Spoleto

Spoleto rises above an Umbrian valley in central Italy. Once the capital of a Lombard duchy, it came under papal authority in the thirteenth century. Rival factions and intervention by Perugia troubled the city in the early fourteenth century. Cardinal Albornoz's campaign to restore papal authority made Spoleto a centre of the reorganisation of the Papal States, and his great fortress was begun around 1360.

The Rocca served both as a defensive stronghold and as a residence for ducal rectors, city governors and papal legates. Spoleto rebelled against papal rule in 1474 but was brought back under obedience. Under Napoleonic rule it became the capital of the Trasimeno department in 1809; papal administration returned in 1816.