Cortona is a famous Tuscan town on a hilltop overlooking the Val di Chiana. The place has been occupied since Etruscan times is now a regular part of Tuscan tours.
Remains of the old Etruscan stone walls are still visible in several places.
One of the longest texts in ancient Etruscan, the Cortona Tablet, comes from here; seems to record the settlement of legal dispute.
There is a Roman villa of the Augustan period that survives buried under later rubble, open to tours.
The main piazza is quiet delightful, with its 14-century town hall.
This plain little church has a fresco by Fra Angelico,
and there is a lovely Annunciation (above) by the same artist in the local museum.
You can climb up to this sixteenth-century church for a better view across the valley.
You can see why several movies have been filmed here, including
Under the Tuscan Sun.
As I wait impatiently for my body to recover from surgery, my thoughts go to places like Cortona, where ancient pasts and modern style mingle to create delight.
The small bronze statues found under the gate are now in the MAEC museum in Cortona https://cortonamaec.org/en/
ReplyDeleteMore on the pictured double gate:
According to tradition, through this gate the Ghibellines of Arezzo raided Cortona
The Porta Bifora (Double-arched window Gate) or Porta Ghibellina (Ghibelline Gate) (called Bacarelli in the Middle Ages) is located in Cortona and was named so because in Etruscan times (first half of the 2nd century BC) it consisted of a double-arched entrance.
On the inside of the gate there are two masonry construction parts perpendicular to its axis, while on the outside is a flat square-shaped surface composed of rather large, squared blocks, various stones, and mortar, which could have served as a foundation for a tower.
The discovery of two votive Etruscan bronze statues (3rd century BC) depicting Culsans and Selvans near the gate attest to the sacred function that the twin opening had: the gates, in fact, were used, respectively and according to precise rites and norms, to enter and exit the city, and each of the two divinities was placed to protect its own fornix.
For many years the situation remained unchanged, but between the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the eastern access was closed; around the year one thousand, then, considerable changes were made on the gate and the surrounding area.
According to oral tradition, through this gate, on February 2, 1258, Ghibellines from Arezzo along with exiled Guelphs from Cortona allegedly entered the city by deception, ravaging it; perhaps for this reason, when the city walls were being rebuilt, the gate was closed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culsans
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