Activities

The church of Saint Peter dates back to the 13th century and is located at Porta San Pietro (Saint Peter's Door) a Viterbo.

Its current late Baroque style is the result of successive renovations of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The facade is separated in two architectural levels and enriched by a play of colours between white or yellow plaster and decorations in dark peperino.

The entrance is accessed through a wide staircase as wide as the facade of the church.

At the back there is a bell tower with two levels of bells that recalls the medieval origin.

Today the church is part of the St. Peter's Philosophical-Theological Institute affiliated to the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm of Rome where religious people come to study from all over the world.

The small temple of Santa Maria della Peste was built in 1494 based on a promise made for the narrow escape from the terrible plague that had struck the Viterbo area in those years.

From an inscription on the glazed majolica floor we read that it was made by Paolo Mazzatosta (famous for a medieval palace in the historic centre) and a wheat farmer named Martino.

Legend has it that at this point a sacred image was found and that those who came to worship it were saved from the plague.

The building is an octagonal-shape little temple in an almost Renaissance style and ending with a dome with a small light opening.

The building on its various sides has an elegant entrance door in carved peperino stone and surmounted by a circular aperture and two openings.

In the 1930s, with the covering over of the Urcionio river and the consequent demolition of some houses, the small temple found itself in the middle of an open space and was chosen as a military shrine for the fallen of the First World War.

Inside you can admire frescoes representing Saint John and Saint Sebastian.
 

The first church of San Bartolomeo in Viterbo dates back to 1142 and housed the remembrances of Saint Lucia and Saint Eligius, who was the protector of the guild of silversmiths, goldsmiths and blacksmiths who gathered in a nearby house.

In 1557, the Duchess Girolama Orsini built a cloistered monastery to house the nuns of the order of Santa Chiara and inaugurated the Monastery of the Visitation.

To do this she bought a building adjacent to the church of San Bartolomeo.

But due to a problem with the religious order, the monastery was entrusted to the Cistercian nuns, who came from the convent of San Donato in Polverosa, and who still lead it.

In 1574 the church was entrusted to the nuns who closed the alley that separated the two buildings.

Finally in the early seventeenth century the medieval church was demolished to build a new one which is called ‘della duchessa’ in honour of Girolama Orsini Farnese.

The style therefore appears neoclassical enriched by floral decorations and a curvilinear element that separates the two sections of the facade.

On the entrance door there is the coat of arms of the Farnese family, the famous lilies, while on the entrance door there is a dove as a symbol of the holy spirit.

The church has a single nave with a rich coffered ceiling from 1672 made by Giovan Battista Magni of Modena.

Above the entrance there is a seventeenth-century choir with a nineteenth-century organ.

A baroque bell tower is placed at the back of the church and gives lightness to the whole complex.

The body of San Crescenziano, co-protector of Viterbo, is kept in the church.

After the Unification of Italy the monastery risked nationalization but the nuns succeeded in its redemption and the complex maintained its religious vocation.

The church of Saint Francis alla Rocca and convent date back to 1237 when Pope Gregory X gave the Franciscans land on a hill in Viterbo with a small military garrison of Lombard origin.

St. Francis had died a few years ago and the papacy was intent on reuniting and reconciling the numerous orders of hermits who were being born, so supporting the development of the Franciscans seemed an excellent political move.

The church is also called the Pantheon of Viterbo because there are the monumental tombs of two popes, Clement IV with a sepulchre built by Pietro di Oderisio, and Adriano V, who died after just 39 days into his pontificate, with a sepulchre made by Arnolfo di Cambio.

Another important funerary monument is the one dedicated to Vicedomino de' Vicedomini who was elected pope but died before being proclaimed so a slab tells his story: "in one day he had both the throne of Peter and the sepulchral stone".

In the church there are also other tombs of cardinals who died during the conclaves that were held in Viterbo when it housed the papacy and the noblewoman Tornabuoni of Florence.

The façade of the church is in local stone of austere appearance with an entrance door inserted in an arch with friezes and three long and narrow openings.

On one side of the façade is a peperino pulpit from which they preached to those outside the church.

This was typical of other places of worship in Viterbo, that was built in 1426 for a visit of San Bernardino da Siena.

Among the other works to be admired is a table from 1572 that depicts the city of Viterbo with the Saints Antonio da Padova and Rosa da Viterbo and a large Gothic-style window in the shape of an ogive (Gothic arch) with a colorful mosaic window, made in 1951.

Like many religious buildings, the church underwent considerable modifications during the 17th century with Baroque additions that were later removed.

In fact the church and the convent were seriously damaged by the bombings of the second world war and in the phase of restoration it was chosen to restore the original medieval Romanesque aspect.

The convent connected to the church was nationalized in 1873 with the Unity of Italy and today houses a barracks that also incorporated the cloister of the convent. For the friars a small side building was built.

The church of San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist) is one of the greatest masterpieces of the eighteenth century neo-Baroque in Viterbo for the pictorial cycle of the frescoes.

It is called ‘Gonfalone’ (Banner) from the name of the confraternity that keeps it and that welcomes visitors to discover the artworks and their history.

The brotherhood was born to free the Christian prisoners captured by the Turks and to guard the Gonfalone of the city.

In 1675 the Confraternity began the construction of this church to move its headquarters to a more prestigious place and made the exterior and the sinuous baroque facade of concave shape and characterized by an interesting play of colours between plaster and dark peperino stone.

Then the work stopped due to lack of funds.

Between the highs and the lows, in 1746 the architect Nicola Salvi intervened. He had already designed the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

A single internal space was thus created with four side altars and divided into an initial area and an oratory separated by a central altar.

The two spaces have been decorated and frescoed with different styles at different times.

The oratory was entrusted to two artists, Pietro Piazza of Parma origin and the emerging talented Giuseppe Rosi of Roman origin and the task was formalized in 1747. Pietro Piazza had worked on the Duomo of Perugia and on the Palazzo Reale in Turin and was the scenographer of the Tor di Nona Theatre in Rome.

For this reason, he was entrusted with the division of the spaces with the ceiling painting, the ornamentation and the geometric perspective while Giuseppe Rosi was entrusted with the figurative phase.

The Roman artist represented a valuable fresco of the birth of John the Baptist and his sermon. His last works were the monochromatic representations of the life of the saint.

In 1755 a competition was announced for the frescoes in the area of the church and three painters from Viterbo were chosen: Anton Angelo Falaschi, Vincenzo Stringelli and Domenico Corvi.The part relating to the construction of the frames and the geometric subdivision with ornaments was entrusted to Giuseppe Merzetti.

Vincenzo Stringelli was commissioned to supervise the works but something went wrong: in fact Marzetti was not sticking to the sketches and was creating on his own initiative. The dispute was resolved in favour of Stringelli but the painter did not seem to be a simple person and there was a new dispute.

The question this time directly concerned the Brotherhood, which challenged him that he had created fewer figures than the initial sketch (the painters were paid by the number of figures) and it was settled in favour of the artist and with an expenditure of 26 scudi and 95 bajocchi considered by the Brotherhood in its budgets as "completely capricious and superfluous expenses".

In any case, the final effect is that of a masterpiece and Mazzetti's perspectives and the figures of Stringelli, Falaschi and Corvi create an optical and artistic illusion that one never tires of observing.

In the church you can also admire the banner by Giovan Francesco Romanelli and painted on both sides. In fact, on the front is the baptism of Christ while on the back we can admire Mary Most Holy of redemption (called Madonna del Gonfalone) with Saint Bonaventura.

The banner is placed so that in the foreground we can admire the Baptism of Jesus from November 1 (all the Saints) until August 14, while the remaining days the Madonna appears as the main image.

Given the delicacy of the work, the Brotherhood then commissioned a copy of this work to carry in the procession.

The church of Santa Maria Nuova is located in the medieval heart of Viterbo and its ancient history is reported on a stele inside the church itself and on a parchment from 1080.

A priest named Biterbo with his family gives the clergy a small church with an adjoining hospital, which was then a place of rest and care for pilgrims along the Via Francigena or Via Cassia (in this section the two roads overlap).

The church was located inside the castle and the name of Santa Maria Nuova was given to distinguish it from the older one in nearby Santa Maria in Cella.
The original building was enlarged to accommodate the meetings of the governing body of the city and here the keys to the municipal coffers and city archives were kept.

Here there was also a column that was the reference for the measurement system of all citizens, an indispensable element for commercial relations.

Around the thirteenth century it was so important that it hosted St. Thomas Aquinas who came to preach in 1267 on a pulpit that can be seen outside on the left side of the facade. St. Thomas was in nearby Bolsena to settle the question of the Miracle of the Eucharist.

A miraculous episode is then linked to the church and the Feast of the Holy Savior which is still celebrated in Viterbo on the second Sunday of May.

In 1283 two peasants who were plowing their fields with oxen observed that the animals stopped in front of an underground stone box which contained a triptych. The work was in excellent condition and represented a Blessing Savior between the Madonna and St. John. On the back of this work you can then admire the paintings of St. Peter, St. Paul and a Cherub.

The clergy went to the place and then a procession was formed to bring this work to the church: from this procession the present feast was born.

From 1567 the church began its decline with the decision of Pope Pius V to aggregate it to the cathedral. Over the years the church had then been decorated in the Baroque style, also covering its precious frescoes, but a restoration in 1906 brought it back to its primitive Romanesque beauty.

The images of Garibaldi and Mazzini can only be seen on two majolica tiles on the roof. The church also has a Lombard-Romanesque cloister and a crypt.

Inside you can admire a true masterpiece of modern art: a sculpted bronze element that delimits the altar area. The work dates back to 1964 and the author Carlo Canestrari carved a wonderful scene of the Last Supper representing Jesus among the 12 apostles. In the church there are two other works by the same artist: a bronze crucifix above the altar and a Pietà in Peperino that marks the artist's tomb.

Another modern work is a terracotta that tells the discovery of the triptych and which was created by the artist Mario Vinci.

The small medieval church of San Silvestro (called del Gesù) was one of the first in the city built before the 10th century in Viterbo, is mentioned in documents from 1080, and hides a unique history.

The simple facade in peperino stone ends with a bell gable with three bells enriched by some marble friezes inserted in the masonry.

On the roof profile there are two peperino sculptures: that of a lion symbol of San Marco and that of a winged bull symbol of San Luca. On the lunette above the simple entrance door is painted a Madonna between Sant’Andrea and San Silvestro (which gives the church its name) and above the lunette is the symbol of the Confraternity of Jesus who guarded the building.

The interior has a single nave with a wooden trussed ceiling and the church ends with an entirely frescoed apse, as well as the areas on its sides. The frescoes were made in the 14th and 15th centuries and frame a beautiful carved wooden crucifix from the 1600s.

A plaque near the altar and one outside the church recall a famous crime that took place in this church.

On 13 March 1271 when the Monfort brothers, representatives of King Charles of Anjou, killed their carnal cousin Henry of Cornwall who was also a cousin of King Edward I of England.

The father of the two brothers had been killed by the king of England a few years earlier despite the fact that he had surrendered himself as a prisoner to the crown, so the Monforts retaliated by killing Henry of Cornwall near the altar during a mass.

The violence of the echo of this episode reached Dante who recounted it in a passage from the XII canto of Hell.

Enrico's heart was brought to London, while his body was buried first in the Cathedral of Viterbo and then in the Cathedral of Orvieto.

All these sovereigns and famous people were in Viterbo for the conclave that was supposed to elect a new pope but found no solution.

The fact that they were located in what today appears to us as a small church gives us an idea of ​​the importance of Viterbo but also of its small size at the time.

The park of Villa Torlonia is located within the city of Frascati and has a large extension and a particular naturalistic beauty.

The park is a two-level garden with an upper terrace that houses holm oak woods and a fishpond.

The fishpond is the starting point of the spectacular play of waters: from here a cascade of water descends into degrading pools until it ends in the front designed by Maderno, the architect of the facade of St Peter in Rome.