nucleo storico, collinare, difensivo, religioso, Colliano, Cogliano (denominazione storica)

Colliano is a study in layers. Beyond the orderly new town, built after the 1980 earthquake levelled much of it, rises a rocky outcrop crowned by the medieval nucleus of Collianello. The old defensive village, perched high, is the reason the settlement exists at all. The boundary between old and new is Piazza Epifani, where one of the ancient gateway towers once stood until recently. Adjoining it now is a larger square with a circular fountain, overlooked by the 16th-century Palazzo Gaudiosi-Borriello, its neoclassical balcony and portal a refined flourish.

The rebuilt 20th-century borgo stretches along Corso Umberto I, lined with two- and three-storey block houses. Side alleys and stairways climb away from it, picturesque and steep. Here, the stone portals and stuccoed facades of the Cardone, Colombo and D’Agosto palazzi speak of former prosperity. On Palazzo Meo Colombo, a baroque altar niche survives in the facade, a remnant of a chapel partly demolished to widen the lane. Further along stands the small church of Santa Maria del Borgo, its 10th-century origins obscured by centuries of alteration, but with 16th-century frescoes still within.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.