This year marks 150 years since the events of 20 June 1859, of which I will not speak here, given the vast body of writing that over a century and a half has accumulated to celebrate or deplore those events, which in some way marked the collective imagination of the people of Perugia, who saw in them the realization of the desire for redemption from the domination of the Stato della Chiesa, begun in 1540 after the unhappy, dramatic experience of the “salt war”, the last attempt, out of step with the times and with history, to keep the city-state alive, the old Comune di Perugia. At the end of the week of insurrection came the defeat of the patriots and their flight, made possible and protected by the Benedictine monks of S. Pietro who, already on the day before the decisive clash with the troops of the Stato pontificio, had, at the explicit request of the leaders of the insurgents, made the abbey complex available to serve as a place of shelter and an infirmary for whoever might need it. But the monks’ participation extended also to the protection of some of the wanted patriots who, having taken refuge in the monastery, were hidden in the most unthinkable places until they were able to flee.
The following year Perugia too became part of the new Regno d’Italia, and the Commissario straordinario per le Provincie dell’Umbria, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, appointed to that post on 12 September 1860, issued on 11 December 1860 a decree which, taking up here the old legislation of the Napoleonic era, established the suppression of the religious corporations, of the chapters of the collegiate churches, of the chaplaincies and so on, and transferred all their property, movable and immovable, to the ownership of the State. Exceptions to this suppression were the institutions of the Padri Scolopi, of the Fatebenefratelli, the Cappuccine of Città di Castello, all orders engaged in assistance or teaching, which the newborn Regno d’Italia was not yet able to provide, but also the Francescani conventuali of the Basilica di S. Francesco in Assisi, for the safeguarding and conservation of the artistic heritage, and finally the Cassinese Benedictine monks of the Abbazia di S. Pietro in Perugia, for patriotic merits, who would be allowed to keep their property in usufruct until the monastic community was reduced to fewer than three monks, after which everything would pass to the State. But how was the abbey’s great agricultural heritage to be used? All the more so since the shaky finances of the new Kingdom were in desperate need of income, and so the temptation to break up and auction off the agricultural property was always just around the corner.
At this point the genius of a monk from Milazzo, present in the Perugian community, dom Emanuele Lisi, came into play; he had managed to obtain from Cavour himself recognition as a monastic parish (and parishes had not been suppressed) for the Benedettini of Assisi, then creating an agricultural colony on the monastery’s lands. Dom Lisi suggested to the abbot of S. Pietro, dom Placido Acquacotta, that he found an agricultural colony on the lands of the S. Pietro monastery as well, which was inaugurated on 5 January 1862: the studies by Antonio Mencarelli on dom Emanuele Lisi and by Abbot dom Giustino Farnedi, concerning the events of the S. Pietro colony, illuminate with great care and precision the events we are discussing. The success of the new activity was immediate and also very great: it opened up the possibility of creating a scientifically sound culture in the agricultural field, with the learning of a true profession, but also with the possibility of experiments that could bring enormous improvements in a sector that was absolutely archaic in its modes of production and in the quality of that production.

Young people from eight to twelve years old were admitted to the colony, organized into “family groups”, which provided not only an adequate technical and professional preparation but also a good cultural education. The Authorities too turned to the Colony, assigning to it young people who were delinquent or considered at risk of delinquency: thus the strong educational and moral value that the new institution championed came to be recognized, even by the State Ministries. This is, moreover, the historical period that sees don Giovanni Bosco and don Leonardo Murialdo at work and the birth of their centres for bringing together and preparing boys and young people for work throughout Italy. The Colony prospered and was successful, but the monastic community was progressively and inevitably shrinking, making ever nearer the moment when the fateful point of “fewer than three” would be reached, thereby triggering the requisition in favour of the State. This caused the decline, from the early 1880s, of the Colony itself.
But a powerful seed had by now been sown, and in Perugia a heated debate opened on what to do and on how not to lose a heritage of experience, but also of assets, that would be taken over by the State. In April 1885 there set out from Perugia a pressing and closely argued request addressed to the Government, signed by Reginaldo Ansidei, in which the hopes of various administrations of Umbria were joined with those of the Perugian municipality, inviting the national Authorities to proceed with the creation of an Istituto agrario, deriving from the experience of the Colony. To it were to be conferred all the assets of the ancient Abbey, to make of it a centre of study and research in the agricultural field, able to count on a great heritage of lands that could and should be used as experimental fields, in close contact with the Università di Perugia.
On 10 July 1887, law no. 4799 assigned the property of the Benedettini to an Istituto di Istruzione agraria “to be founded” in Perugia. On 21 January 1892, by royal decree no. XXII, the autonomous moral entity was established with the assets of the suppressed religious house of the Benedettini Cassinesi of S. Pietro, under the name Fondazione per l’Istruzione agraria in Perugia, and its statute was approved. From this moment the thousand-year experience of the Benedictine presence in Perugia comes to an end, and a new phase opens that envisages a teaching and scientific activity to be carried forward in close relation with the Università di Perugia. To the foundation is also entrusted the custody and protection of the enormous historical and artistic heritage that a thousand years of history have accumulated in S. Pietro.
In 1896, from the close relationship between the Fondazione and the University the Facoltà di Agraria will be born, which will be able to award degrees to its students from December 1900. But the birth of the Faculty does not cause the Fondazione to lapse; it remains the owner of the movable and immovable property that had belonged to the Benedettini and which houses the Faculty itself on its premises, just as it hands over its own lands to make them experimental fields and privileged places of research. To the Fondazione also falls the duty of safeguarding and conserving the historical and artistic assets, from the Archivio storico, most precious for the continuity and the content of its documents, to the Chiesa di S. Pietro and the fortresses of Casalina and S. Apollinare.
The history of the Fondazione per l’Istruzione agraria in Perugia has seen moments of splendour and others of difficulty, particularly because of the close bond with the University, following its periods of crisis and recovery and having, moreover, to sustain the difficulties tied to a direct management of the agricultural heritage, which has felt the effects of the events common to all farming activities of the last 50 years in Italy. The statute of the Fondazione, updated several times over the course of the last century, today tends to give priority to the aspect of conservation and management of the cultural heritage but, without the participation of the citizens of Perugia, this glorious Institution too is destined for periods of great difficulty. The Fondazione per l’Istruzione agraria in Perugia is perhaps the last gift that the events of 20 June 1859 left to our city, and it is nice to think that from tragic events “flowers” can be born, like the one we have been discussing.