Foligno

Foligno: cathedral

Foligno, Latin Fulginium, town, Umbria regione, central Italy. It lies along the Topino River, southeast of Perugia. Originally an Umbrian settlement, the present site is that of the Roman town of Fulginium and still reflects the Romans’ regular street plan. The town’s importance lay in its command of the main pass between the Umbrian plain (west) and the Adriatic coast (east). A powerful rival of medieval Perugia, Foligno prospered greatly under the government of the Trinci family as semi-independent deputies of the Holy See (1305–1439). After their fall at the hands of Pope Eugenius IV in 1439, the town became part of the Papal States until 1860. Foligno was the seat of a flourishing school of painting in the 15th century. The town was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1832 and was largely rebuilt following heavy bombing in World War II.

Among the principal monuments of interest in the town are the cathedral (1133–1201; restored), the Romanesque-style Church of Santa Maria Infra Portas, and the Trinci Palace (1389–1407), which houses the archaeological museum and the picture gallery. Raphael’s “Madonna di Foligno,” now in the Vatican, was painted for the Italian nobleman Sigismondo di Comitibus. The first edition of Dante’s poem La divina commedia was printed (1472) in Foligno’s Orfini Palace.

A commercial and industrial centre, Foligno has sugar refineries and metallurgical, textile, building-materials, and paper and timber industries. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 54,381.