Borgo Sansepolcro

Sansepolcro lies in the upper Tiber valley, where a settlement grew around a monastery dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre. Tradition attributed its foundation to pilgrims returning from Jerusalem. The town was the birthplace of the painter Piero della Francesca and the mathematician Luca Pacioli, whose work reflects its place in the learning and art of the Renaissance.

In 1367 Pope Urban V granted Sansepolcro and its territory to the Malatesta family. Their heirs held the town and its surrounding lands until Florence gained control in the fifteenth century with papal approval. Piero della Francesca painted for his native town as well as for patrons elsewhere in Italy. In the sixteenth century Pope Leo X raised Sansepolcro to the rank of a city.