Editing Umbria (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Perugia Piazza IV Novembre.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Medieval city centre of [[Perugia]].]]
Soon after the end of the [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic war]], the [[Lombards]] invaded Italy and founded the [[duchy of Spoleto]], covering much of today's southern Umbria, but the Byzantine were able to keep in the region a corridor along the Via Flaminia linking Rome with the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]] and the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]].<ref name=tci34/> The Lombard king controlled also the northern part of the region ruled directly by Pavia. When [[Charlemagne]] conquered most of the Lombard kingdoms, some Umbrian territories were given to the Pope, who established temporal power over them.<ref name=tci35>AA. VV. (2004), p. 35</ref> Some cities acquired a form of autonomy named ''[[Medieval commune|comune]]''.<ref name=tci35/> These cities were frequently at war with each other, often in a context of more general conflicts, either between the [[Church State|Papacy]] and the [[Holy Roman Empire]] or between the [[Guelphs]] and the [[Ghibellines]].

In the early 14th century, the ''[[signoria|signorie]]'' arose and the most important of them were those of the [[Vitelli]] in [[Città di Castello]],<ref name=tci218>AA. VV. (2004), p. 218</ref> of the Baglioni in Perugia<ref name=tci108>AA. VV. (2004), p. 108</ref> and of the [[Trinci]] in [[Foligno]],<ref name=tci380>AA. VV. (2004), p. 380</ref> but the region was subsumed by the middle of the same century into the [[Papal States]] by [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz|Albornoz]],<ref name=tci39>AA. VV. (2004), p. 39</ref> who in this way prepared the return of the pope from [[Avignon]] to Rome. Città di Castello was subsumed later into the Papal States by [[Cesare Borgia]].<ref name=tci218>AA. VV. (2004), p. 218</ref> During the 15th century Renaissance spread in the northern part of the region. It was in this period that humanists started to use again the ancient denomination of "Umbria" to name the area,<ref name=tci37>AA. VV. (2004), p. 37</ref> which until then had been named "Ducato", after the [[Duchy of Spoleto]] in the southern part of it. The supremacy of the pope on Umbria was reinforced in 16th century through the erection of a fortress in Perugia by Pope [[Paul III]], named after him ''Rocca Paolina''. The papacy ruled the region uncontested until the end of the 18th century.<ref name=tci39/>