Castello di Pieve del Vescovo

A kilometre from Corciano, above the Caina valley, Pieve del Vescovo is a fortress reshaped into a Renaissance villa. Around 1570, Cardinal Fulvio I Della Corgna commissioned its redesign by Galeazzo Alessi, adding a residential plan, hanging gardens and a fish pond to the medieval stronghold.

Why it matters

The complex's history spans its early ecclesiastical connection, medieval fortification, Renaissance conversion and nineteenth-century use as a residence of Perugia's archbishop Gioacchino Pecci, later Pope Leo XIII. A 1206 bull of Innocent III placed the pieve of San Giovanni under the Bishop of Perugia. The castle belonged for centuries to the Mensa Arcivescovile, the archiepiscopal estate of Perugia.

What to notice

The building combines a quadrangular fortress with four corner towers, an internal courtyard and curtain walls on three levels, and the residential additions of Alessi's redesign. The gardens included hanging terraces and a fish pond supplied from the valley. The halls contain frescoes attributed to Taddeo Zuccari. The chapel of San Giovanni Battista preserves a fresco associated with the school of Perugino. Since 2005 the complex has housed the Museo Diocesano Diffuso di Pieve del Vescovo.

Context and history

In 1394 exiled Perugian nobles occupied the castle; Biordo Michelotti fortified it in 1396. Around 1570 Cardinal Fulvio I Della Corgna commissioned Galeazzo Alessi to convert the fortress into a villa. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Archbishop Gioacchino Pecci used it as a residence. After serious damage, wartime military use and abandonment, restoration began in 1999 through the Scuola Edile di Perugia; the diocesan museum was installed in 2005.