San Giustino in Umbria

Celalba - Villa Margherita Graziani

A couple of kilometres from San Giustino is the ward which years ago was declared a free state by its inhabitants; the Republic of Cospaia (1440-1826).
When Pope Eugene IV in 1440 made over the Borgo of San Sepolcro to the Fiorentine Republic in return for 14.000 ducats, owing to a boundary error this strip of land 500 metres wide was not included in the new division, and thus became no-man's-land. The Cospaiesi at once proclaimed their independence and remained so for four centuries: no written laws, no overlords, no soldiers, no taxes and, above all, being the first to grow tobacco, doing excellent business both with the Grand Duchy and the Church.
The inhabitants of Cospaia could have reaped advantage from this situation indefinitely, had they not turned the place into a sort of smugglers' free port, which induced the two neighbouring states to reach an agreement and put an end to the tiny republic. The agreement was signed on May 25, 1826 between the Tuscan and Papal governments.
Assigned to Città di Castello, and in compensation for their lost freedom, the Cospaiesi were granted the right to grow half a million tobacco plants: a crop in those days subjected to extremely strict control by the governments.
The village is pleasantly situated on a hill, with at its foot a well equipped anglers' centre.

Waiting to be discovered:
remains of ancient Roman villas are scattered over this territory, and Pliny the Younger himself sojourned at length in the locality which still bears his name, Colle Plinio. The gently rolling hills, unspoilt countryside, peace and quiet of the age-old woods of Massa Trabaria which supplied the timber for Pope Nicholas III's construction of St. Peter's in Rome, all combine to endow San Giustino with a very high tourist potentiality. There is Villa Capelletti on Colle Plinio, a neoclassical XVIIth century construction surrounded by a vast garden, which according to tradition rises on the site of Pliny's villa; and Villa Graziani, a late-Renaissance building, transformed from an old castle in 1616.
The attentive tourist will also seek out a small, forgotten church in Passerina, with a fine cycle of Quattrocento frescoes, or what remains of a flourishing craft of striking mechanisms for fire-arms, which has flourished in Celalba since 1500. San Giustino, as indeed all the Upper Tiber Valley, is in some way mysterious and yields its jealously guarded secrets only to the unhurried visitor.

Not to be missed:
the procession of the Dead Christ (Good Friday), "Pathway of Art" a survey of figurative art (April), "Flight of Colours"; an international show of kites (June), the digs of Pliny's Villa, the Corpus Domini flower festival and the Lamarina mini-marathon: an intriguing sports event (September).

What to buy:
fine wines (Panicale), truffles, craftwork (antique and period furniture, lace, ceramics).