Editing Tivoli, Lazio (section)

=== Renaissance ===
During the [[Renaissance]], popes and cardinals did not limit their embellishment program to Rome; they also erected buildings in Tivoli. In 1461 [[Pope Pius II]] built the massive Rocca Pia to control the always restive population, and as a symbol of the permanence of papal temporal power here.

From the sixteenth century the city saw further construction of villas. The most famous of these is the [[Villa d'Este]], a [[World Heritage Site]], whose construction was started in 1550 by [[Pirro Ligorio]] for Cardinal [[Ippolito II d'Este]] and which was richly decorated with an ambitious program of [[fresco]]es by painters of late Roman Mannerism, such Girolamo Muziano, [[Livio Agresti]] (a member of the "[[Forlì painting school]]") or [[Federico Zuccari]]. In 1527 Tivoli was sacked by bands of the supporters of the [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|emperor]] and the [[Colonna family|Colonna]], important archives being destroyed during the attack. In 1547 it was again occupied, by the [[Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba|Duke of Alba]] in a war against [[Pope Paul IV|Paul IV]], and in 1744 by the [[Austria]]ns.

In 1835 [[Pope Gregory XVI]] added the [[Villa Gregoriana]], a villa complex pivoting around the Aniene's falls. The "Great Waterfall" was created through a tunnel in the Monte Catillo, to give an outlet to the waters of the Aniene sufficient to preserve the city from inundations like the devastating flood of 1826.