Perugia’s town hall has run city business from the same crenellated palace since 1297, its Gothic facade fanning out along Corso Vannucci with a griffin and a lion cast in bronze guarding the entrance stairs, copies of medieval originals kept safe inside.
Climb past the Sala dei Notari, the vaulted hall where notaries once met under painted arches and civic coats of arms, to reach the National Gallery of Umbria on the upper floors. Its rooms trace Umbrian painting from Duccio to the 18th century, but the real subject is Pietro Perugino, whose calm, spacious landscapes taught a teenage Raphael everything he would later refine in Rome. Piero della Francesca’s polyptych for Sant’Antonio hangs nearby, worth the climb on its own.
Sources and citations (5)
- Comune di PerugiaPalazzo dei PrioriDescription: municipal seat; Dove section: Corso Vannucci 19Read source
- Galleria Nazionale dell'UmbriaPalazzo dei Priori in Perugia, headquarters of the GNUPalace history and present civic-cultural identityRead source
- Ministero della CulturaPalazzo dei PrioriNational place description: successive expansion campaignsRead source
- Comune di PerugiaSala dei NotariDescription: original assemblies, eight arches, guild after 1582, Matteo Tassi 1885Read source
- Comune di PerugiaNobile Collegio del CambioDescription: assignment and rooms; Dove: Corso Vannucci 25Read source
