Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria – Perugia

Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria is housed on the upper floors of the medieval Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia. The palace was the original seat of the Comune, the political power that ruled the city. The first nucleus, corresponding to the current Sala dei Notari, was built at the end of the twelth century by the will of the Consuls’ Government; the following enlargements date back to fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and affected Corso Vannucci, via dei Priori and via della Gabbia. The building is still an emblem of the local government: it indeed houses the Major’s offices and the council chamber.

The first art collection of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria derived from the Academy of Drawing, which was located in Montemorcino Olivetan’s convent: after 1861, many monasteries and convents’s collections and properties were expropriated by the State. It was then necessary to create a dedicated museum to preserve the prestigious artistic heritage.

On June 4, 1863, a first civic art gallery dedicated to Perugino was settled in the Academy of Drawings; only in 1878 the entire collection was transferred to Palazzo dei Priori.

In 1918 it was named Regia Galleria Vannucci, and only then it became known as the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.

The collection path follows a chronological order, and it’s particularly rich in works of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with new acquisitions concerning contemporary art; during the visit, it is possible to admire the work of great masters, with particular attention to Umbrian artists such as Benedetto Bonfigli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and many others.