Illustrated guide · Città di Castello
Renaissance walls
and Burri’s matter
Ten places through which to read Roman Tifernum, the Vitelli city, centuries of craft and one of the most powerful modern artistic legacies in Italy.
Explore the placesPreface
Città di Castello changes the expected image of Umbria.
Here the medieval town was decisively reshaped by Renaissance palaces, and the strongest artistic voice may belong not to a fresco painter but to Alberto Burri, whose work fills a noble residence and the monumental sheds of a former tobacco complex.
After forty-two years in Umbria, I value this northern city for its independence of tone. It faces Tuscany across the Upper Tiber, preserves printing and weaving traditions, and refuses to reduce its identity to one century.
This guide moves from cathedral and commune to the Vitelli and Burri, then follows the workshops that connect humanist culture with the continuing discipline of making.
Città di Castello is where Umbrian history becomes material, surface and work.
One destination
Città di Castello,
art across centuries.
The selection deliberately places Renaissance painting beside Burri, and monumental palaces beside printing and weaving. The city's identity emerges from continuity of production rather than from a single preserved period.
The selection
Ten places,
one story
A route through the historic centre followed by the Ex Seccatoi outside it, linking civic and sacred architecture with workshops and modern art.
- 01Cathedral of Saints Floridus and Amanzio
- 02Palazzo dei Priori and Civic Tower
- 03Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera and Civic Art Gallery
- 04Palazzo Albizzini — Burri Collection
- 05Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco — Burri Collection
- 06Church of San Domenico
- 07Church of San Francesco
- 08Cathedral Museum
- 09Grifani Donati Printing Museum
- 10Tela Umbra
The sacred centre of Tiferno
Cathedral of Saints Floridus and Amanzio
A composite cathedral and cylindrical bell tower preserve medieval structure beneath Renaissance and later renewal.
The place today
The cathedral stands near Piazza Gabriotti with a broad Renaissance façade left incomplete in its upper section. The interior combines a single large space, chapels and artworks from several periods. Beside it, the distinctive round bell tower rises from an early medieval base and remains the city's clearest skyline marker.
The historical chapter
The cathedral developed over an early Christian and medieval religious centre associated with Saint Floridus. Major rebuilding occurred from the eleventh century and again during the Renaissance, when the church assumed much of its present scale. Earthquakes and later restoration produced the layered building visible today.
What to notice
- The cylindrical campanile beside the later church
- Unfinished upper façade
- Medieval and Renaissance fabric meeting around the apse and crypt
The medieval commune
Palazzo dei Priori and Civic Tower
A Gothic palace and tower define the secular centre of the city before the Renaissance expansion of the Vitelli.
The place today
The Town Hall presents a severe stone façade with mullioned windows and a strong horizontal cornice. Nearby, the Civic Tower rises above Piazza Gabriotti and can be read in direct relation to the cathedral tower. Together they establish the classic medieval tension between communal and episcopal authority.
The historical chapter
Palazzo dei Priori was built in the fourteenth century and is associated with Angelo da Orvieto. The tower belongs to the communal city that developed after the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Later changes removed or altered defensive crowns, but both buildings continue their civic function and visual rivalry with the cathedral.
What to notice
- Regular Gothic windows on the palace façade
- The two towers representing civic and religious centres
- Local sandstone darkened by age and weather
The Renaissance city
Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera and Civic Art Gallery
A frescoed family palace houses paintings by Signorelli, Raphael and artists shaped by the Upper Tiber's Renaissance courts.
The place today
The gallery occupies rooms, stairs and a garden within the palace. The collection includes works by Luca Signorelli, Raffaello, Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia, Pomarancio and local masters. Exterior and interior fresco decoration helps visitors read the building itself as part of the collection.
The historical chapter
The Vitelli family built the palace in the first half of the sixteenth century as one of several residences reshaping Città di Castello. Architectural and painted decoration expressed their military and political power. The civic gallery later brought together works from churches, suppressed institutions and municipal ownership.
What to notice
- Painted façades and rooms designed as a unified statement
- Raphael's youthful banner in its local context
- Signorelli's strong connection with the Upper Tiber territory
Burri within the old city
Palazzo Albizzini — Burri Collection
A Renaissance palace provides a measured sequence for Burri's sacks, combustions, plastics, woods and cretti.
The place today
The collection occupies many rooms of Palazzo Albizzini, following Burri's development through major cycles and materials. The restrained architecture and controlled installation allow surface, scale and interval to become part of the viewing experience. This is not a general modern art museum but an artist-specific environment.
The historical chapter
The Fondazione acquired and restored the palace to house works donated by Burri, opening the collection in 1981. The artist participated closely in selection and display. His choice to place radical post-war work within his birthplace created a dialogue with the Renaissance city without forcing stylistic harmony.
What to notice
- Sack seams and repairs treated as pictorial structure
- Combustion transforming plastic and wood
- Spacing between works as part of Burri's installation logic
Monumental art in industrial space
Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco — Burri Collection
Former tobacco-drying sheds hold Burri's largest cycles in spaces whose scale he helped redefine.
The place today
The black-painted industrial buildings stand outside the centre and contain monumental works from Burri's later career. Vast rooms allow series such as Il Viaggio, Orsanmichele and the black Cellotex works to unfold as complete environments. The site also preserves archives and documentation.
The historical chapter
The sheds were built for tobacco processing and served emergency functions after the 1966 Florence flood. Burri transformed them into a permanent exhibition site, opened in 1990. Their industrial history and severe exterior became inseparable from his late work and from the city's modern cultural geography.
What to notice
- Scale impossible within a conventional palace museum
- Black exterior unifying separate industrial volumes
- Cycles installed as complete spatial narratives
A vast mendicant interior
Church of San Domenico
The largest church in the city preserves Gothic spatial clarity and memories of works dispersed to major museums.
The place today
San Domenico has a plain unfinished façade and an immense single nave with timber roof, chapels and surviving frescoes. The scale is deliberately open and suited to preaching. Works once made for the church are now elsewhere, so interpretation requires connecting the present architecture with dispersed collections.
The historical chapter
The Dominicans built the church mainly between the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Its convent became an important religious and intellectual institution. Suppressions and transfers removed major artworks, including Raphael's Mond Crucifixion, now in London, leaving the building as evidence of the original monumental setting.
What to notice
- The unadorned exterior concealing a vast nave
- Timber roof spanning the preaching space
- Empty or altered settings that once held Renaissance altarpieces
The absent Raphael
Church of San Francesco
A medieval Franciscan foundation, later transformed, remains tied to Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin.
The place today
The church's interior is largely Baroque, with chapels and decoration overlaying the medieval structure. A copy recalls Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, painted for the church but now in the Brera Gallery in Milan. The Vitelli chapel adds an important Renaissance architectural layer.
The historical chapter
The Franciscans established the church in the thirteenth century. In 1504 the young Raphael completed the Marriage of the Virgin for the Albizzini chapel, demonstrating his rapid artistic maturity. Later remodelling and the removal of the altarpiece changed the experience, but the commission remains essential to the city's art history.
What to notice
- Later interior concealing the medieval mendicant form
- The original location and scale of Raphael's altarpiece
- Vitelli patronage visible in the Renaissance chapel
Treasures of the diocese
Cathedral Museum
Early Christian silver, medieval sculpture and Renaissance painting preserve the religious history of the Upper Tiber.
The place today
The museum stands beside the cathedral and displays liturgical objects, paintings and sculpture from the diocesan territory. The Treasure of Canoscio, a group of sixth-century silver vessels, is the most exceptional ensemble. Other works include pieces associated with Pinturicchio and local Renaissance production.
The historical chapter
The museum gathers objects preserved by the cathedral or transferred from churches for security and conservation. The Canoscio treasure was discovered in the nineteenth century near a rural shrine and documents early Christian liturgy during the transition from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages.
What to notice
- Silver vessels designed for early Christian worship
- Objects retaining inscriptions and signs of use
- A regional collection read beside the cathedral that safeguarded it
Ink, type and continuity
Grifani Donati Printing Museum
A working historic print shop preserves presses, type and craft knowledge in the rooms where generations practised them.
The place today
The museum-workshop contains hand presses, movable type, tools, printed sheets and archives. Demonstrations make the sequence from composition to inking and impression intelligible. Its strength lies in continuity of place and practice rather than in machines displayed as silent objects.
The historical chapter
The Grifani Donati printing house was established in 1799 and continued across generations. Its survival documents the importance of printing in a city with strong humanist, administrative and commercial traditions. Museum activity now combines preservation with practical education.
What to notice
- Cases of movable type organised by hand
- Mechanical differences between historic presses
- Printed ephemera recording everyday civic life
Weaving as social design
Tela Umbra
Hand looms, local fibres and a remarkable social enterprise connect early twentieth-century reform with living textile craft.
The place today
The workshop and collection preserve hand weaving on traditional looms, producing linen textiles with designs rooted in local practice. Visitors can understand warp, weft, pattern and finishing within an active environment rather than a reconstructed demonstration.
The historical chapter
Alice Hallgarten Franchetti founded Tela Umbra in 1908 to provide skilled, dignified work and education for women in the Upper Tiber. The project united social reform, craft quality and regional design. Its continuing activity gives Città di Castello a rare institution where heritage remains economically productive.
What to notice
- Rhythm and physical coordination of hand looms
- Natural linen structure before finishing
- Social history inseparable from the objects produced
The city through time
Eight dates for orientation
An essential chronology showing how ancient foundations, medieval institutions and later transformations overlap.
Tifernum Tiberinum develops as a Roman municipium in the Upper Tiber valley.
The Canoscio treasure documents early Christian worship in the territory.
Palazzo dei Priori and civic towers consolidate the medieval commune.
The Vitelli reshape the city through palaces, chapels and artistic patronage.
Raphael paints the Marriage of the Virgin for San Francesco.
The Grifani Donati printing house begins its long activity.
Alice Hallgarten Franchetti founds Tela Umbra.
Burri's collections open at Palazzo Albizzini and the Ex Seccatoi.
Before your visit
Practical information,
without turning it into promises
Two Burri sites
Palazzo Albizzini is central; the Ex Seccatoi are outside the historic core. Check combined tickets and opening times before planning the route.
Working crafts
Grifani Donati and Tela Umbra are active institutions with specific visit arrangements. Reserve where requested.
Historic centre
The centre is relatively level by Umbrian standards and largely walkable, with traffic restrictions and stone paving.
Dispersed artworks
Some famous works were removed from their original churches. Use the civic and cathedral museums to reconstruct their local context without expecting every original in situ.
Sources
The guide was checked against the Fondazione Burri, the municipal tourism portal, institutional museums and the official craft organisations. Works now in external collections are clearly identified so their historical setting is not confused with their current location.
- Umbria Tourism · Città di Castello ↗
- Città di Castello Turismo ↗
- Fondazione Burri ↗
- Grifani Donati ↗
- Tela Umbra ↗
The hero image is an illustration, not a photograph. Opening hours, tickets, worship schedules, restoration works and path access can change; always consult the linked official pages shortly before visiting.