Burgi Sancti Sepulcri


Located at the foot of the last stretch of the Tuscan Apennines, Sansepolcro dominates the Vatiberina which opens into a vast mountain and hilly amphitheater, bordered by the Alpe della Luna, the Massa Trabaria, the hills of nearby Umbria,  the Aretino mountains and Alpe di Catenaia.
Tradition attributes to Sansepolcro a mythical origin thanks to  two pilgrim saints, Arcano and Egidio who, returning from the Holy Land, stopped in this valley where, by divine sign, they decided to stay and build a small chapel to keep the Sacre Relics. An ancient Benedictine abbey developed around this first oratory, today a cathedral dedicated to San Giovanni and all around the town  which was said, precisely for this origin, of the Holy Sepulcher. In the ancient annals of the Municipality, historians called Borgo Sansepolcro "new Jerusalem".
The reconstruction of the city's past is also deeply linked to the majestic river that crosses it , the Tiber, giving back the name of Valtiberina to the whole valley that surrounds it. The area has always been a lively commercial center due to its characteristic borderland which is now a crossroads between four regions in the exact center of Italy.
 
Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, Sansepolcro lived under the domination of the Visconti, Lords of Milan, and then passed, and remained there for 60 years under the power of the Malatesta of Rimini. The devastating earthquake suffered in the year 1352 makes it very difficult to reconstruct the urban development of the period prior to this date. In 1441, after the passage from the dominions of the Church to those of Florence eith Cosimo I De 'Medici, Sansepolcro had its definitive architectural structure, with the strengthening of the fortress, the walls and the demolition of the external villages and the construction of the monumental noble palaces that still characterize the most beautiful views of the city today.