Bettona: Historic Umbria

Local Historical Areas

Bettona is one of the most historical, artistic and interesting localities in Umbria. Its imposing Etruscan walls are perfectly preserved and provided with some towers and a drawbridge. They also include an agglomerate of very old buildings (XIV and XVI centuries), which are valuable and harmoniously distributed. The palaces called "Biancalana" and "Baglioni", "Comunale" and "Podestà " are the most beautiful and important ones.

In "Palazzo Podestà ", you can see the town art-gallery that is one of the most important of the region. It contains the works of the most relevant medieval and renaissance artists such as Perugino, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Dono Doni.

The churches called "S. Maria Maggiore" and "S. Crispolto", S. Andrew's oratory and S. Anthony's ex-monastery also preserve numerous works of the same artists and they contribute to increase in value their already well-known architectural beauty.
Bettona stands on a hill dominating the fertile plain below, from which you can completely see the green valleys where the Tiber and its main tributaries flow. From here, you can clearly admire the towns that populate and dominate these valleys.

The hill separates the plain from the mountains called "Monti Martani". They divide the centre and the south into two parts. The more you advance towards them, the sooner you can see a wide vegetation of trees, typical of the Mediterranean scrub and rich of game. On the other side, instead, going down the plain, there are little hamlets such as Colle and Passaggio. In the outskirts, you can admire other wonderful and interesting buildings: the Etruscan Ipogeum (II century before Christ), the high tower Molinaccio, the imposing Villa Boccaglione, many churches and old monasteries.

With regard to the craftsmanship, Bettona is remarkable for its excellent working of iron and marbles. This place is also famous for its gastronomy: pork, "arvoltoli", nut-bread, Easter cheese-cake, salami and sweet specialities like "torciglione", "pinocchiate", sweet maccheroni, little sugar cakes, "brustengoli". The typical wines are Grechetto, Sangiovese, Trebbiano Vinsanto, a strong sweet wine (it has a high concentration of sugar and it is traditionally decanted during the Holy Week).

The religious feasts are a symbol of a very strong popular and rich culture. Candles and torches illuminate the Procession during the Holy Friday or the Patron's Feast (S. Crispolto, on May 12).

In Passaggio, on May 13 and 23, there are the Saint's Fair and the spring walking. In summer, the streets are adorned with flowers and there's the Procession "Corpus Domini", which is followed by the "Bettonese August", characterized by numerous performances of gastronomy and popular culture.