The city of Gubbio lies on the slopes of Mount Ingino and is crossed by the Carmignano river. It remains the highest expression of Umbrian civilization.
Gubbio was founded by the Umbrians with the name IKUVIUM which apparently derives from Jove.
It was immediately considered a centre of religious and commercial importance given its location between the crossroads to and from the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas.
The city is enclosed by a medieval wall with guard towers and six city gates: Metauro, Castello, Degli Ortacci, Vittoria, Romana, and S. Ubaldo.
It has four quarters that take their names from the churches of S. Pietro, S. Andrea, S. Giuliano, S. Martino with their respective coat of arms.
The Gubbio Tables are evidence of Gubbio’s importance as a political and religious centre.
They constitute a fundamental document of classic antiquity for the historic information – political, religious and linguistic - that they pass down offering an overview of the structure of the Gubbio city state from the 3rd to the 1st century BC.
They are 7 bronze slabs partly written in the Umbrian alphabet (derived from the Etruscan) and partly written in Latin.
Now kept in the Palazzo dei Consoli, they were discovered in 1444 and acquired by the city in 1456.
Further evidence of the civilization of the old Umbrian city is the presence of a mint in which money was coined with the word IKUVINI written on it.
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