The house was originally built in the fourteenth century as a watch-tower meant to scour the Valley of Spoleto as is it guarded over the mediaeval road winding its way up to the Castle of Poreta. Its conception, together with that of La Rocca of Spoleto, can thus be understood in the wider picture of fortification of the Patrimonium Petri (Papal States) entrusted to Cardinal Aegidius Albornoz, while the pope himself was living out his rather lavish existence in the Provençal city of Avignon in southern France. In the late fifteen-century or early sixteenth-century, the dovecote and fortifications were added, together with a shrine containing frescoes of the so-called fifteenth-century ‘Scuola Umbra’. Because of its exceptional historical, artistic and architectural value, I Cerri is now proudly one of Umbria’s listed properties and has thus been placed under the protection the Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali, Architettonici, Artistici e Storici dell’Umbria (National Trust).
The area is steeped in history. At only a short drive away, you can visit Etruscan tombs, Roman ruins, mediaeval monasteries and world-famous pieces of art from the Neolithic right through to the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance periods. In Assisi, Montefalco and elsewhere you can visit the sacred places once visited and made famous by St Francis, or even stand where Hannibal tried, and failed, to take over the city of Spoleto.
Useful Links: www.artstudio.it/spoleto