Cortona

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy.

Comune di Cortona
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Toscana
Province	Arezzo (AR)
Mayor	Andrea Vignini (since June 2004)
Elevation	494/825 m
Area	342 km²
Population
- Total (as of December 31, 2004)	22,594
- Density	64/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	43°16′N 11°59′E
Gentilic	Cortonesi
Dialing code	0575
Postal code	52044
Frazioni	Camucia, Terontola, Mercatale, Montecchio del Loto, Portole
Patron	Holy Cross
- Day	September 14
Website: www.comune.cortona.ar.it

Contents 1 History 2 Main sights 3 Culture 4 Transportation 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History

Cortona was founded by the Etruscans, who called it Curtun in their language. The city was also important during Roman times.

[edit] Main sights

The prevailing character of Cortona’s architecture is medieval with steep narrow streets situated on a hillside (altitude 600 metres), embracing a view of the whole of the Valdichiana. From the Piazza Garibaldi is a fine prospect of Lago Trasimeno, scene of Hannibal's ambush of the Roman army in 217 BC (Battle of Lake Trasimene).

Parts of the Etruscan city wall can still be seen today as the basis of the present wall. Inside the Palazzo Pretorio is the Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca that displays items from Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations, as well as art and artefacts from the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

Etruscan chamber-tombs nearby include the 'Tanella di Pitagora' (halfway up the hill from Camucia), two at the foot of the hillside at Il Sodo, and a complex in Camucia. Il Sodo I contains pitch-roofed chambers of slab construction with an inscription, and can be visited. Il Sodo II contained a stone stepped platform with carved sphinxes devouring warriors, the originals in Arezzo Museum (1998). (see La Cortona dei Principes, ed P.Z. Grassi, Cortona 1992)

The town's chief artistic treasures are two panels by Fra Angelico in the Diocesan Museum, an Annunciation and a Madonna and Child with Saints. A third surviving work by the same artist is the fresco above the entrance to the church of San Domenico, likewise painted during his stay at Cortona in 1436 [1],[2]. The Diocesan Museum houses also a group of work by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, known as Lo Spagnuolo, called Ecstasy of St. Margaret.

Also noteworthy is the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

[edit] Culture

Cortona is famous as the base for some scenes in Roberto Benigni's film Life is Beautiful, in Italian La vita è bella. It is also famous as the setting for the 2004 film Under the Tuscan Sun whose author Frances Mayes maintains a home in Cortona.

In 2003, a live concert by André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra in the Piazza Della Repubblica was filmed and later broadcast in the United States on the PBS television network. Now entering its 4th year, the Tuscan Sun Festival[3], is held each year in August.

The Art Departement of the University of Georgia maintains a study abroad program in Cortona as does the University of Alberta. The prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa owns and operates a center for academic activities, conferences and university orientation courses at the Palazzone di Cortona[4], about a kilometer to the east of the city center.

[edit] Transportation

Cortona may be accessed by rail: the closest station is Terontola-Camucia on the main Florence - Rome line, three kilometres away.

[edit] See also

• Tabula Cortonensis - An ancient Etruscan artifact found in the city of Cortona in 1992.

[edit] External links

• Cortona - Art and Architecture
• - Maec - The Museum of the Etruscan Academy