the recent
educational activity of the "Don Bosco's Salesiani", since their
origin.
The people had their numerous confraternities, with their seats, meetings,
processions, hymns: not everything has been lost: we still have got a precious
laud-book, noteworthy for the history of the Italian theatre, and very ancient
customs of penitential processions regarding the passion of Christ survive.
The town had also its Statutes that later in the following centuries were
developed, its Guilds, its "Hospitalia" (taverns) along the
busiest roads, especially along the Flaminia, its "ludi"
the games so cherished by the people.
In the archive researches we find the "Palio of St. Michael"
in May, with a eight-day trade fair and big flux of foreigners, with
"balesterij et scopeterij" (crossbowmen and minstrels). Actually,
every medieval town of the time had its "ludi" or games, such as today
every town has its sports clubs.
THE RENAISSANCE: FROM 1400 TO 1500
- A Franciscan chronicler and agiographer, known as “Fra” (Brother) Paolo da
Gualdo wrote the "History of the ancient town of Tadino", also
called "Chronicle of Gualdo"
between the 1200 and the 1300; this is a collection about the lives of
Saints, named "Legendario" or " Lezionario".
Other anonymous contemporary agiographies exist. “Fra” Elemosina was
another chronicler. These were the first signs of the birth of a culture, as the
Renaissance flourished in 1400, but its origin has to be found previously.
A numerous group of artists and humanists was active between the 1400 and
the 1500. Among them there were authors such as Francesco and Gerolamo Tromba,
and Pietro Durante; later, the poet and diplomat Porfirio Feliciani. The Duranti
were a family of jurists, scientists, and literary
men. Giovanni Diletto Castore (to which a street in Rome is named after) and
Ottavio, the musician. The name of Matteo di Pietro, painter of Madonne and
Saints, is famous. His style is considered characteristic and he is considered
the leader of the painting school of Gualdo.
Anonymous ceramists made works of art, while
the churches were decorated with paintings of painters from Umbria,
Tuscany, Marche, such as Nicolò Alunno, with his big polyptych considered his
masterpiece; Sano di Pietro da Siena, Gerolamo da Camerino, Antonio da Fabriano,
St. Francis's teacher. Finally, Avanzino Nucci, who had a lot of homelands, but
surely lived in Gualdo.
Once the struggles between the city-states ended, the political events
caused alternations of occupations, sieges, sacks from mercenary troops on
powerful families' service, that contended for power; in our fortress, coats of
arms witness the struggles between Biordo Michelotti (“brave in the arms
and skilful in governing”) and his enemy Fortebraccio.
However, the culture of the 1500 was significant, as the historian
Ludovico Jacobilli in 1626 wrote: " Gualdo, noble land which gave birth to
very learned men". This sentence has to be taken as a kind compliment, not
completely exaggerated.
TWELVE CARDINALS FOR GUALDO
- The institution of the autonomous Legation (in Perugia) ruled by
Apostolic Legates, (resident even though rarely) as perpetual governors in the
Flea fortress was a consequence of the war among the "Signorie",
precisely between the Papal State and the Dukedom of Urbino which extended its
dominion until our borders (Gubbio was under its rule and the castles of San
Pellegrino, Crocicchio and Caprara were border strongholds). This period
stretched from 1513 to 1587; the Cardinal
Legates in Gualdo were twelve. The presence of these "Princes of the
Church" was positive for our town and it must not have been so
undesired to the citizens as, after its abolition, they made numerous requests
to get it back. Yet Perugia firmly opposed
this request, for it had never willingly accepted the subtraction of
Gualdo from its authority. Coats of arms, inscriptions, decrees, grants and
civil works still witness this period of the Cardinals' rule. A traveller (1573)
spoke of Gualdo as "very civil and crowded town".
THE 17TH AND THE 18TH
CENTURIES - After the period of the Cardinals' rule, ended in
1587, Apostolic Commissioners ruled Gualdo; they were sent by the central Papal
government and were in charge for one year. The last one finished his function
in 1798 when the Roman Republic arose. Totally they were 102, but not one of
them was a relevant figure. They lived in the Flea fortress.
Our
ancient city-states were no longer protagonists of their histories due to the
fact that they were now part of a greater state
Anyhow, we must say that our golden period stretched from 1200 to 1500.
Neverthless,
it is worth paying attention also to the following centuries. For example, both
the baroque of the 1600 and of the 1700 are being revalued; we still have signs
of ornaments in our thirteen-century churches as altars, paintings, stuccos
which have undergone a too hasty erasure.
The historian Guerrieri wrote about the traditional struggles in
the borderlands, especially on the slopes of the Appennines, about frequent
plagues and undesired crossings of armies. But the catastrophic event that upset
our town was the terrible earthquake of 1751: there were very few victims, but
minor and major buildings were almost destroyed and even though the
reconstruction was rapid some injuries are still evident. The restorations were
actually made according to the taste of the time, with prompt matchings, such as
the interior of the 18th-century dome in St. Francis' church. Anyway, the towers
were left docked; instead of the Priori Palace was built the present Palace of
the Municipality with beautiful 18th-century lines, solemn and still in charge.
FROM THE NATIONALISTIC MOVEMENTS OF THE 19th
CENTURY TO NOWADAYS - The 19th century witnessed the new
ferments of the French Revolution, the glory and the defeat of Napoleon and the
shaky old papal State.
Some significant notes on this period: the brief Roman Republic (1798)
reorganized the territory in Counties and Districts and Gualdo became the county
town (dependent from the Trasimeno Shire, Perugia) with its Prefect and with a
territory comprehending: Fossato, Sigillo, Costacciaro, Casacastalda, Branca,
Pieve di Compresseto.
But,
after nineteen months, the papal government took the power again and then there
followed the Napoleonic rule. The new theatre Talia with boxes was inaugurated
in the Corsican Emperor's honour.
Today
the theatre must be completely
restored.
Thanks to these circumstances Pope Gregory XVI granted the title of City
to Gualdo (1833). the old Umbro-Roman name of Gualdo Tadino was reintroduced
with a papal decree; a marble bust made by Tadolini ( or Ceccarini) was devoted
to Gregory who visited the "new city" of Tadino.
Even Pio IX conceded the longed-for Collegiate Church to St. Benedict
(1848), which later had the title of Cathedral (1915). Today, it is the St.
Benedict's Basilica.
In
the year 1815 Pio IX got the railway Roma-Ancona built and this fact favoured
the florishing of our territory.
Gualdo Tadino became part of the Italian Reign in 1860. The capture of
Rome took place in 1870; this event
was reported in a long inscription stencilled on the wall of St. Francis' Church
looking into the central square. Unfortunately, it was cancelled to make some
room for a marble plaque remembering the tragic events of the Second World War.
Even the square called Piazza Grande or of the Municipality changed its name to
remember the gift to the freedom of the people.
In commemoration of the First
World War instead, we have a bronze monument. At first it stood in the town
centre and later was moved to the quiet shadow
of the Public Garden, together with the busts of some other famous fellow
citizens: Matteo
da Gualdo, painter, Castore
Durante, scientist, Roberto
Calai and Raffaele
Casimiri, great and fine sacred musician.
Industry, commerce, handicraft, especially in the ceramic field,
development of cultural institutions, doubling of the citizens, striking
building expansion, participation to the major social movements of our present
time, are the pleasures and the sorrows of our town as of all the other Italian
towns.
Bibliografia: Gualdo Tadino – Sintesi di una città – Edizioni Banca Popolare 1979