Last updated The Papal Palace of Viterbo, with the bell tower of the cathedral in the background
Palazzo dei Papi is a palace in Viterbo, northern Latium, Italy. It is one of the most important monuments in the city, situated alongside the Duomo di Viterbo (Viterbo Cathedral). The Papal Curia was moved to Viterbo in 1257 by Alexander IV, due to the hostility of the Roman commune and constant urban violence: the former bishop's palace of Viterbo was enlarged to provide the Popes with an adequate residence. The construction, commissioned by the Capitano del popolo ("Captain of the People") Raniero Gatti, provided a great audience hall communicating with a loggia raised on a barrel vault above the city street. It was completed probably around 1266.
A detail of the Loggia of the Papal Palace of Viterbo.Bagno del Papa in Viterbo.
The massive façade, facing the central piazza San Lorenzo which is dominated by the Duomo, is approached by a wide staircase completed in 1267. The top of the palace walls is decorated with square merlons. On the right is a wide roofless loggia with a seven-bay arcade, supported by slender doubled columns and decorated with crests and reliefs. Within the loggia is a 15th-century fountain, made with material of various ages, sporting the coat of arms of the Gatti family.
Viterbo remained the residence of the papacy for twenty-four years, from 1257 to 1281. After Alexander IV, the palace was the residence of Urban IV, then housed the papal election of 1268-1271 which elected Gregory X (the longest papal election in Church history), the residence of John XXI (who died in the building in 1277 when his study collapsed), and the residence again of Nicholas III and Martin IV, who moved almost immediately to Orvieto in 1281. They were all elected in the most famous hall of the palace, the Sala del Conclave so called because it was home to the first and longest conclave in history.
In c.1454 Pope Nicholas V commissioned building a bathpalace in Viterbo, and the construction at the Bagno del Papa was continued on through the reigns of several popes after Nicholas V. The Vatican accounts mention payments "for building done at the bath palace of Viterbo" during the reigns of Calixtus III, Paul II, and Sixtus IV. There also is evidence Pope Pius II was responsible for the addition of a western wing to the building.[1]
Popes resident in Viterbo
Alexander IV, pope from 1254 to 1261 (stably resident at Viterbo from 1257);
Urban IV, pope from 1261 to 1264 (divided his residence between Orvieto and Viterbo);
Clement IV, pope from 1265 to 1268 (resided almost always at Viterbo);
Gregory X, pope from 1271 to 1276[2] (Gregory X remained in Viterbo little more than a month, between February and March 1272);
Innocent V, pope from 21 January to 22 June 1276 (stayed at Viterbo for two weeks, just after his election, and there he met Charles of Anjou);
Adrian V, pope from 11 July 1276 to 18 August 1276 (spent almost the whole of his short pontificate in the convent next to the church of San Francesco alla Rocca);
John XXI, pope from 15 September 1276 to 20 May 1277 (resided almost always at Viterbo);
Martin IV, elected on 22 February 1281 (abandoned Viterbo immediately after his election).
Martin IV, born Simon de Brion, was the last pope of the “Viterbo period”. He was elected after a turbulent conclave which lasted six months. The civic head of the city, Annibaldo Annibaldi, a supporter of the Angevin faction, had interfered in the conclave, preventing the Cardinal Protodeacon, Matteo Rubeo Orsini, from taking part and entering the conclave by force of arms to arrest two cardinals. As a result, Martin IV was to issue a decree which ordered the abandonment of Viterbo as a papal residence.[3] From then onwards Viterbo was never again a longterm papal residence. Moreover, given the hostility of the Roman populace to a French pope, Martin chose to be crowned in Orvieto.
Pope Honorius IV, born Giacomo Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 April 1285 to his death in 1287. During his pontificate he largely continued to pursue the pro-French political policy of his predecessor, Martin IV.
Pope Martin IV, born Simon de Brion, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 February 1281 to his death on 28 March 1285. He was the last French pope to have held court in Rome; all subsequent French popes held court in Avignon.
Pope Nicholas III, born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280.
Viterbo is a city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo.
Palace of the Popes may refer to:
Viterbo Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, and the principal church of the city of Viterbo, Lazio, central Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Viterbo and is dedicated to Saint Lawrence.
The 1268–71 papal election, following the death of Pope Clement IV, was the longest papal election in the history of the Catholic Church. This was due primarily to political infighting between the cardinals. The election of Teobaldo Visconti as Pope Gregory X was the first example of a papal election by "compromise", that is, by the appointment of a committee of six cardinals agreed to by the other remaining ten. The election occurred more than a year after the magistrates of Viterbo locked the cardinals in, reduced their rations to bread and water, and removed the roof of the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo where the election took place.
Vicedomino de Vicedominis was an Italian cardinal.
Bentivenga dei Bentivenghi, O. Min., also written Bentivenga de Bentivengis or Bentivegna de' Bentivegni, was an Italian Franciscan and cardinal.
Bertrand de Saint-Martin was a French cardinal.
The 1280–81 papal election elected Simon de Brion, who took the name Pope Martin IV, as the successor to Pope Nicholas III.
With a long history as a vantage point for anti-popes forces threatening Rome, Viterbo became a papal city in 1243. During the later thirteenth century, the ancient Italian city of Viterbo was the site of five papal elections and the residence of seven popes and their Curias, and it remains the location of four papal tombs. These popes resided in the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo alongside the Viterbo Cathedral intermittently for two decades, from 1257 to 1281; as a result, the papal palace in Viterbo, with that in Orvieto, are the most extensive thirteenth-century papal palaces to have survived.
Orvieto, Umbria, Italy, was the refuge of five popes during the 13th century: Urban IV (1261–1264), Gregory X (1271–1276), Martin IV (1281–1285), Nicholas IV (1288–1292) and Boniface VIII (1294–1303). During this time, the popes took up residence in the Papal Palace of Orvieto, which was adjacent to the Orvieto Cathedral and expanded onto the bishop's residence. None of these popes died in Orvieto, and thus no papal elections took place in there, nor are there any papal tombs.
Perugia was a long-time papal residence during the 13th century. Five popes were elected here: Pope Honorius III (1216–1227), Pope Clement IV (1265–1268), Pope Honorius IV (1285–1287), Pope Celestine V (1294), and Pope Clement V (1305–1314). These elections took place in the Palazzo delle Canoniche adjoining the Perugia Cathedral.
Matteo Rosso Orsini, was a Roman aristocrat, politician, diplomat, and Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was the nephew of Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280).
Goffredo da Alatri, also called Goffredo di Alatri or Goffredo di Raynaldo, was an Italian nobleman, city leader and Roman Catholic cardinal. He was podestà of his native Alatri, a small town in the mountains, east of Anagni, in the last two years of his life.
Uberto Coconati, a Roman Catholic Cardinal, was born at Asti in the Piedmont region of Italy, a member of the family of the Counts of Cocconato, who were vassals of the Marchese di Monferrato. Thierry de Vaucouleurs, the author of the Johanneslegende, Uberto was "Lombardus nomine, stirpe potens".
Giordano Pironti dei Conti di Terracina was an Italian aristocrat, papal bureaucrat, and Roman Catholic Cardinal. His family included a brother, Pietro, and three nephews, Pietro, Giovanni and Paolo.
Guillaume de Bray was a French ecclesiastic and Roman Catholic Cardinal, poet, and mathematician.
Simone Paltanieri, son of Pesce Paltanieri, member of a distinguished family, was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal.
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