the churches and cathedral of Viterbo
Gothic churches
The Gothic architecture draws its fundamental features from the development upwards, to the extreme consequences, structures arc and barrel vault that had already characterized the Romanesque period.
This development is made possible mainly by the advancement of technical design and construction, in particular the progress in the study of forces that make up the static total of buildings.
The particular interpretation of the Gothic featuring manufactured viterbesi derives the extreme calmness with which manifest the distinctive style. The result appears as admixture of two different traditions: the new taste Gothic and Romanesque heritage, not immediately surmountable because form and substance of the historic city.
The churches of St. Mary of Truth and S. Mary in Degrees (destroyed by the bombardments of 1944), combined with significant Palace of the Popes are the most valuable of this original interpretation of the Gothic. In these buildings is in fact more evident than elsewhere as the two styles live together and almost compenetrino to offer an original architectural result.
In the Church of St. Francis is instead seen a Gothic influenced by the strict Franciscan spirit and borrowed from architecture umbra. The height of the nave, the magnificent glass polifora dell’abside, the momentum of the time are also linked to the fees coeval classics of French architecture.
Later Gothic architecture in its variants Siena and Orvieto, will be introduced in Tuscia through the influence of architect Lorenzo orvietano Maini. Main Viterbo example of this trend is the church of St. Maria della Salute.
Churches Roman
Specific features of the testimonies of Romanesque in Viterbo is a strong intensity with which there remain architectural elements already own of Lombard and the Christian.
Even the special plasticity of stone materials used and in particular the peperino, gives points for originality to the elements of architectural and decorative Romanesque Viterbo. The element which together with the Italian and European can be discerned in the mix of characters aulici derivation of classical, with others to mark popular fruit of craft and popular nature of the workforce, which do not apply pedissequamente a stylistic model default, becoming also guided by its own technical skills and your taste.
The Romanesque monument to excellence is the church or cathedral, which besides being a place of worship is also the main public space and social, where the community gathers in the Council and treats Affairs.
The most classic example in this sense is S. Maria Nuova, where he was also guarded the treasure citizen and held public meetings.
From an architectural point of view are very important also the churches of St. Giovanni in Zoccoli, San Sisto, S. Andrea and S. Angelo in Spatha, all built in a relatively short period of time to witness the importance assumed by Viterbo on horseback between the eleventh and twelfth century and therefore of its extreme wealth and popolosità that lead, albeit briefly, outstrip Rome.
Church of San Sisto
The church of San Sisto, we have news from the end of century AD, is located on an area that was probably intended originally to another religion. Over time has undergone several changes, the last of which dates from the second post-war period and is witnessed by a votive lamp and some elements marble that recall the fallen.
The facade was rebuilt after the bombing and presents a window to eye and a portal, simple in style, dating back to the sixteenth century .. The church, located near the city walls, is flanked by two different cells bell among them, the largest, timing uncertain, is included in the walls, while the smallest period dates back to Lombard.
The interior consists of three aisles, divided by ten columns, some with capitals from the elements of style Corinthian, Ionic volutes with other groups with circular leaves. Particular is the fifth column because it is made up of four columns less willing to spiral. In the nave of the left are two tabernacles, a marble dating back to the fifteenth century. And the other Gothic style, dating back to the sixteenth century .. The presbytery was added in the twelfth or thirteenth century, is raised with respect to the plane of the church and is covered by a barrel vault supported by two pillars. To the right is the painting “Madonna and Child with Saints” Blacks di Bicci dated 1457 AD. Nell’abside central semicircular and incorporated into the walls, is an altar with elements of style Longobardo. Of the two pulpits who are in a church was the most important because for the priest, while the second, smaller was intended to deacon. A well from some Roman villa in the area was turned into a baptismal font and place the right of entry. Finally in the crypt, which can be accessed from the left side or outside is half a column with an inscription dated 1618 that was reported to light recently.
Cathedral of San Lorenzo
The cathedral dedicated to St. Lorenzo was built in the twelfth century Romanesque style, the place of an ancient church whose news all’850 go back. In 1181 was recognized main church of Viterbo and Tuscia by Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), to obtain only a few years after the granting official bishop’s chair. Since mid-thirteenth century cathedral assumed even greater importance: the presence of the popes in Viterbo, residents in the famous papal palace, the cathedral was the scene of religious and political events of great outcry, as the excommunication of Corradino of Swabia and the coronation of seven popes. The temple was erected in accordance with the usual type basilica with three naves concluded by many apses (the central very nascent compared to side); this facility to clear matrix Romanesque, in 1192 was added to transept, height less than the median aisle. The spacious interior, harmonica and monumental, was, and is still marked by two rows of arches governed by columns with capitals in peperino finely carved. They are a valuable product developed by local workers, which risentirono while rileggendola staff as a lively, the lesson of the masters Nordic present at Viterbo since the end of the century. The tower was built at the end of the thirteenth century in forms already distinctly Gothic; marked by four orders of mullioned windows twin, risentì suggestions caused by the bichromy lapidea foundations chiesastiche Tuscan (the spire was added in mid-fifteenth century). The primitive plant dome was nevertheless deeply affected by the actions undertaken on several occasions over time, that cancellarono partly sharp scanning lines Romanesque and totally destroyed the original facade adorned with three rosettes wisely traforati (one of them was remounted on the side right of the church and another was called into work on a wall of the building bishop). The current prospectus, lightened by three oculi arranged in symmetry, is the result of total reconstruction carried out in 1570. The roof was put back in place at the time of Pope Pius II (1458-1464), while after the chapels were built along the perimeter walls, on the resumption of Renaissance models brunelleschiani (walled after restoration novecenteschi, are still open are those of S . Lucia and of Ss. Valentino and Ilario).
The greatest damage came, however, during the Second War, after which the area presbyterial had to be completely reformulated, leaving only one of three hemicycles absidali the original setting. Inside the cathedral interesting pictorial songs, like the frescoes in the apse area, related to the late thirteenth century, trecenteschi those that still remain to the left of the fragments and that qualify the party beyond the entrance to the baptistery. Finally deserve to be mentioned the table with the so-called Madonna of Carbonara, inherent to the twelfth century, the splendid baptismal font in Carrara marble realized at the end of the fifteenth from master Francesco d’Ancona, the sarcophagus of Pope John XXI (1276-1277) , The only pontiff Portuguese, also recalled by Dante in Paradise, and the valuable canvas with the high representation of S. Lorenzo, built by Giovan Francesco Romanelli in the first half of the eighteenth century, and the ten boxes that adorn the walls of the nave with episodes from the life of St. Lorenzo, by the painter Mark Roman Benefial.
Church of Santa Rosa
The Church of St. Rosa was rebuilt in 1850 at a pre-existing temple of relevance of nuns Clarisse, on the initiative by the then bishop of the city. Instead of the current stood a small church and a monastery, initially entitled to S. Mary, governed by the Poor Sisters of St. Damiano of Assisi (name of the first female monastic order, also called the Damianite, called the Poor Clares after the canonization of St. Clare in the cathedral of Anagni). In the complex, of which there has been starting in 1235, in 1258 Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261) did translate the body of S. Rosa (already lying at the nearby church of Santa Maria in Poggio, otherwise known as Church of Crocetta), and towards the middle of the next century invalse the new dedication to the holy who became the patron saint of Viterbo.
The primitive temple, destroyed a first time in 1350, was admirably fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in mid-fifteenth century, with the representation of episodes from the life of St. Pink. After the radical work of revising and magnification of the church, undertaken around the middle of the seventeenth century, the masterpieces were lost: if they retain currently nine copies acquerellate at the Civic Museum of the city (modest work of seventeenth-century painter orvietano F. Sabatini, who helps however to have an aspect of the original church of Santa Rosa); two preparatory sketches made by the same Gozzoli for the church of Clarisse, although never transferred to fresco, are at the British Museum in London and the Cabinet of Prints Dresden. The reconstruction of the half century was inspired by the forms of sixteenth-century church of St. Maria delle Fortresses (now almost destroyed), according to a stylistic blend of late Renaissance and neoclassical which failed however to revive the ancient spirituality of the place. In the structure, entirely made of peperino, in 1913 the architect A. Foschini added the new dome, larger than the previous year, with an impressive coating of majolica (later concealed by sheets of lead). According to legend S. Rosa passionately begged to be allowed into the Clarisse, without ever succeed because regarded as a rebel. A few years after his death Pope Alexander IV, after he had several times in a dream, tried to glorificarne memory making translate the body near the place so dear to you. A quest’episodio alludes the celebration of the “carriage” of the so-called “machinery of St. Rosa,” which takes place every year in Viterbo: an enormous construction paper in the form of a bell is precisely carried through the streets of the city, the church S. Sisto to the sanctuary of St. Rosa, to reach as tradition has it that the “porters” do the stairs of the race. The church Viterbo is otherwise known to have beside the house where St. Rosa was born in 1233 and where he died in 1252, annexed to the shrine in 1661 for the will of the nuns. The inner room of the house was intended to oratory of sisters, while in a room on the upper floor has been set, the same nuns, a permanent crib. In the small building, which is spread over two floors, still bears the painted wooden ark that contained the body of the saint.
Church of sant ‘angel in Spatha
The church dedicated to St. Angelo in Spatha closes one side of Piazza del Plebiscito, which since the thirteenth century overlook the main administrative offices: the tolling of the church bell richiamavano to rally members of the council. The church has very ancient origins, was probably the small church of Vico Biterbo, namely the village prior to the formation of the city. Its founding dates back to a period between 1078 and 1088, when it was erected in forms typically Roman. The plant primitive church corresponded to the type basilica with three aisles, terminating in as many apses, in line with the outline architectural widespread in Central-south over century. Of the original stage remains on the wall facing the road to S. Angelo, which was then grafted the side of the church itself, in which five windows open to all sixth and a portal surmounted by a lunette with fragments of a fresco. In 1092 the importance of the church grew, with the elevation to collegiate (church that had a panel of clerics, with a significant between the churches in the city); was consecrated in 1145 after having suffered the first substantial restoration promoted by Pope Eugene III (1145-1153), which stayed long in the capital of Tuscia. In the thirteenth century, the eminent position of the church of St. Angelo was now recognized, perhaps even for the presence of stalls sancti Angels, that is the great cemetery in front, then destroyed to make room for municipal buildings. The prospectus original, simple and essential, characterized by sharp lines and crystal architectural language Romanesque rovinò in 1549, collapsed when the bell tower placed on the right side of the facade. The new century restorations were carried out in 1560, while Pius IV (1559-1565) was on the papal; his Medici emblem on the facade appears in fact, next to the lion, the emblem of the city, and that of family Piccolomini, contributed to finance the reconstruction of the church.
The interior, which appears today in single aisle rectangular, although still three apses to demarcate the area presbyterial, was radically reshaped in the first half of the eighteenth century by the Chapter of collegiate. Finally deserve to be remembered some valuable works preserved in S. Spatha Angelo in the table with the representation of the Madonna and Child, the central part of the fourteenth century triptych of the first chapel to the right, due to the Sienese painter of school-Orvieto Andrea di Giovanni, the crucifix, also fourteenth century, the third altar on the right And the Madonna and Child and saints placed on greater, designed by Philip Caparozzi. On the right side of the facade insists the tomb of the so-called Bella Galliana, a young Viterbo whose avvenenza physics, according to legend, was equal to his moral rectitude. Element backbone of the monument is the classical sarcophagus decorated with a scene in high relief depicting the hunt wild boar, a copy of the post in place of the third century Roman d. C. kept at the Civic Museum in the city. Two tombstones with inscriptions in Latin, placed on top dell’arca, remember the burial of the young Viterbo, in 1138.
