Cities and Districts

The five districts of Perugia take their name from the five main gates of the city. At the beginning the five partitions of the city had five animals as symbols: the eagle Porta Sole, the lion Porta San Pietro, the deer Porta Eburnea, the bear Porta Santa Susanna and the horse Porta Sant’Angelo. The use of archetypal animals confirms the antiquity of the tradition, even if then, over time, the superimposition of other symbols has led to the current characterizations: the backgrounds are of five basic colors, in accordance with the universal rules of heraldry. In the Middle Ages, with ups and downs, the district territories, which included not only the walled city but also a vast countryside, were reduced within the municipal boundary. The regulations of Perugia 1416 refer, for the occasion, to the ancient district territory based on historical sources and testimonies.