Massa Martana is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about south of Perugia and about north of Terni.
It is one of the classic walled towns of central Italy. The modern town has spread northwards along the road. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").
Etymology
The name Massa derives from a term frequently found in Lombard-period documents, referring to a group of fortified dwellings and reflecting the settlement's origin.
History
About away, settlements had existed since the time of Augustus along the Via Flaminia. These developed into a center known as Vicus Martis, after a temple to Mars erected by Vespasian, and later took the name Civitas Martana.
The ancient settlement was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 306, and its ruin was completed by the Goths in 546, the Lombards in 590, and finally by the Saracens around 830. From its remains arose several nearby castles, including Colpetrazzo, Montemartano, , and Santa Maria in Pantano. The latter site lay in a large plain marked by water channels, believed to be the remains of aqueducts from the ancient city.
In 1305 the settlement was besieged by the Ghibellines of Todi, an event that prompted the intervention of Perugia and Pope Benedict XI. In 1397 Pope Boniface IX removed its control from Todi and placed it under direct papal protection, though in 1403 the same pope restored it to Todi.
In 2021, 1,670 people lived in rural dispersed dwellings not assigned to any named locality.
After the villa fell into ruin, the abbey was established around the 10th–11th century by Benedictine monks, who reused materials from the Roman building. The reuse of Roman materials is evident in decorative elements such as metopes incorporated into the façade and apse.