Short tour itinerary
SEGUI  LE  ORME - STEP BY STEP    

1 - Ex porta del Lago 2 - Teatro Clitunno 3 - Disegno monocromo 4 - Chiesa di S. Giovanni 5 - Affresco dei Ss. Protettori 6 - Piazza Mazzini 7 - Torre 8 - Palazzo Comunale 9 - Ex Ospizio 10 - Porta del Morto 11 - Palazzo Valenti 12 - Chiesa di S. Francesco 13 - Torrione Circolare 14 - Convento di S. Francesco 15 - Santa Reparata 16 - Antica porta 17 - Palazzo Manenti 18 - Palazzo Urighi 19 - Palazzo Prepositura Valenti 20 - Palazzo Parriani 21 - Ex chiesa S. Filippo Neri 22 - Palazzo Approvati 23 - Resti della Rocca 24 - Palazzo Petroni
25 - Casa Riccardi 26 - Palazzo Lucarini 27 - Chiesa di S. Emiliano 28 - Palazzo Urighi 29 - Palazzo Manenti		30 - Botteghe medievali 31 - Palazzo Salvi (casa Parrocchiale) 32 - Casa del '400 33 - Palazzo Cicccaglia 34 - Campanile	35 - Ex Monastero S. Bartolomeo 36 - Ex Chiesetta di S. Pio 37 - Portico del Mostaccio 38 - Palazzo Natalucci 39 - Ex Ospedale di S. Giovanni

Informations about our History

 Our land is a not unknown part of Umbria, which has lived intensely every period of the Italian history, as testified by the many vestiges scattered almost everywhere across the territory. It is a land that has always moved with the times and sometimes, in certain fields, even groundbreaking, thanks to its people who have always fought for a better life and a pleasant habitat. In the roman period it was a pagus (rural district) umbro (Plinio il Vecchio talks about the Trebiates calling them the original inhabitants of this land), probably built in 450 a.C.  Conquered by the Romans in 284 a.C., it became a municipality governed by four quattruoviri. Its latin name was Trebia, or Lucana Trebiensis.

Scholars have formulated many hypotheses about the origin of its name; to be brief, we will mention just few of them. The most simplistic one maintains that the name derives from the fact that the village was near a crossroads: Trivium. Another one, much more romantic, wants the name connected with the local cult of the hunter goddess Diana, called also Diana Trivia. The most correct is probably the one that maintains that the name derives from the ancient umbra word for village: “trebeit”. 

The village, during the umbro and the roman period, was situated in the plain, in Pietrarossa: many archaeological findings are the strongest evidences of it. On the top of the hill rose the temple dedicated to Diana Trivia. During the roman period Trebiae was very important, being on the by-way for Spoleto, near the holy land consecrated to the God Clitunno and crossed by the homonym river, navigable at that time, through which it was possible to reach Rome. Tiberio built there another theatre at his expenses; Caligola visited the place many times. Christianity was introduced at the end of the second century by Feliciano, bishop of Foligno, who built a temple dedicate to the holy Trinity upon the ruins of the temple of Diana. Trebiae remained a diocese until 1059, year in which it was unified with the Spoleto diocese by the emperor Enrico III.

The first bishop was the Armenian Emiliano, martyred in 303 during the time of Diocleziano. Since then the Trevani chosed him as patron and honoured his festivity (28 January) with the procession of the “Illuminata”, that takes place during the eve and is the most ancient festivity event of our region.

Since the IV and especially during the V century, due to the decay of the roman power, to the tremendous disasters caused by the earthquakes (in some periods they lasted even six months, causing the destruction of the village and the dispersion of the most part of the Clitunno’s water) and to the cyclical Barbarian Invasions, the Trevani left the old site to settle down definitively on the top of the hill, where it was easier to defend themselves and where the earthquakes were less potent. They encircled the new village with a strong scarp wall, without slits.  It suffered the barbarian invasions and became part of the Ducato of Spoleto, under the Longobard rule. At the end of the XII century it became a free municipality and it has always been  Guelph since then.

Trevi had a very large territory: from Sellano, Cammoro, Orzano and Pettino to the Monti Martani, including Fabbri, San Luca, La Fratta, Castelritaldi and Pissignano. It was doomed to live between two stronger powers: Spoleto and Foligno. In 1214 Diepoldo, duke of Spoleto, completely destroyed the city. In order to remedy, the trevani politicians developed a foreign policy that often brought the city in alliance with Perugia, which in that period fought with Spoleto for the title of “Caput Umbriae”.

Pope Bonifacio IX, to reward the long loyalty of Trevi to the church, conceded to the village the status of a free government.

It suffered then, for brief periods, the vicariate of the Trinci family, the occupations of Nicolò and Francesco Piccinino, Biordo Michelotti, of the Sforza family and the Maurizi. Pope Nicolò V confirmed the old privileges in 1454. A long period of calm started then, during which Trevi worked to improve its political institutions and social situation. Even if we have documents that testify the existence of hospitals and almshouses even in the XII century, the greatest development in the field took place during the XV century, thanks to the preaching and the work of the Franciscan order. In this century we have the birth of a Monte di Pietà, many Monti Frumentari , a public oven and many charity brotherhoods. Hospitals and municipal mills were restored and the public administration started to practice the legal charity. The city, due to the construction of many palaces, took its today’s aspect. In 1470 Trevi had the fourth typography in Italy and the first typographic society in the world. Not accidentally the first work to be printed was a Franciscan one.

In 1784, Pope Pio IV rewarded Trevi with the status of  “city”. Few years later there was the French invasion. After the fall of Napoleon the French soldiers went away with a rich plunder of works of art (many of them have came back), but leaving behind them their ideas, source of many problems even after the national unity. It was annexed to Piemonte after the 4/11/1860 plebiscite.

The 21/04/1928 was a memorable date: the inauguration of the aqueduct leading the water from the Clitunno founts to Trevi. Since the time of the migration of the Trevani to the hill-top the water problem had been a very serious one. When the aqueduct solved the problem a new and better era seemed to start for Trevi. But some years later a new problem appeared in Italy, almost a new barbarian invasion, still worrying: the problem of the historical city centres.

Go to point 1, at the beginning of via Roma, toward Piazza Garibaldi (where you can park your car) and follow the footsteps painted on the street. The numbers indicating the stops correspond to the following ones.