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Urban Trekking in Perugia’s Sant’Angelo Park

A city destination close to the walls of Perugia that can give you moments of relaxation, physical activity and culture en plein air

The green area north of Perugia, covering approximately 4 hectares, is just a short walk from the centre among olive trees, holm oaks, willows, linden trees, acacia trees and fruit trees, is all to be explored and discovered, starting with the circuit of massive medieval Walls - erected between the second half of the 1200s and the first part of the 1300s - that delineates it. You can leave your car in the neighbouring areas with an entrance from Via Sperandio, one of the three entrances to the park (the others are in Via del Canarino and Via del Bulagaio), and start the family-friendly route that runs in a loop for about a kilometre. Even the most athletic can train with a nice uphill run, working their legs on the steps and terraces on which the park was made. The setting was designed in this way to preserve the original conformation of the place. You are in fact on one of the ridges of the Bulagaio valley, which was once an orchard garden, cultivated with small terraces of vegetable crops, with olive trees carpeting its slopes. Within it runs the ditch of the same name, which was part of a system of steep valleys, the gorges, that ran close to the city. Traveling along the ancient space--via del Bulagaio corresponds to one of the five “royal roads” of access to Perugia and was used in Etruscan times for trade between Perugia, the Tiber Plain and Gubbio--you arrive at the amphitheatre, built in the early 1980s with tuff steps. Here demonstrations and events are held, usually on weekends and especially for younger children, to whom the park dedicates sports and recreational facilities along the route.
You can now relax and admire the nearby Walls made of sandstone and limestone with square half towers at the corners. These are the second oldest circuit of Walls in the city; the first dates back to Etruscan times, built between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Take a look (pending its reopening) at the mighty keep of Porta Sant’Angelo, overlooking the park, with its three levels of construction from 1326: the first in sandstone, the second in limestone, the third in brick. Its transformation into a keep, equipped with trap doors and loopholes and a machicolation door, as you can see it today, dates from 1479. From its roof there is a splendid view of the city. And to end on a high note, stop to visit the church of San Michele Arcangelo on Via del Tempio, built between the 5th and 7th centuries. It is one of the first early Christian churches in Italy and the first religious building in Perugia. For information: tel. +39 328 5355084 (T.URB.AZIONI) tel. +39 075 5722624 (Sant’Angelo Parish office)
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