Gubbio () is a town and municipality (comune) in the northeastern part of the province of Perugia in the region of Umbria in Italy. As of 2025, with a population of 30,297, it is the 6th-largest municipality in Umbria.
It is located on the lowest slope of Monte Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines.
Name The ancient city of Gubbio bore the name Iguvium in the Roman period. Coins from the Umbrian period carry legends such as Ikvvini and Ikvvins, which correspond to the name of the inhabitants and confirm the identification with the town. These forms demonstrate continuity between the Umbrian and Roman phases of the city's history.
In later centuries, the name underwent various corruptions, appearing as Egubium and Eugubium, while the modern name Gubbio represents a further development of these earlier forms. Passages in Caesar and Cicero have been interpreted as containing references to Iguvium, though sometimes in corrupted forms.
The evolution of the city's name is reflected in documentary evidence, where forms such as Ugobbio, Iguvium, Eugubium, Egubio, Ugubio, Agobbio, and Gubbio appear over time.
The attribution of the name Julia Iguvia in the Roman period has also been examined, though this alone is not considered sufficient to support broader historical claims about the city's status or origins.
History Prehistory The oldest evidence of human habitation in the Gubbio valley dates back to the Middle Palaeolithic, but only during the Neolithic period (6000–3000 BCE) does the earliest evidence of relatively permanent settlements emerge. Agriculture and animal husbandry were introduced to the valley around the 6th to 5th millennium BCE. Stone tools (made of local chert) and pottery have been found from this period. The styles and decorations of the pottery have a resemblance to contemporary finds from Marche and Lazio. At the excavated site of San Marco, east of Gubbio, archaeologists found a ditch with various almost-intact ceramic vessels, which may indicate a deliberate deposit as part of some sort of ritual.
Little evidence has been found from the Chalcolithic period (3500–2300 BCE) in the Gubbio valley.
Bronze Age During the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1400–1200 BCE), there appears to have been a significant increase in population throughout the region. Beginning around 1400 BCE, there appears to have been a major shift in the settlement pattern in the Gubbio valley: from dispersed habitation of the valley below to the occupation of a single, strategically placed, upland site: Monte Ingino. This site, on a hilltop overlooking present-day Gubbio, was probably chosen because of its naturally defended position, good visibility of surrounding terrain, and access to surrounding pasture. The settlement at Monte Ingino was polyfocal, with people inhabiting sites on the slopes below the summit (such as Via dei Consoli and Vescovado), while the mountaintop itself, with its harsher climate, was only occupied seasonally, during spring. The valley below was under human use, as indicated by sporadic finds, but no actual settlement existed there.
The summit of Monte Ingino was the focus of ritual activity. A large amount of archaeological material has been found here, including some 30,000 pottery fragments and more than 25,000 animal bone fragments. These appear to have been part of some consumption ritual: a feast that served as a communal display to neighboring communities, who would have been able to see the smoke from the cooking fire; this ritual may have been performed by specific individuals while placed in this outpost above the territory over which they had to maintain control. Later, in the Archaic period, this ritual appears to have become much more formalized.
Later, around 1200–1100 BCE, another settlement area was established on the neighboring hilltop of Monte Asciano. This site served as a less prominent ritual center, and may have also been covered by a settlement, although only one hut has been excavated here. Occupation of Monte Asciano continued until about 950 BCE, when the local population all moved to the slopes below.
The Gubbio valley in the Bronze Age would have still been covered by a moist woodland environment which remained relatively cool and moist during the summer months. This period is probably the first time when people started cutting down significant parts of these woods to clear space for agriculture. Agricultural technology at the time was probably similar to that of Northern Europe during the Iron Age, with light wooden ards pulled by animals. Barley may have been cultivated on some of the gentler slopes near Monte Ingino and Monte Asciano. Pigs, whose bones make up a large portion of the bones found, could have been kept close to the settlements, where they would have readily consumed household food scraps, and then also taken to local woodlands, which would have been a great food source for them. Cows, whose bones are rather uncommon, may have also been kept; they could have been pastured in either naturally open areas or artificial clearings. Sheep and goats were most likely kept and grazed in the uplands around the settlements (sheep bones are also fairly common among the bone samples).
Woodland resources would have been abundant due to the more extensive forest cover. Red deer are attested from small amounts at Monte Ingino; roe deer are attested in small amounts at both Monte Ingino and Monte Asciano. Nuts and berries could have been foraged from the woodlands, as well as smaller game, and freshwater fish could be caught either in the perennial mountain stream between Monte Ingino and Monte Foce, or in the bigger streams (Saonda and Assino) down in the valley. Firewood would have been collected in these woodlands and brought back up to the sites in the hills, and flint would have been obtained from cobbles in the stream beds. Water supplies were probably derived either from the natural springs in the hills or from the seasonal streams between the hills.
Iron Age Monte Asciano remained inhabited in the early Iron Age (1200–1000 BCE), and the sites of Vescovado and Sant'Agostino primarily date from this period as well.
Pre-Roman antiquity By the Archaic period, the main area of settlement had shifted to the lower slopes of Monte Asciano, including Sant'Agostino. Monte Ascoli itself was used as a religious sanctuary during this period. Finds from this period include a drystone platform, dozens of bronze figurines dated to between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE, and an aes rude probably dating from the 3rd century BCE.
As Ikuvium, it was an important town of the Umbri in pre-Roman times, made famous for the discovery there in 1444 of the Iguvine Tablets,Poultney, J. W. Bronze Tables of Iguvium 1959 a set of bronze tablets that together constitute the largest surviving text in the Umbrian language.
According to Dorica Manconi, pre-Roman Ikuvium was located in a well-defined area in the vicinity of the present-day city. It was bounded by the cemeteries (S. Benedetto, Via Eraclito, etc.), between the river Camignano, the continuation of Via dei Consoli, Viale Parruccini and the wall so-called del vallo, extending over about and surrounded by a huge area of land to be used for agriculture and stock-farming. This is supported by a high number of archaeological finds in the area, including a vernice nera kiln possibly from the 3rd or 2nd century BCE as well as a necropolis at San Biagio. A number of smaller rural settlements also existed throughout the valley, dependent on the main town; the two best-known archaeologically were at Mocaiana and Casa Regni.
Gubbio is one of only two Umbrian towns known to have minted its own coins before the Roman conquest (the other was Todi).
Roman period As Iguvium became a Roman city, it was noted by classical authors. Silius Italicus referred to it as a place marked by heavy mists, while Cicero also mentioned it. Its earliest historical records date to the period preceding the Social War, during which it obtained Roman citizenship, its inhabitants being enrolled in the Clustumina tribe, and the city becoming a municipium. Strabo listed it among the cities of Umbria, and Pliny mentioned the Iguvini in connection with a herbaceous oil sold along the Via Flaminia.
Historical accounts indicate that the Iguvini were entrusted with the custody of King Gentius, captured by the Romans, which is taken as evidence of their loyalty to the Roman Republic.
During Caesar's civil war, both Pompey and Julius Caesar sought to secure the city. Pompey sent Termus, while Caesar sent Curio, to whom the city surrendered. Julius Caesar then honored it with the name Julia Iguvia. Augustus later visited the city when Roman soldiers, acting as arbiters in disputes between him and the wife of Mark Antony, chose Gubbio as a place to settle their claims. Augustus granted favors to the city, and the inhabitants celebrated his victory over Mark Antony in their theatre.
Originally, Gubbio held strategic importance as controlling a major highway through the mountains. However, when the Via Flaminia was constructed 223 BCE, it bypassed Gubbio by several miles to the east. This caused Gubbio to lose much of its significance, and it declined gradually throughout the Imperial period.
Early Middle Ages Following the deposition of the last Western Roman emperor by Odoacer, Gubbio shared the fate of other Italian cities under the rule of the Heruli and subsequently the Ostrogoths. It was besieged by a general of Totila, then captured and destroyed. The city was later rebuilt with assistance provided by Narses.
During the Lombard invasion, Gubbio was not among the cities conquered by Alboin. Instead, it remained subject to the Exarchs of Ravenna and began to detach from Umbria, becoming part of the Pentapolis. For a time it was also included within the Duchy of Spoleto and possibly the Duchy of Perugia, but it remained largely under Byzantine authority together with the other cities of the Pentapolis until it definitively remained within the empire.
In 774, after Charlemagne destroyed the Lombard kingdom and donated the Exarchate and the two Pentapolises to the Pope, Gubbio became part of this donation, which later gave rise to enduring disputes. In the spring of the year 800, Charlemagne, returning from Rome, stopped in Gubbio for a day and placed the city under his protection.
In 917 Gubbio was largely destroyed by the Hungarians and was subsequently rebuilt on its present site by its inhabitants. Among those involved in this reconstruction was Pietro Pamphilj, son of Amanzio, whose family became powerful through land acquisitions and attained the title of count.
High Middle Ages In the 11th century the city underwent a complete transformation into a free municipality, with the establishment of civic institutions. Although the exact moment is uncertain, there existed vicecomites or ordinary judges of the free citizens, who received investiture in the name of the emperor. Conflicts with feudal lords and bishops continued, but the population moved toward the establishment of republican councils.