Category Archives: Palaces

The municipal buildings are located in Piazza Plebiscito  and Ascenzi away No. 1 within the reach of parks. The center of the square, Martyrs of Hungary (Shrine) and the adjacent Valle Faul. Are open, admission free, all day from 9.00 (Sunday at 10.00) to 13.00 and from 15.00 to 18.00. From Monday to Friday and Saturday morning, the entrance is accessed via Ascenzi No. 1 (Palazzo del Podesta). On Saturday and Sundays afternoons they are accessed by the scale of the garden of Palazzo dei Priori (entrance on Piazza Plebiscite No. 14 ). Inside the city hall rooms a bilingual guide is available free.

The Palace Lomellino D’Aragona is an interesting representation of the newly discovered beauties in Viterbo. The building is not mentioned in any of the classic tourist guides perhaps because its history is untraceable.

In 1625, Alessandro Brugiotti from Vetralla, bought a palace on Via Farnesiana, before he bought the palace it belonged to Rosio Archilegi and further back to the Pico family. In 1651, Pietro Brugiotti, son of Alessandro, acquired the building adjacent to the palace which twenty years before his father’s cousins Carlo De Angeli, Felice and Monaldo Messini had inherited from his grandfather Cosimo Musacchi.

The building was born as a fortress in the XIth century, was transformed into a stately home, and castellare then, through diersi aristocratic owners who succeeded in time. The building underwent further expansion as before with Nardo Mazzatosta, then with Bartolomeo Mazzatosta between 1460 and 1560, treasurer of Pope Eugene IV, brother of Nardo, who made use of the interior space, also reducing the courtyards or “richiastri”.

According to Cesare Pinzi, a historian from Viterbo, the building was constructed with features typical of the private buildings of Viterbo from the late Middle Ages, dating from the thirteenth century. Trought the documents we nows who Valentino della Pagnotta, a rich farmer elected Prior in 1458, lived near the fountain of San Lorenzo. The building is still a great example of medieval architecture and retains the name Valentino della Pagnotta.

Built in the second half of the fifteenth century at the behest of the Caetani family, Pisan merchants who moved into the city, the building was purchased by the Chigi family in the first decade of the sixteenth century.

What is seen next to the San Pietro Gate is the Abbot’s Palace. The monks of San Martino built it in the early 1400’s. They came to find refuge here when there was war, making it dangerous for them to remain in their Abbey. In 1564, when the pope’s brother and his wife (Donna Olimpia Maidalchini) became princes of San Martino, the palace became the abbot of their property.

Belonging to one of the most distinguished families of the city, this square is clearly an example of the private housing of Viterbo in the 14th century. We know this because of the specific type of external stairs, called “profferlo”, which had already been popular in rural areas.

This palace is the symbol of political power of the family in which it takes its name. It was constructed by the capitano del popolo Raniero Gatti in 1266. He ordered the construction of a complex that extended up to the convent of the Carmelitane scalze. The building was originally equipped with at least six towers, of which he now holds only a small portion.

It was built during the thirteenth century, a period of great expansion for both the city and the aristocracy. A few years later the building was in danger of being destroyed as a result of the abandonment of the city by the Alessandri family and Gatti family for being part of the Guelph (a member of one or two great factions in Italian medieval politics, traditionally supporting the Pope against the Holy Roman emperor and his supporters, the Ghibellines).