Little Paris: The Art of Welcoming

Pope Paul III portrayed by Titian in 1543 at the
age of 75. 

Celebrating an important event that took place in Piegaro on September 20th, 1547, welcoming Pope Paul III who enjoyed staying in Piegaro.
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Last year in January I moved to the village of Piegaro on the border between Tuscany and Umbria. In my small house at the town entrance, which was once the toll house for all merchants entering the main door, I spend my days working on my research and enjoying learning about Italian Renaissance art and history.

The red area is the Piegaro municipality, the blue area
is the Deruta territory. In the Renaissance
period, Piegaro was an "Estate" and Deruta was
a "Castle". 

I selected Piegaro by accident because I am renting from one of my best friends and he happened to have a home for rent in Piegaro. What I knew about Piegaro was that there was a famous glass factory organized as a cooperative (I love cooperatives) and an American lady I knew the existence of from Slowtravel, she had remodeled the most ancient glass factory of Piegaro by turning it into a villa with apartments and she wrote on Slowtravel.
Little by little the town of Piegaro became very meaningful to me because it is located near Città della Pieve, the hometown of the artist Perugino. I imagined the artist on his horse riding to Deruta, which was a town of interest for very important family members in the Renaissance period such as the Borgias, the Sforza family, the Farnese family, and the Medicis along with the Baglioni's, owners of the castle of Deruta. Pietro Vannucci known as Perugino was a major artist of that time. He inspired the ceramic tradition immensely, besides painting a famous fresco for the castle of Deruta.

In the Church of St. Silvester in Piegaro
the chandelier in front of the altar was made in
one of its glass factories. 

So the first person I contacted when I arrived in Piegaro was this American lady, by email because in the month of January she was in the United States. Then I started exploring the town and found out that people were extremely welcoming!

the cathedral of Orvieto's glass windows
were made in Piegaro. In this
window:
"St.Paul with Angels"

Until the 1960s Piegaro produced
this kind of bottle called
"fiasco". Straw was
applied by hand. 

Indeed the piegarese are very cheerful and friendly, treasurers of a tradition of glory thanks to the glass factories which have been part of their culture since the 13th century with different productions. They are used to receiving people for the glass factories business, for travelers stopping by and from the fact that many piegarese expatriated and eventually came back to their land of origin, attracting people from the places they had lived in. Last but not least Italians and foreigners have been selecting Piegaro as a favorite place to move in and some of them have contributed to enhancing the town experience.
For a certain period of time in more recent years, specifically in the 1960s, Piegaro was called "La Piccola Parigi" (tr. Little Paris), because its downtown area was full of small selected stores with many different artisans, of social life traditions such as early evening promenades, which were a must for the married couples of Piegaro. The town was more lively than ever reaching its highest peak from the Renaissance times.
                                                                       
In my recent readings about Piegaro, I discovered that the welcoming tradition belongs to the history of Piegaro itself and it is also witnessed by a very refined and distinguished person, Pope Paul III (1468-1549), a member of the Farnese family in Rome, born Alessandro Farnese. Pope Paul III visited Piegaro five times on his way from Rome to Perugia and he was delighted by the place and its people. Pope Paul III is remembered as one of the greatest patrons of the arts of the Renaissance period, he was in touch with very important artists such as Titian and Michelangelo; to this latter, he commissioned the Last Judgement and the Capitol Square in Rome. Paul III is remembered as one of the greatest Popes of all time.

The modern glass factory in Piegaro has
specialized in making bottles for
famous companies such as Martini.

In the book "Storia di Piegaro e delle sue vetrerie" (tr. history of Piegaro and its glass factories, 1976) by Senofonte Pistelli we may read the story of Pope Paul III visiting Piegaro and this is a summary of it: 

"Pope Paul III visited Piegaro for the fifth time in 1547 and within that occasion, he wanted to thank the Piegarese for their affectionate welcoming and the warmth they expressed towards him by giving them three gifts: the wall clock for the Church bell-tower, secondly the exemption from a tax called "Gabella dei quattro Piedi" (tr. duty of the four feet) for the 18 years to follow and finally Pope Paul III proclaimed Piegaro "Terra" (tr. Estate), the highest title for a town at that time. Piegaro was honored with these presents on September 20th, 1547. Pope Paul III died two years later but Piegaro remained in great consideration at the Roman Curia."

Lucretia Borgia was among the visitors of the
Castle of Deruta. According to history, she
had blue eyes and dark hair (brunettes used
to dye their hair blonde at that time, a tradition that
we still have in Italy). This is a rare painting with Lucretia's
original hair color.

Renaissance wall plate with the writing:
"La Giulia Bella" (Giulia The Beautiful)
16th Century - namely Lady Giulia Farnese.
 (Deruta Ceramics Museum)

Ceramic wall plate with the Farnese Family Coat of Arms,
namely Pier Luigi Farnese, and made in Deruta (A.D. 1537). 

Farnese
Coat of Arms

Pope Paul III had a famous sister, Lady Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), known as "La Giulia Bella" (Giulia the Beautiful). Giulia Farnese was a friend of another famous lady of the Renaissance period, Lady Lucrezia Borgia, who is mentioned among the visitors of Deruta. Indeed at that time a  famous wall plate with the writing "La Giulia Bella" was produced in Deruta and is part of the collection of the Deruta Ceramics Museum. 

Additionally at the Deruta Ceramics Museum we may notice a commemorative wall plate with the Farnese Family Coat of Arms and dedicated to the election of Pier Luigi Farnese as Duke in 1537. The reason why members of papal families were visiting Deruta may rely on the fact that during the so called "Salt War" of 1540 between Perugia and the papal states, Deruta stand for the Pope, thus ending the dominion of the Baglioni family in our town. In Deruta as a consequence of this war we have been using unsalted bread since that time as well as they do in Piegaro. 

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Notes: "Terra" (Estate) was the highest title out of three: 1. Terra (Estate), 2. Castrum (Castle), 3. Villa (Village). "Gabella dei Quattro Piedi": Tax of the four feet apparently refers to a length unit= 1 'piede' ('pes' in Latin)=0,2957 m. 

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Original Posts by Roberta Niccacci -



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