What to See in Viterbo - Top Sights and Attractions

Palace in Viterbo, Italy. 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. 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 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.

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.^[1]

The Museo Colle del Duomo is a museum in Viterbo, located in Piazza San Lorenzo.

The museum was founded on the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000. It was made possible thanks to the joint intervention of the episcopal curia of Viterbo and the Presidency of the Council of the Republic of Italy. Through the interest of Msgr. Lorenzo Chiarinelli, bishop of Viterbo at the time, and the late Msgr. Salvatore del Ciuco, the Museum's first director, a number of disused premises near the Cathedral of St. Lawrence were restored and set up as the Museum's own headquarters. From an artistic point of view, the layout was taken care of by master Alessio Paternesi.

The museum is part of the "monumental pole of the Viterbo Cathedral Hill," which also manages visits to the Palace of the Popes and the normally inaccessible rooms of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.

The museum of the Sodalizio dei facchini di Santa Rosa is a private museum in Viterbo. It is located at 60/62 Via San Pellegrino, inside a medieval palazzetto that was donated by the municipality to the Sodalizio dei facchini in 1978 to make it the site of their meetings. The museum has been regularly open to the public since 1994 and has been managed by Archeoares s.n.c. since May 2008.

The museum rooms occupy two floors: at the entrance to the hall on the ground floor a number of models of the machines of Santa Rosa are displayed, which have followed each other from 1690 to the present day. On the second floor there is a screening of films of the machine transports that took place the previous years.

On the top floor of the building, which is closed to the public, is the room that hosts the association's weekly board meeting.