Umbria

Umbria ( ; ) is a region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Apennine Peninsula. The capital is Perugia. With a population of 850,627, Umbria is the 4th least populous region of Italy.

The region is characterized by hills, mountains, thick forests, valleys and historical towns such as the university centre of Perugia, Assisi (a World Heritage Site associated with St. Francis of Assisi), Terni, Norcia, Città di Castello, Gubbio, Spoleto, Orvieto, Todi, Castiglione del Lago, Narni, Amelia, Spello and other small cities.

History

Antiquity

The region is named for the Umbri people, an Italic people which was absorbed by the expansion of the Romans. The Umbri, unlike the Etruscans, with few exceptions did not live in an urban society, but occupied small dwellings located in the Apennines. Pliny the Elder recounted a fanciful derivation for the tribal name from the Greek ὄμβρος (ombros, "a shower"), which led to the idea that they had survived the Deluge familiar from Greek mythology, allowing them to claim to be the most ancient race in Italy. In fact, they belonged to a broader family of neighbouring peoples with similar roots. Their language was Umbrian, one of the Italic languages, related to Latin and Oscan. The town of Gubbio houses today the longest and most important document of any of the Osco-Umbrian group of languages, the Iguvine Tablets, written in Umbrian at the turn of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The northern part of the region was occupied by Gallic tribes.

The Umbri probably sprang, like neighbouring peoples, from the creators of the Terramara, and Proto-Villanovan culture in northern and central Italy, who entered north-eastern Italy at the beginning of the Bronze Age. as testified by the ancient name of Todi, Tular ("border").

After the downfall of the Etruscans, Umbrians aided the Samnites in their struggle against Rome (308 BC). Later communications with Samnium were impeded by the Roman fortress of Narnia (founded 229 BC on the place of the umbrian Nequinum, conquered in 299 BC). Allied Umbrians and Etruscans had to return home and defend each of their territories against simultaneous Roman attacks, leaving the Samnites without their help at Sentinum.

The Roman victory at Sentinum initiated a period of integration under the Roman rulers, who established some colonies, such as Spoletium, and built the via Flaminia (219 BC). Under Augustus, Umbria became the Regio VI of Roman Italy.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Ostrogoths and Byzantines struggled for supremacy in the region, and the decisive battle of the war between these two peoples took place near modern Gualdo Tadino.

Middle Ages

thumb|right|250px|Medieval city centre of [[Perugia.]]

Soon after the end of the Gothic war, the Lombards invaded Italy and founded the duchy of Spoleto, covering much of today's southern Umbria, but the Byzantine were able to keep in the region a corridor along the Via Flaminia linking Rome with the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis. Some cities acquired a form of autonomy named comune. of the Baglioni in Perugia and of the Trinci in Foligno, but the region was subsumed by the middle of the same century into the Papal States by Cardinal Albornoz, who in this way prepared the return of the pope from Avignon to Rome. Città di Castello was subsumed later into the Papal States by Cesare Borgia. During the 15th century Renaissance spread in the northern part of the region. It was in this period that humanists started to use again the ancient denomination of "Umbria" to name the area, which until then had been named "Ducato", after the Duchy of Spoleto in the southern part of it. The supremacy of the pope on Umbria was reinforced in 16th century through the erection of a fortress in Perugia by Pope Paul III, named after him Rocca Paolina. The papacy ruled the region uncontested until the end of the 18th century.

After Napoleon's defeat, the Pope regained Umbria and ruled it until 1860. In that year, during Italian Risorgimento, Umbria with Marche and part of Emilia Romagna were annexed by Piedmontese King Victor Emmanuel II, and the people of Perugia destroyed in the same year the Rocca Paolina, symbol of the papal oppression.

The region of Umbria at the time was somewhat larger than today, comprising Rieti to the south, now part of Lazio. In 1946, Umbria was incorporated into the Italian Republic as a region, comprising the two provinces of Perugia and Terni.

The eastern part of the region, being crossed by many faults, has been often hit by earthquakes: the last ones have been that of 1997 (which hit Nocera Umbra, Gualdo Tadino, Assisi and Foligno) and those of August and October 2016 (which struck Norcia and the Valnerina).

In literature, Umbria is referred to as Il cuore verde d'Italia or The green heart of Italy. The phrase is taken from a poem by Giosuè Carducci, the subject of which is the source of the Clitunno River in Umbria.

Government

Umbria was a former stronghold of the Italian Communist Party, forming with Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Marche what was then known as Italy's "Red Regions". Umbria was considered a stronghold of the Democratic Party and left-leaning parties for over 50 years; however, in 2019 the candidate of the centre-right coalition Donatella Tesei won the region's presidential election against her centre-left rival Vincenzo Bianconi, garnering 57.5% of the vote.

Administrative divisions

Umbria is divided into 2 provinces:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

|-

! style="background:#ccf;"|Province

! style="background:#ccf;"|Population

(2026)

! style="background:#ccf;"|Area

(km²)

As of 2026, the population is 850,627, of which 48.6% are male, and 51.4% are female. Minors make up 13.6% of the population, and seniors make up 27.8%.

Immigration

As of 2025, of the known countries of birth of 835,601 residents, the most numerous are: Italy (733,359 – 87.8%), Romania (19,586 – 2.3%), Albania (15,565 – 1.9%), Morocco (10,108 – 1.2%).

Economy

thumb|right|250px|[[Piano Grande in Castelluccio with lentil fields in flower.]]

The present economic structure emerged from a series of transformations which took place mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, there was rapid expansion among small and medium-sized firms and a gradual retrenchment among the large firms which had hitherto characterised the region's industrial base. This process of structural adjustment is still going on.

Economically the most important region is the upper Tiber valley with Città di Castello. Terni steelworks (stainless steel, titanium, alloy steel) and processing companies (automotive, stainless steel tubes, industrial food facility) account for 20 to 25% of Umbria's GDP. In Terni there are also many multinational companies in the fields of chemistry, hydroelectric power, renewable sources of energy, and textiles (Alcantara, Cashmere). In the rest of the region the ornamental ceramics industry is much esteemed. A notable wine is the Grechetto of Todi. Other noted wines produced in Umbria are Torgiano and Rosso di Montefalco. The Umbrian wineries are at the center of the "Cantine Aperte" or "Open Cellars" event, when local wine makers open their wineries to the public. Another typical Umbrian product is the black truffle found in Valnerina, an area that produces 45% of this product in Italy.

Tourism

Umbria has many small and picturesque villages, 31 of them have been selected by (), a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest, that was founded on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities.

Umber

Umbria is the region where the Umber pigment was originally extracted. The name comes from terra d'ombra, or earth of Umbria, the Italian name of the pigment. The word also may be related to the Latin word umbra, meaning "shadow". Umber is a natural brown or reddish-brown earth pigment that contains iron oxide and manganese oxide.