The choice of a guided tour of the “undergrounds” of Perugia does not arise exclusively from the particular fascination that this kind of itinerary exerts, but above all from the particular nature and characteristics peculiar to the city of Perugia.
This city, in fact, has experienced a truly impressive continuity of habitation, so much so that it can be traversed not only, as is always the case, “horizontally,” but also and especially “vertically,” with an exciting journey through history.
Some of its most important treasures, therefore, ended up hidden under the city, still inhabited today, whose elegant forms were largely structured between the 14th and 16th centuries.
The area of the Rocca Paolina, classified among the “Castles of Italy,” is in this sense one of the most fascinating examples, because it allows us to retrace the entire arc of Perugia’s history: from the Etruscan period, represented by the Porta Marzia, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with the Baglioni quarter and the Papal Fortress, to the triumph of the Risorgimento with the Piazza Italia that overlapped the pre-existing structures.
The centerpiece of our visit is then the route through the basement of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Quite recent excavations, in fact, have identified at this very site the truly impressive remains of the ancient acropolis: the basement of a gigantic temple and, above all, an impressive substructure and water drainage created in Etruscan times.
Another important stop on our underground journey is the basement of the Gesù Church, where there are three Baroque Oratories arranged in towers and completely frescoed.
To finish, it is possible to access the Etruscan Well and, with at least a week’s notice, the Postierla dell’Acquedotto. The latter, originally one of the secondary gates in the Etruscan walls, was later reused in the grand design for the medieval aqueduct that fed the Fontana Maggiore.
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