Spoleto

An important fortified Umbrian settlement, Spoleto became a Roman colony and later a municipium (90 BC). After the fall of the Roman empire, it was taken over first by Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, and then by the Byzantine Belisarius. Seized by Totila, it was rebuilt by the Byzantine general Narses. In the early Middle Ages, it became the capital of the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto. In 1155 Spoleto was conquered and destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa, and after a series of conflicts between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines it was conquered again by Cardinal Albornoz, who secured it for the papacy and made it an important town in the Papal States. Apart from the brief period under Napoleon, the papal rule continued unbroken until Spoleto joined the new Italian State.