It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (seeFerentium) in its early history. It is approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of GRA (Rome) on theVia Cassia, and it is surrounded by theMonti Cimini andMonti Volsini. The historic center is surrounded by the medievalwalls of Viterbo, which are still mainly intact, built during the 11th and 12th centuries. Entrance to the walled center of the city is through ancient gates.
Apart from agriculture, Viterbo's main resources are pottery, peperino stone, and wood. The town is home to the Italian gold reserves, an important Academy of Fine Arts, theUniversity of Tuscia, and theItalian Army's Aviation Command headquarters and training centre. It is located in a wide thermal area, attracting many tourists from all over central Italy.
The first report of the new city dates to the eighth century AD, when it is identified asCastrum Viterbii. It was fortified in 773 by theLombardKing Desiderius in his vain attempt to conquer Rome. When thepopes switched to theFrankish support, Viterbo became part of thePapal States. Still, this status was to be highly contested by the emperors in the following centuries, until 1095 when it was known as a freecomune (municipality).
Etruscan warrior, found near Viterbo, dated circa 500 BC
In a period in which the popes had difficulties asserting their authority over Rome, Viterbo became their favourite residence, beginning withPope Eugene III (1145–1146) who was besieged in vain in the city walls. In 1164,Frederick Barbarossa made Viterbo the seat of his antipopePaschal III. Three years later, he called it a "city" and used its militias against Rome. In 1172, Viterbo started its expansion, destroying the old city ofFerento and conquering other lands. In this age it was a rich and prosperouscomune, one of the most important of Central Italy, with a population of almost 60,000.
In 1207,Pope Innocent III held a council in the cathedral, but the city was later excommunicated as the favourite seat of the hereticalPatarines and even defeated by the Romans. In 1210, however, Viterbo managed to defeat EmperorOtto IV and was again at war against Rome.
In the thirteenth century it was ruled alternately by the tyrants of the Gatti and Di Vico families.Frederick II drew Viterbo to theGhibelline side in 1240, but when the citizens expelled his turbulent German troops in 1243 he returned andbesieged the city, but in vain. From that point Viterbo was always a loyalGuelph city. Between 1257 and 1261 it was the seat ofPope Alexander IV, who also died there. His successorUrban IV was elected in Viterbo.
In 1266–1268,Clement IV chose Viterbo as the base of his ruthless fight against theHohenstaufen. Here, from the loggia of thePapal Palace, he excommunicated the army ofConradin ofSwabia which was passing on theVia Cassia, with the prophetical motto of the "lamb who is going to the sacrifice". Other popes elected in Viterbo wereGregory X (1271) andJohn XXI (1276) (who died in the papal palace when the ceiling of the recently built library collapsed on him while he slept),Nicholas III and the FrenchMartin IV. The Viterbese, who did not agree with the election of a foreigner directed by theKing of Naples,Charles I of Anjou, invaded the cathedral where theconclave was held, arresting two of the cardinals. They were subsequently excommunicated, and the popes avoided Viterbo for 86 years.
Without the popes, the city fell into the hands of the Di Vicos. In the fourteenth century,Giovanni di Vico had created a seignory extending toCivitavecchia,Tarquinia,Bolsena,Orvieto,Todi,Narni andAmelia. His dominion was crushed by CardinalGil de Albornoz in 1354, sent by theAvignonese popes to recover the Papal States, who built the castle. In 1375, the city gave its keys to Francesco Di Vico, son of the previous tyrant, but thirteen years later the people killed him and assigned the city first toPope Urban VI, and then to Giovanni di Sciarra di Vico, Francesco's cousin. ButPope Boniface IX's troops drove him away in 1396 and established a firm papal suzerainty over the city. The last Di Vico to hold power in Viterbo was Giacomo, who was defeated in 1431.
Thenceforth Viterbo became a city of secondary importance, following the vicissitudes of the Papal States. In the 16th century it was the birthplace ofLatino Latini. It became part of Italy in 1871.
DuringWorld War II Viterbo was occupied by theWehrmacht after theArmistice of Cassibile and heavily bombed by theAllies, suffering over twenty raids between July 1943 and June 1944; this left a third of the city destroyed or badly damaged, and caused heavy damage tocultural heritage and 1,017 civilian deaths.[3][4][5] On 20 March 2024, an unexploded MK IV Bomb was found in a construction site causing an evacuation of more than 30,000 people in a range of 1400m until the bomb could be disposed of.[6]
Viterbo experiences ahot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification:Csa). The annual average temperature is 14.5 °C (58.1 °F), the hottest month in August is 24.4 °C (75.9 °F), and the coldest month is 6.4 °C (43.5 °F) in January. The annual precipitation is 869.93 millimetres (34.25 in), of which November is the wettest with 127.09 millimetres (5.00 in), while July is the driest with only 30.64 millimetres (1.21 in).
Climate data for Viterbo, elevation: 300 m or 980 ft, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1955–present
The Palace of the Popes – In the background the bell-tower of the cathedralFontana di Piazza della Rocca (12th–16th-century) in the center of Old Town ViterboSt. Lawrence Cathedral and bell-towerThe Fontana Grande ("Grand Fountain") in the eponymous square
Viterbo's historic center is one of the best preserved medieval towns of central Italy. Many of the older buildings (particularly churches) are built on top of ancient ruins, recognizable by their large stones, 50 centimeters to a side. Viterbo is unique in Italy for its concentration of 'profferli', external staircases that were a frequent feature of medieval houses. The San Pellegrino quarter has an abundance of them, reflecting an architectural style that is unique to the town and the nearby region.[11]
Palazzo dei Papi or Papal Palace: main attraction of Viterbo, the palace hosted the papacy for about two decades in the 13th century, and served as a country residence or refuge in time of trouble in Rome. The columns of the palace arespolia from a Roman temple.
Cathedral of San Lorenzo: Cathedral or duomo was originally erected as episcopal see of the exemptbishopric of Viterbo inRomanesque style byLombard architects at the site of an ancient Roman temple ofHercules. It was rebuilt from the sixteenth century on, and heavily damaged in 1944 by Allied bombs. TheGothicbelfry was built in the first half of the 14th century, and shows influence ofSienese architects. The church houses the sarcophagus ofPope John XXI and a pictureChrist Blessing (1472) byGirolamo da Cremona.
Palazzo Comunale (town hall; begun 1460), Palazzo del Podestà (magistrate's residence; 1264) and Palazzo della Prefettura (police HQ; rebuilt 1771): three civic buildings around the central square, Piazza del Plebiscito. The Palazzo Comunale houses a series of 17th century andBaroque frescoes byTarquinio Ligustri,Bartolomeo Cavarozzi andLudovico Nucci.
Palazzo Farnese: 14th–15th-century palace was the childhood home of Alessandro Farnese, the futurePope Paul III, and his beautiful[citation needed] sister,Giulia Farnese.
Fontana Grande: public fountain, construction began in 1206.
San Francesco: gothic church built over a pre-existing Lombard fortress. It has a single nave with a Latin cross plan. It houses the sepulchre ofPope Adrian V, who died in Viterbo in 1276, considered the first monument byArnolfo di Cambio.
Sanctuary of Santa Rosa: church is a sober 19th-century reconstruction, where every year a newMacchina di Santa Rosa, or dedicatory tower is displayed.
In the valley of the Arcione River just to the west of Viterbo are a number of springs celebrated for the healing qualities of their waters, and in use since Etruscan and Roman days.[12] In fact, the imposing ruins of a great Roman bath are still to be seen and were drawn in plan and perspective by Renaissance artists includingGiuliano da Sangallo,Michelangelo, andVasari.[13] One of the most famous were the thermal springs known as the "Bullicame", or bubbling place, whose reputation had even reached the ears of the exiled poetDante Alighieri. Canto 14 (lines 79–81) of Dante'sInferno describes how:
In silence we had reached a place where flowed a slender watercourse out of the wood—a stream whose redness makes me shudder still. As from the Bullicame pours a brookwhose waters are then shared by prostitutes, so did this stream run down across the sand.[14]
Bagno del Papa in Viterbo"The Awakening" by Seward Johnson in Viterbo
Not far from the Bullicame, whose waters were apparently always taken in the open, is the Terme dei Papi ("Bath of the Popes"). Almost totally concealed within the structure of a modern luxury spa hotel are the remains of a Renaissance bath palace that attracted the attention of two popes.[15] Actually, the origins of this bathing establishment date to the Middle Ages when it was known as the Bagno della Crociata (named either after a Crusader who supposedly discovered the spring or from a corruption of the Italian word for crutch). Early 15th-century documents describe a bath building that covered three distinct thermal springs all under one roof.[16]
This bath house was transformed circa 1454 by thePope Nicholas V, who commissioned a bath palace (according to Nicholas's biographer,Giannozzo Manetti) "with such magnificence and with such expense that it was not only deemed suitable for a stay and salutary for the sick but seemed an edifice destined to have rooms fit for princes and for living regally".[16] A more precise description of Pope Nicholas' palace was described by the Viterbese chroniclerNiccola della Tuccia in the 1470s, who stated the new Bagno del Papa as a battlemented building, resembling a fortress, about 30 x 20 m in size with high towers at the corners of its southern façade. Located outside Viterbo, the spa would have been an easy target for assaults had the building not assumed a militant character, which also affirmed papal authority. Aside from the regal apartments described by Manedtti there were vaulted chambers at the lowest level to accommodate the patrons of the several thermal springs.[16]
Manetti and Vasari both named the Florentine architect and sculptorBernardo Rossellino as the architect of the project in Viterbo.[17] There is, however, no documentation or architectural evidence to connect Rossellino directly with the construction of the Bagno del Papa. To the contrary, Vatican payment records from 1454, preserved in the state archives in Rome, identify a stonemason from Lombardy, named Stefano di Beltrame, as the builder who "had done or was doing in the house ordered by the pope at the bagni della Grotta and Crociata of Viterbo."[18]
Construction at the Bagno del Papa was continued on through the reigns of several popes after Nicholas V. The Vatican accounts mention of payments "for building done at the bath palace of Viterbo" during the reigns ofCalixtus III,Paul II, andSixtus IV. There also is evidencePope Pius II was responsible for the addition of a western wing to the building.[19]
Travelers' descriptions, etched views, and local guidebooks chronicle the fate of the Renaissance Bagno del Papa over the years and through several rebuildings resulting in a general assumption that most of the original 15th-century structure had vanished. A guide to Viterbo from 1911 does note that some remnants were still to be detected in basement piers and vaults. In operation as a thermal hospital in 1927, the building was blown up by retreating German forces in 1944.[20]
Despite all the travails, much of the original Bagno del Papa built by Popes Nicholas V and Pius II survives, including the corner towers and the vaulted chambers where Renaissance patrons once bathed.[21]
Viterbo became a centre of military aviation due to its proximity toRome, especially after the opening of the Air Force base (now theRome Viterbo Airport but still used for military purposes) during the 1930s. TheArmy Aviation Command headquarters and training school (Italian:Scuola marescialli dell'Aeronautica Militare) are both located there.
Tomb with the body of SaintHyacintha Mariscotti exposed for public veneration in Viterbo, Italy
Saint Rose is the patron saint of Viterbo. The legend of Santa Rosa is that she helped to eradicate those few who supported the emperors instead of the popes, around 1250.Saint Lawrence is the male patron saint.Saint Hyacintha Mariscotti is the co-patroness of the city.
The transport of theMacchina di Santa Rosa takes place every year, on 3 September, at 9 o'clock in the evening. The Macchina is an artistic illuminated bell-tower with an imposing height of 30 m. It weighs between 3.5 and 5 tonnes and is made of iron, wood andpapier-mâché. At the top of the tower, the statue of the patron saint is enthusiastically acclaimed by the people in the streets of the town centre, where lights are turned off for the occasion. One hundred Viterbesi men (known as theFacchini) carry the Macchina from Porta Romana through each of the major streets of Viterbo to seven churches to be blessed, concluding with a strenuous ascension up to the Piazza di Santa Rosa, its final resting place. Each Macchina's lifespan differs, but contests for a new design are held every few years.
Porta Fiorentina is one of three train stations serving Viterbo.
TheRome Viterbo Airport was opened in 1936 as part ofViterbo Air Force Base, located 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the town. On 26 November 2007, Italian transport ministerAlessandro Bianchi announced that Viterbo had been chosen as the site of the next airport in Lazio to serve Rome.[22] However, in 2013 those plans were abandoned.[23]Viterbo is served by regional trains departing from Station Ostiense, Trastevere, S. Pietro and sometimes at Termini in Rome. Porta Romana is the station serving the old city center.
The city is home to theTuscia University, established in 1979.[24] It is also the city where students ofSchool Year Abroad's Italy program study, their school housed in a 16th-century palazzo on Via Cavour.
^Mack, 1992, 50. For a general discussion of medieval and Renaissance thermal bathing practices and the architectural environments in which the waters were taken see Charles R. Mack, "The Wanton Habits of Venus: Pleasure and Pain at the Renaissance Spa,"Explorations in Renaissance Culture, 26,2 (Winter), 2000, 257–76
Charles R. Mack, "The Bath Palace of Nicholas V at Viterbo", inAn Architectural Progress in the Renaissance and the Baroque: Sojourns In and Out of Italy, Papers in Art History VIII, Pennsylvania State University, Vol. I, 1992, 45–63.
Charles R. Mack, "The Renaissance Spa: Testing the Architectural Waters",Southeastern College Art Conference Review, XI, 3, 1988, 193–200.
Valtieri, Simonetta, "Rinascimento a Viterbo: Bernardo Rossellino",Architettura, croniche e storia, XVII, 1972, 686–94.
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