VVHFA - 182 - Urbino. Superb Early Renaissance hilltown. PS ©
Copyright photo.
Fig 182: Urbino, superb Early Renaissance hilltown with unified morphology and materials. Landmark Ducal Palace and relationship to landscape.
We head north through steep-folded Marches countryside. Around a corner on the town's south-west, and here's celebrated URBINO. Clustered in attractive composition across the saddle of two hills, it stands above honeyed ramparts looking sharp, and expressing its humanity and history. We see an Early Renaissance hilltop city with medieval skirts, mellowed yet intact. This place has the distinct identity of a built personality, with its blended brickwork delineated from agricultural surroundings by its encircling walls.
Urbino is exceptional for the way its growth layering has such a feeling of homogeneous continuity, additive instead of disruptive. Supported terraces strengthen the natural contours. Old palaces still stand and the buildings gain new refinements as benign veneers of time.
Urbino was ceded in the 12thC to the Montefeltro family who ruled and guided it until the 16thC. During the 15thC time of Federico da Montefeltro, Count and then Duke, it became a great Renaissance art centre and produced more works for its size than any city in Italy. As patron, Federico commissioned many artists from the whole country and beyond, such as Luca Signorelli, Piero della Francesca, and Justus of Ghent.
VVHFA - 182 - Urbino. Superb Early Renaissance hilltown. PS ©
Copyright photo.
Fig 182: Urbino, superb Early Renaissance hilltown with unified morphology and materials. Landmark Ducal Palace and relationship to landscape.
We head north through steep-folded Marches countryside. Around a corner on the town's south-west, and here's celebrated URBINO. Clustered in attractive composition across the saddle of two hills, it stands above honeyed ramparts looking sharp, and expressing its humanity and history. We see an Early Renaissance hilltop city with medieval skirts, mellowed yet intact. This place has the distinct identity of a built personality, with its blended brickwork delineated from agricultural surroundings by its encircling walls.
Urbino is exceptional for the way its growth layering has such a feeling of homogeneous continuity, additive instead of disruptive. Supported terraces strengthen the natural contours. Old palaces still stand and the buildings gain new refinements as benign veneers of time.
Urbino was ceded in the 12thC to the Montefeltro family who ruled and guided it until the 16thC. During the 15thC time of Federico da Montefeltro, Count and then Duke, it became a great Renaissance art centre and produced more works for its size than any city in Italy. As patron, Federico commissioned many artists from the whole country and beyond, such as Luca Signorelli, Piero della Francesca, and Justus of Ghent.