The Trinci Palace is located on the north side of Piazza della Repubblica, the ancient platea magna and the beating heart of the city of Foligno.
It is the most representative building of the city, built by the Trinci family and decorated by one of the greatest interpreters of the late Gothic Italian style, Gentile da Fabriano.
A visit is therefore a must to admire the rooms, the palace chapel, and the important archaeological and historical-artistic collections of the Museum, which has been housed here since 2000.
Once the seat of the Trinci lordship, who ruled the city from 1305 to 1439, it was built between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century by Ugolino Trinci’s will, renovating pre-existing medieval buildings and richly decorated.
With the end of the Trinci’s rule and the annexation of Foligno to the Papal States, the palace became the residence of the pontifical governors, maintaining this function until the Unification of Italy, after which it was assigned to offices. With the loss of its original function, the palace was variously adapted and modified also due to damages caused by the earthquake and bombings of the Second World War. The neoclassical facade dates back to the 19th century. The overpass on the right, which connected the palace with the houses built above the minor nave of the cathedral, preserves the brick facing with a two-light window from the early 15th century. Other 15th-century architectural fragments are visible in the courtyard with a large brick portico and cross vaults.
The staircase on the right leads inside the palace, home to the City Museum.
On the first floor is the Gothic staircase, once open to the sky, decorated entirely with geometric motifs. On the second floor opens a large vestibule, the Sisto IV hall, decorated with frescoes, ornamental and figurative motifs, and covered by a wooden ceiling with the pontiff’s coat of arms at the center. At the end of the hall is the chapel frescoed by Ottaviano Nelli with Stories of the Life of the Virgin, datable to 1424. In the nearby loggia are the Stories of the Foundation of Rome (part of the frescoes is limited to sinopia) which allusively relate the power of Rome and that of Foligno. From the loggia, you access the Hall of the Liberal Arts and the Planets, where the Arts of the trivium and quadrivium, philosophy, and the Seven Planets are represented, linked to the Ages of Man and the Hours of the Day. These personifications illustrate the complex allegorical concept according to which life is divided into seven periods, each influenced by a planet; to each age corresponds the learning of a discipline. Also, the overpass-corridor that connects the palace with the cathedral proposes the theme of the Ages of Man. The opposite wall is illustrated with the Heroes of Antiquity and the Champions of medieval tradition. The Giants’ hall, accessed by passing through a room adjacent to the Hall of the Liberal Arts and the Planets, is frescoed with colossal figures of heroes from the history of Rome, from Romulus to Trajan, dressed according to Renaissance fashion. Below the figures appear their respective names and Latin verses by the humanist Francesco da Fiano.
From the recent discovery of an 18th-century notebook, a transcription of an ancient document from 1411, it clearly emerges that the work of the loggia, the planets’ hall, the liberal arts, and the giants was entrusted to Gentile da Fabriano with the collaboration of some pupils.
Information about Trinci Palace
Piazza della Repubblica,
06034 Foligno (Perugia)
0742/330584
museotrinci@comune.foligno.pg.it
Source: MIBACT
