In a sweet glide of hills, between the
commons of Giano dell'Umbria and Gualdo Cattaneo, in
the province of Perugia, we find Marcellano.
Some traditions want that the castle finds its origins
in people that belonged to the "gens Marcella"
(of the XLI° legion of the Roman Army) that obtained
those lands as a end of career prise.
But we relay on a much probable history line and certainly
more documented, in which we find the name of the town,
Marcellano, in some judicial acts of 1200.There is written
that in the "castle" there were living 700
persons, so we can assume that the castles origins are
around the XII° century.
In 1219, even if situated in a strategic place Marcellano's
castle was occupied by Napoleon of Coccorone, general
of ghibellines in the name of Frederic the II°.
Anyway after some time, the city returned to obey at
the city of Todi, that was under the faction guelph.
At the end of 1500, Marcellano had it's own social
and political organisation, like in all the other castles
around Umbria, and especially in those under the city
of Todi. In the following years, in Marcellano, we start
to find a lot of religious monuments and important painted
works, but the main merit of this goes to the bishop
Ancaiani, with his authoritarian and enterprising policy,
and to the activism of the local noble family, Cori.
After a short period under the jurisdiction of Collazzone,
in 1861, Marcellano passed under the territoriality
of Gualdo Cattaneo, and up to today it's still so.
The most important construction of Marcellano is the
town church, dedicated to S. Andrew and build up on
the "footprint" of an old church of 1500,
a very common kind of church, widespread in central
Italy and in Umbria, especially in Valnerina. Inside
the church we can find several important paintings,
many attributed to Andrea Polinori, like for example,
the canvas representing the Holy family with S. Joseph
Evangelist and S. Francesco of Assisi.
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