Fontignano is on the slope of a hill, near the Trasimeno Lake, half-way between Perugia and Città della Pieve. Its name originates from latin and probably descend by the noble Fontinius family, owner of these lands.
The first historic information date back to the XII century, where the “Hospitale”, the most ancient and important building still present, was mentioned as good of ownership of the Perugia Cathedral in a document of Federico I of 1163. In 1188 the castle of Fontignano capitulated to the Municipality of Perugia. Since then Fontignano, even if it had autonomous statute and delegates, reamined subdued to the city of Perugia even though the attempts of rebellion, among which the one by the famous Captain Braccio Fortebracci in 1415.
Few years later, Perugia financed the restoration of the castle walls, damaged as a result of the continual battles, of which we still see the signs.
The hamlet of Fontignano is strongly tied to the famous peruginian painter Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, appointed between 1521 and 1522 to fresco the Church of Annunziata where he painted the Virgin Mary with Child on the right wall and the Nativity and the Adoration of the Shepherds on the high altar gallery. This painting is now shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum of London.
Perugino died of plague before he finished the Nativity and he was bury near the Church of Annunziata. In 1940 a marble tomb with a gravestone on the top and fixed in the wall of the temple to host his remains, was inaugurated.
The parish church of Fontignano is dedicated to San Leonardo and during the restoration works in 1845 the current cotto-tile bell tower was built.