Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

(left) Walls; (right) Porta Cannara

Bevagna is located a few miles to the east of Spello and Foligno. It is still entirely surrounded by its medieval walls and has retained with just one exception its old gates (you may wish to see Porta dei Molini).

Roman memories: (left) a temple near Porta Cannara; (right) houses built above the amphitheatre

Bevagna, the ancient "Mevania" of the Umbri, celebrated for its admirable pastures, has remains of an amphitheatre and other antiquities.
Karl Baedeker - Italy: handbook for travellers - 1883
Bevagna was a rich, albeit small, Roman town: it even had a small amphitheatre. Agrippina Minor, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero, had a countryside residence near Bevagna and she was not the only member of the Roman upper class who fell in love with this corner of Umbria.

Palazzo dei Consoli and S. Francesco

Three large churches and the Town Hall are positioned in the main square of Bevagna in a way which is very unusual; their façades are neither aligned to nor opposite those of the other buildings. The lack of symmetry adds to the beauty of the piazza, rather than diminishing it.

(left) S. Silvestro; (centre) S. Michele Arcangelo and (right) its portal

The churches of S. Silvestro and S. Michele, dating from the latter part of the 12th cent., though not entirely preserved, present a picturesque appearance. Baedeker
The churches of Bevagna were decorated with white and pink stones, a feature which can be seen also in Foligno and Assisi. They were built between 1195 and the end of the following century; S. Michele Arcangelo has been freed from later additions.

S. Michele Arcangelo: details of the portal; the angel is shown in the image used as background for this page

The portal of S. Michele Arcangelo shows a very interesting mixture of Roman and medieval arts. Fragments of the entablature of a Roman temple were reworked to obtain medieval motifs and reliefs. The panels of the door were decorated with Roman bucrani, a frieze which one does not expect to find in a church.

(left) S. Francesco; (centre) S. Margherita; (right) S. Filippo

The treasures of Bevagna are not confined to the buildings in the main square: there are other medieval, Renaissance and even Baroque churches which add to the interest of the excursion.

Return to Spello or move on to Assisi.