Viterbo. Conference Hall former Church of St. John the Baptist of the Almadians

The exhibition and conference hall, near Piazza Martiri d'Ungheria, was created inside the former church of San Giovanni Battista, in Viterbo.

It had been 'nationalized' after the Unification of Italy in 1870. 

All interior furnishings and a lunette of Andrea della Robbia, grandson of the great Luca, can be admired in the civic museum.

The church is in Renaissance style and dates back to 1510 when Giambattista Almadiani, who was a domestic prelate to Pope Leo X, decided to build a convent for the Friars of Carmel (Carmelites). 

The decision to build this church came from a promise made to a Mantuan knight met in Germany.

The project was entrusted to the architect Bernardino da Viterbo.

The Renaissance façade is adorned by a large door surmounted by a statue of St. John the Baptist (from which the church takes its name) and two side niches with the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

In the upper part of the church, just above the door, a large circular oculus (rose window) adorns the facade.

Next to the church you can admire an elegant bell tower in Gothic style with the lower part in peperino and the upper part with strips of peperino and white marble and ending with a conical roof.

The bell tower was dismantled and moved 4 meters in the 1950s.

The entrance to the hall was built at the rear of the church.