Gubbio
Gubbio is a town and municipality in the northeastern part of the province of Perugia in the region of Umbria in Italy. As of 2025, with a population of 30,297, it is the 6th-largest municipality in Umbria.
It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines.
History
Prehistory
The oldest evidence of human habitation in the Gubbio valley dates back to the Middle Palaeolithic, but only during the Neolithic period does the earliest evidence of relatively permanent settlements emerge. Agriculture and animal husbandry were introduced to the valley around the 6th to 5th millennium BCE. Stone tools and pottery have been found from this period. The styles and decorations of the pottery have a resemblance to contemporary finds from Marche and Lazio. At the excavated site of San Marco, east of Gubbio, archaeologists found a ditch with various almost-intact ceramic vessels, which may indicate a deliberate deposit as part of some sort of ritual.Little evidence has been found from the Chalcolithic period in the Gubbio valley.
Bronze Age
During the Middle to Late Bronze Age, there appears to have been a significant increase in population throughout the region. Beginning around 1400 BCE, there appears to have been a major shift in the settlement pattern in the Gubbio valley: from dispersed habitation of the valley below to "the occupation of a single, strategically placed, upland site": Monte Ingino. This site, on a hilltop overlooking present-day Gubbio, was "probably chosen because of its naturally defended position, good visibility of surrounding terrain, and access to surrounding pasture". The settlement at Monte Ingino was polyfocal, with people inhabiting sites on the slopes below the summit, while the mountaintop itself, with its harsher climate, was only occupied seasonally, during spring. The valley below was under human use, as indicated by "sporadic finds", but no actual settlement existed there.The summit of Monte Ingino was "undoubtedly" the focus of ritual activity. An enormous amount of archaeological material has been found here, including some 30,000 pottery fragments and more than 25,000 animal bone fragments. These appear to have been part of some consumption ritual: a huge feast that served as a "communal display" to neighboring communities, who would have been able to see the smoke from the cooking fire; this ritual may have been performed by specific individuals "while placed in this outpost above the territory over which they had to maintain control". Later, in the Archaic period, this ritual appears to have become much more formalized.
Later, around 1200–1100 BCE, another settlement area was established on the neighboring hilltop of Monte Asciano. This site served as a less prominent ritual center, and may have also been covered by a settlement, although only one hut has been excavated here. Occupation of Monte Asciano continued until about 950 BCE, when the local population all moved to the slopes below.
The Gubbio valley in the Bronze Age would have still been covered by "a moist woodland environment which remained relatively cool and moist during the summer months". This period is probably the first time when people started cutting down significant parts of these woods to clear space for agriculture. Agricultural technology at the time was probably similar to that of Northern Europe during the Iron Age, with light wooden ards pulled by animals. Barley may have been cultivated on some of the gentler slopes near Monte Ingino and Monte Asciano. Pigs, whose bones make up a large portion of the bones found, could have been kept close to the settlements, where they would have readily consumed household food scraps, and then also taken to local woodlands, which would have been a great food source for them. Cows, whose bones are rather uncommon, may have also been kept; they could have been pastured in either naturally open areas or artificial clearings. Sheep and goats were most likely kept and grazed in the uplands around the settlements.
Woodland resources would have been abundant due to the more extensive forest cover. Red deer are attested from small amounts at Monte Ingino; roe deer are attested in small amounts at both Monte Ingino and Monte Asciano. Nuts and berries could have been foraged from the woodlands, as well as smaller game, and freshwater fish could be caught either in the perennial mountain stream between Monte Ingino and Monte Foce, or in the bigger streams down in the valley. Firewood would have been collected in these woodlands and brought back up to the sites in the hills, and flint would have been obtained from cobbles in the stream beds. Water supplies were probably derived either from the natural springs in the hills or from the seasonal streams between the hills.
Iron Age
Monte Asciano remained inhabited in the early Iron Age, and the sites of Vescovado and Sant'Agostino primarily date from this period as well.Ancient
Archaic period
By the Archaic period, the main area of settlement had shifted to the lower slopes of Monte Asciano, including Sant'Agostino. Monte Ascoli itself was used as a religious sanctuary during this period. Finds from this period include a drystone platform, dozens of bronze figurines dated to between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE, and an aes rude probably dating from the 3rd century BCE.Umbrian period
As Ikuvium, it was an important town of the Umbri in pre-Roman times, made famous for the discovery there in 1444 of the Iguvine Tablets, a set of bronze tablets that together constitute the largest surviving text in the Umbrian language.According to Dorica Manconi, pre-Roman Ikuvium was located in a "well-defined" area in the vicinity of the present-day city. It was "bounded by the cemeteries, between the river Camignano, the continuation of Via dei Consoli, Viale Parruccini and the wall so-called "del vallo", extending over about and surrounded by a huge area of land to be used for agriculture and stock-farming". This is supported by a high number of archaeological finds in the area, including a vernice nera kiln possibly from the 3rd or 2nd century BCE as well as a necropolis at San Biagio. A number of smaller rural settlements also existed throughout the valley, dependent on the main town; the two best-known archaeologically were at Mocaiana and Casa Regni.
Gubbio is one of only two Umbrian towns known to have minted its own coins before the Roman conquest.
Roman period
After the Roman conquest in the 2nd century BC – it kept its name as Iguvium – the city remained important, as attested by its Roman theatre, the second-largest surviving in the world.Originally, Gubbio held strategic importance as controlling a major highway through the mountains. However, when the Via Flaminia was constructed 223 BCE, it bypassed Gubbio by several miles to the east. This caused Gubbio to lose much of its significance, and it declined gradually throughout the Imperial period.
After the Social War, the people of Gubbio were enrolled in the Roman tribe Clustumina.
The date of Gubbio's theatre is unknown, although its size, its layout, and the rustication on the exterior suggest that it was built during or after the reign of Claudius. The remains of a large structure nearby may represent a mill of some sort. The Roman temple of the Guastaglia, within present-day Gubbio, has had its foundations excavated, and an inscription originally in the theatre records that the quattuorvir Gnaeus Satrius Rufus financed the restoration of the theatre and of a temple of Diana at Gubbio in the 1st century CE.
A funerary inscription records one Vittorius Rufus as "avispex extispicus sacerdos publicus et privatus" — that is, someone who interpreted bird flight and entrails, as well as managed public and private rituals — and another lists a Sestus Vetiarius Surus with a similar title. This is unusual because this profession was not very common in the Roman world, but it had been important among the Umbri and Etruscans, suggesting that these religious practices continued locally. In the Imperial period, the cults of Isis and her son Harpocrates were also imported from Egypt.
Middle Ages
11th–13th centuries
Gubbio became very powerful at the beginning of the Middle Ages. The town sent 1000 knights to fight in the First Crusade under the lead of Girolamo of the prominent Gabrielli family, who, according to an undocumented local tradition, were the first to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre when Jerusalem was seized.In terms of vegetation and land use, data is largely not available until the early medieval period. In the 11th century, cultivation was limited to the land immediately around the city and around the curtis of the individual feudal castles. Toward the beginning of the 11th century, "the combination of demographic growth and the declining control by feudal lords over their land" led to a more favorable contract for peasants such as enfiteusi. As a result, woodland was cleared to make room for farmland, pastures were converted to farmland, and uncultivated areas were also put to more intensive agriculture. This agriculture included cereal crops, vines, olives, and fruit trees. Mixed cultivation, such as wheat interspersed with rows of vines, was introduced and especially well suited for hilly areas. Watermills had been introduced by this point and were an important part of the rural economy.
The following centuries in Gubbio were turbulent, featuring wars against the neighbouring towns of Umbria. One of these wars saw the miraculous intervention of its bishop, Ubald, who secured Gubbio an overwhelming victory and a period of prosperity. In the struggles of Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Gabrielli, such as the condottieri Cante dei Gabrielli, fought for the Guelph faction, supporting the papacy. As Podestà of Florence, Cante exiled Dante Alighieri, ensuring his own lasting notoriety.
In the 13th century, there was "further economic expansion"; Gubbio had to expand its city walls and construct new buildings to accommodate a growing population. This was accompanied by opening up more land for agriculture, especially in hilly areas, and even the upper hills. Documents from this period mention place names suggesting woodlands indicate the expansion of farmland during this period.