Cortona

An important and well-know Tuscan city, Cortona is rich with historic and artistic heritage that dates back to the Etruscan and continues to the medieval and renaissance societies. Examples of this patrimony are the Etruscan walls and tombs, the Etruscan museum, and many medieval and renaissance churches of San Francesco, San Cristoforo, San Nicolò, Santa Maria delle Grazie, and Santa Maria Nuova. Cortona was the birthplace of great many artists such as LUCA SIGNORELLI of the Renaissance period, PIETRO BERRETTINI, known as Pietro da Cortona, of the Baroque period and GINO SEVERINI of the modern era. The fifteenth century church of San Domenico hosted Fra Angelico who left to the city such masterpieces as the polyptych "Madonna, child, and Saints " and the " Annuciation ", one of the best known and admired works of the artist.
Cortona enjoys an optimal geographic position for tourists, within easy reach of many artistic cities of Tuscany and of Umbria such as Florence , Siena , Arezzo, Lucignano, Monte san Savino, San Gimignano, Assisi, Perugia, Città di Castello.

Historic outline

The city Virgil said was founded by Dardanus, probably a fortified Umbrian city, passed to the Etruscan between the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. . It became one of the most important Etruscan Lucumonies. The strength of Etruscan Cortona is evident from the powerful walls that surrounded the city, of which there are significant remains, and several tombs found in the valley, including the Tanella of Pitagora, the Melone in Camucia and the Melone at Sodo. Foremost at the rich archaelogical findings is the renowned bronze Etruscan lamp of the 5th century B.C. which is exhibited at the Museum of the Etruscan academy in Pallazzo Casali. Of the period of the expansion of Rome and the successive barbarian invasion, there is a lack of ascertainable information. Cortona reappears as a free municipality in the 11th century, in conflict with Perugia and with Arezzo.
During the municipal period the city was governed by democratic institutions and life was tranquil.
In 1335 Cortona became the Seat of a Bishop, while the city relinquished its power to the rising domination of the Ranieri - Casali under whom it continued to flourish. In 1409 Ladislao, king of Naples, seized the town and in 1411 sold it to the Florentines. It followed the destinies of the Grand-duchy of Tuscany.

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