Explorer Pérouse

The Palazzo dei Priori is Perugia's Gothic town hall on Piazza IV Novembre, built in several phases between 1293 and 1443 for the Priori who governed the medieval city. It still houses city offices and the vaulted Sala dei Notari, and its upper floor holds the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria; its long façade runs down Corso Vannucci.

The Fontana Maggiore is a medieval fountain in the centre of Piazza IV Novembre in Perugia, between the cathedral and the Palazzo dei Priori. Designed by Fra Bevignate and built between 1275 and 1278, it has two polygonal marble basins carved with reliefs by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, topped by a bronze basin with three female figures.

The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria is the state art museum of Umbria, on the upper floors of the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia. Its 40 rooms trace painting and sculpture from the 13th to the 19th century, with works by Duccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Perugino and Pinturicchio.

Perugia Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Lawrence, stands on Piazza IV Novembre opposite the Palazzo dei Priori. Built from 1345 to 1490 to a design by Fra Bevignate, its flank on the square has an unfinished marble cladding and the 1423 Loggia di Braccio. Inside are a hall nave and the chapel of the Holy Ring.

The Etruscan Well is a cistern-well cut into the rock beneath Palazzo Sorbello in Perugia's old town, dated to the second half of the 3rd century BC. The shaft, lined with large stone blocks, is about 37 m deep and still fed by veins of water. Visitors enter from Piazza Danti and cross the shaft on a glass and steel walkway.

The Rocca Paolina was a fortress built in Perugia between 1540 and 1543 for Pope Paul III, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger over a medieval quarter that it buried. Pulled down after Perugia joined the Kingdom of Italy, it survives as vaulted lower levels with old streets and houses, crossed by public escalators.

The Basilica of San Pietro is the church of a Benedictine abbey on the southern edge of Perugia's old town, founded around 996 by the abbot Pietro Vincioli. Its 70 m bell tower is the tallest structure in the city. Entered from the first cloister, the church holds paintings by Perugino and L'Aliense and a 16th-century inlaid wooden choir.