Perugia

Perugia began as an Umbrian settlement but enters written history as Perusia, one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan League; its massive Etruscan walls and the gate now called the Etruscan Arch still stand. Rome campaigned against the Etruscan League in 310 or 309 BC, and Perugia later helped Rome in the Second Punic War. In 41–40 BC Lucius Antonius took refuge here and Octavian besieged and burnt the city, which was rebuilt almost at once. In 547 Totila's Ostrogoths took it after a long siege, and its bishop Herculanus became the city's patron saint.

In the 9th century the city passed to the popes, but by the 11th its commune was asserting itself, and for centuries Perugia lived an independent life, generally loyal to the Guelph party yet never accepting papal sovereignty. It fought its neighbours, including Assisi at Collestrada in 1202, founded its university in 1308, and passed through the hands of lords such as Biordo Michelotti, Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Braccio da Montone. From 1438 the Baglioni family dominated the city, drawing Piero della Francesca, Pinturicchio and Raphael. In 1540, after a revolt, the city was taken by papal troops, lost its privileges, and Pope Paul III razed a whole quarter to build the Rocca Paolina.

French troops arrived in 1797, and in 1798 Perugia became capital of the short-lived Tiberina Republic. Earthquakes struck in 1832, 1838 and 1854. A rising against papal rule in June 1859 was bloodily crushed, but in September 1860 the city joined the Kingdom of Italy and the fortress was pulled down in 1861. Perugia suffered only some damage in the Second World War and was liberated by the British Eighth Army on 20 June 1944.

Perugia's art is its pride. Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, came from nearby Città della Pieve but worked here, frescoing the Collegio del Cambio and leaving eight paintings now in the National Gallery of Umbria; Raphael, who may have been his pupil, painted the Oddi Altar here in 1502–04, and Pinturicchio lived in the city. Galeazzo Alessi is its most famous architect. The griffin, the city's emblem, appears on plaques and statues everywhere and on the university's seal.

The city's calendar is crowded. Umbria Jazz, held since 1973, is one of the world's major jazz festivals and fills the centre each July; the International Journalism Festival, founded in 2006, brings journalists from around the world every April; the Sagra Musicale Umbra presents classical and chamber music; and UmbriaWine has celebrated the region's wines since 2023. EuroChocolate, born here in 1993, moved to Bastia Umbra in 2021.

Sport has a loyal following. AC Perugia, who play at the Stadio Renato Curi and now compete in Serie C, went unbeaten through the 1978–79 Serie A season yet finished second. The volleyball club Sir Safety Perugia plays at the top level and won its first Italian championship in 2018.

About 162,000 people lived in Perugia in 2026, making it Italy's 23rd-largest city and the most populous Italian city set above 250 metres. Immigrants make up about a sixth of the population, the largest groups born in Albania, Romania, Morocco, Ecuador and Ukraine. The municipality spreads far beyond the hilltop to suburbs such as Ponte San Giovanni and the station district of Fontivegge.

Students shape the city's rhythm. The University of Perugia, founded in 1308, and the University for Foreigners, established in 1925 and attended by Italian and international students, are joined by the Academy of Fine Arts of 1573, a music conservatory, the RAI school of journalism and programmes for American students. Corso Vannucci and the cathedral steps are their meeting places.

The economy combines regional government, universities and services with industry: Perugina's chocolate plant at San Sisto is the largest of Nestlé's nine sites in Italy. Daily life in the centre adapts to the hill, with residents moving between the lower town and the old city by escalator, lift and Minimetrò.

Perugia's everyday food is torta al testo, a round flatbread of flour, water, bicarbonate and salt, cooked on a round cast-iron plate called a testo, from which it takes its name; the name is used above all in and around Perugia, while elsewhere in Umbria it is called crescia or ciaccia. For the feast of San Costanzo, one of the patron saints, commemorated on 29 January, Perugians make the torcolo, a ring-shaped cake.

The rest of the table is Umbrian: a simple cuisine built on its ingredients, with pork and cured meats, truffles and extra-virgin olive oil, which goes into almost every recipe. Strangozzi are long, thick strips of eggless pasta, traditionally rolled out by hand and cut into narrow ribbons; porchetta is a boneless pork roast cooked over wood for hours with its fat and skin on, sometimes stuffed with liver and wild fennel.

Chocolate is the city's sweet signature. Perugina, founded in Perugia in 1907, makes Baci — "kisses" — which are widely exported and popular across Italy, and runs a chocolate school and museum at its factory. Umbrian wines, such as Montefalco Sagrantino from the hills to the south-east, fill the city's wine bars.