Bevagna

Bevagna sits on the flat rather than a hill, on the old Via Flaminia, and keeps a Roman mosaic floor of sea creatures from a bath house, reached through an ordinary doorway on a side street. Piazza Silvestri holds two Romanesque churches and a small Gothic town hall in one unusually intact square. For ten days each June the Mercato delle Gaite divides the town into its four medieval quarters, each reopening working craft shops, a paper mill, a candle maker, a silk workshop, a rope walk and a dyer's, run under documented fourteenth-century methods; visitors pay in a currency issued for the festival.

History

Bevagna lies on the flood plain of the Topino, 25 km south-east of Perugia and 8 km west of Foligno, and it is one of the I Borghi più belli d'Italia, the most beautiful villages of Italy (Wikipedia, Bevagna).

What you'll find

• The Gaite market - working medieval craft shops reopened each June.
• The Roman mosaic - a black and white bath floor of sea creatures.
• Piazza Silvestri - two Romanesque churches and a Gothic town hall.
• The craft workshops - paper, silk, rope and candles by documented methods.

When to go

April to October; the Mercato delle Gaite runs for ten days in June and is when the workshops operate. Outside the festival some can be visited on request.

Practical notes

The craft workshops are largely a festival event, not year-round. The village is small and flat, seen in two hours. Festival days are crowded and ticketed.

Nearby

Montefalco is above; Spello lies north.

Key facts