Cerreto di Spoleto is an Italian village and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of the
province of Perugia
The Province of Perugia ( it, Provincia di Perugia) is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia. The province covered al ...
in
Umbria
it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman)
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. It is a dispersed rural community with 1,158 inhabitants spread over 8 ''
frazioni
A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist era (1922–1943) as ...
''. Its claim to fame is to be the root of the English term "
charlatan
A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through false pretenses, pretense or deception. Synonyms for ''charlatan ...
", as Cerreto was once widely known for the quacks among its natives.
Charlatan.
Dictionary.com
Villages
Ponte di Cerreto is a village of about 200 inhabitants about a mile south of Cerreto. Though now insignificant, Ponte was once an important defensive outpost overlooking the first bridge over the Nera River Nera may refer to:
People
* Nera Smajic (born 1984), Bosnian-born Swedish footballer
* Nera Stipičević (born 1983), Croatian actress
* Nera White (1935–2016), American basketball player
* André António Ribeiro Novais (born 1988), Portuguese ...
. The counts of Celano built a fortress at this site, which has not survived. Today, the village is best known for the 12th-century Romanesque abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
church of Santa Maria: the façade includes a very good rose window, and the interior is notable for preserving the architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
's sketch of that window, engraved on one of the walls of the nave. Among the fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
es is an almost equally rare depiction of the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
as a three-headed man.
Rocchetta (Rocchetta di Cerreto when distinguishing it from others) lies at above sea-level on a ridge above and to the east of the Tissino
The Tissino is a small watercourse of eastern Umbria in Italy. Its source is a few hundred meters South of Usigni, at an approximate altitude of 1000 m (3300 ft), and it flows for about {{convert, 20, km, mi, abbr=on, almost due north, p ...
River. Its principal sights are three churches, two of them medieval and the third of the 16th‑18th centuries, of which the best is San Nicola, with a frescoed interior.
Additional frazioni
* Colle Soglio
Colle Soglio is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Cerreto di Spoleto in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. It stands at an elevation of 663 metres above sea level. At the time of the Istat
The Italian National Institute of Statis ...
* Nortosce
Notable people
The Renaissance humanist
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...
and poet Iovianus Pontanus
Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), later known as Giovanni Gioviano ( la, Ioannes Iovianus Pontanus), was a humanist and poet from Cerreto di Spoleto, in central Italy. He was the leading figure of the Accademia Pontaniana after the death of Antonio ...
(Giovanni Gioviano Pontano) was born here in 1426—although after his father had been murdered in a civic brawl his mother escaped with the boy to Perugia.
See also
* Rocchetta
References
External links
Official website
- Cerreto
- Ponte
- Rocchetta
Cities and towns in Umbria
Romanesque architecture in Umbria
{{Umbria-geo-stub