Editing Viterbo (section)

== Sights ==
[[File:Palazzo dei Papi (Viterbo) 2022.jpg|thumb|The Palace of the Popes – In the background the bell-tower of the cathedral]]
[[File:Fontana di Piazza della Rocca 16.Jh Viterbo Lazio Italien Foto Wolfgang Pehlemann DSC00022.jpg|thumb|Fontana di Piazza della Rocca (12th–16th-century) in the center of Old Town Viterbo]]
Viterbo's historic center is one of the best preserved medieval towns of central Italy. Many of the older buildings (particularly churches) are built on top of ancient ruins, recognizable by their large stones, 50&nbsp;centimeters to a side. Viterbo is unique in Italy for its concentration of 'profferli', external staircases that were a frequent feature of medieval houses. The San Pellegrino quarter has an abundance of them, reflecting an architectural style that is unique to the town and the nearby region.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.minorsights.com/2015/05/italy-profferli-of-viterbo.html |title=The Profferli of Viterbo |access-date= 14 July 2015 |publisher=Minor Sights}}</ref>

* [[Palace of the Popes in Viterbo|Palazzo dei Papi]] or Papal Palace: main attraction of Viterbo, the palace hosted the papacy for about two decades in the 13th century, and served as a country residence or refuge in time of trouble in Rome. The columns of the palace are ''[[spolia]]'' from a Roman temple.
* [[Viterbo Cathedral|Cathedral of San Lorenzo]]: Cathedral or duomo was originally erected as episcopal see of the exempt [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Viterbo|bishopric of Viterbo]] in [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] style by [[Lombardy|Lombard]] architects at the site of an ancient Roman temple of [[Hercules]]. It was rebuilt from the sixteenth century on, and heavily damaged in 1944 by Allied bombs. The [[Gothic art|Gothic]] [[Bell tower|belfry]] was built in the first half of the 14th century, and shows influence of [[Siena|Sienese]] architects. The church houses the sarcophagus of [[Pope John XXI]] and a picture ''Christ Blessing'' (1472) by [[Girolamo da Cremona]].
* [[Palazzo Comunale, Viterbo|Palazzo Comunale]] (town hall; begun 1460), Palazzo del Podestà (magistrate's residence; 1264) and Palazzo della Prefettura (police HQ; rebuilt 1771): three civic buildings around the central square, Piazza del Plebiscito. The Palazzo Comunale houses a series of 17th century and [[Baroque]] frescoes by [[Tarquinio Ligustri]], [[Bartolomeo Cavarozzi]] and [[Ludovico Nucci]].
* [[Sant'Andrea Apostolo, Viterbo|Sant'Andrea Apostolo]]: a Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church
* [[Santa Maria della Peste, Viterbo|Santa Maria della Peste]]: a small 16th-century temple-church (''tempietto'')
* [[Santa Maria della Salute, Viterbo|Santa Maria della Salute]]: a small [[Gothic art|Gothic]] church with a highly decorated portal 
* [[Palazzo Farnese, Viterbo|Palazzo Farnese]]: 14th–15th-century palace was the childhood home of Alessandro Farnese, the future [[Pope Paul III]], and his beautiful {{Citation needed|date=July 2016}} sister, [[Giulia Farnese]].
* [[Palazzo Gatti, Viterbo|Palazzo Gatti]]: 13th-century Gothic architecture palace.
* [[Palazzo Mazzatosta, Viterbo|Palazzo Mazzatosta]]: 13th-century aristocratic palace.
*''Rocca'' (castle)
* [[Santa Maria Nuova, Viterbo|Santa Maria Nuova]] (11th-century), [[San Sisto, Viterbo|San Sisto]] (second half of 9th-century), and [[San Giovanni in Zoccoli, Viterbo|San Giovanni in Zoccoli]] (11th-century): three Romanesque churches.
* [[Palazzo degli Alessandri, Viterbo|Palazzo degli Alessandri]]: a typical medieval patrician house in central Viterbo
* [[Fontana di Piano Scarano, Viterbo|Fontana di Piano Scarano]]: medieval fountain inside Viterbo city walls
* [[Fontana di Piazza della Rocca, Viterbo|Fontana di Piazza della Rocca]]: public fountain in the center of the Old Town, construction 12th–16th century
* [[Fontana Grande, Viterbo|Fontana Grande]]: public fountain, construction began in 1206.
* [[San Francesco, Viterbo|San Francesco]]: gothic church built over a pre-existing Lombard fortress. It has a single nave with a Latin cross plan. It houses the sepulchre of [[Pope Adrian V]], who died in Viterbo in 1276, considered the first monument by [[Arnolfo di Cambio]].
* [[Sanctuary of Santa Rosa, Viterbo|Sanctuary of Santa Rosa]]: church is a sober 19th-century reconstruction, where every year a new [[Macchina di Santa Rosa]], or dedicatory tower is displayed.
[[File:Duomo (Viterbo) - Esterno.jpg|thumb|St. Lawrence Cathedral and bell-tower]]
* [[Museo Civico, Viterbo|Museo Civico]]: City museum for arecheologic items from the pre-historic to Ancient Roman times, and a Pinacoteca (picture gallery) with works by [[Sebastiano del Piombo]], [[Antoniazzo Romano]], [[Salvator Rosa]], [[Antiveduto Grammatica]] and others. 
* [[Orto Botanico dell'Università della Tuscia]]: [[botanical garden]] operated by the university.

=== Baths of Viterbo ===
[[File:Bagno del Papa.jpg|thumb|Bagno del Papa in Viterbo]]
In the valley of the Arcione River just to the west of Viterbo are a number of springs celebrated for the healing qualities of their waters, and in use since Etruscan and Roman days.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.minorsights.com/2014/08/italy-hot-springs-near-viterbo.html |title=Hot Springs Near Viterbo |access-date= 14 July 2015 |publisher=Minor Sights}}</ref> In fact, the imposing ruins of a great Roman bath are still to be seen and were drawn in plan and perspective by Renaissance artists including [[Giuliano da Sangallo]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Giorgio Vasari|Vasari]].<ref>Mack, 1988, pages 197–98</ref> One of the most famous were the thermal springs known as the "Bullicame", or bubbling place, whose reputation had even reached the ears of the exiled poet [[Dante Alighieri]]. Canto 14 (lines 79–81) of Dante's ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' describes how:
[[File:Viterbo Aroundly App.jpg|thumb|"The Awakening" by Seward Johnson in Viterbo]]
<blockquote><poem>
In silence we had reached a place where flowed
a slender watercourse out of the wood—a stream
whose redness makes me shudder still.
As from the Bullicame pours a brook [[History of cannabis in Italy#Grand Duchy of Tuscany|whose
waters are then shared by prostitutes]], so did this
stream run down across the sand.<ref>Mack, 1988, p. 198</ref>
</poem></blockquote>

Not far from the Bullicame, whose waters were apparently always taken in the open, is the Terme dei Papi ("Bath of the Popes"). Almost totally concealed within the structure of a modern luxury spa hotel are the remains of a Renaissance bath palace that attracted the attention of two popes.<ref>Mack, 1992</ref> Actually, the origins of this bathing establishment date to the Middle Ages when it was known as the Bagno della Crociata (named either after a Crusader who supposedly discovered the spring or from a corruption of the Italian word for crutch). Early 15th-century documents describe a bath building that covered three distinct thermal springs all under one roof.<ref name="Mack, 1992, 46">Mack, 1992, 46</ref>

[[File:FontanagrandeViterbo.JPG|thumb|upright|The Fontana Grande ("Grand Fountain") in the eponymous square]]
This bath house was transformed circa 1454 by the [[Pope Nicholas V]], who commissioned a bath palace (according to Nicholas's biographer, [[Giannozzo Manetti]]) "with such magnificence and with such expense that it was not only deemed suitable for a stay and salutary for the sick but seemed an edifice destined to have rooms fit for princes and for living regally".<ref name="Mack, 1992, 46"/> A more precise description of Pope Nicholas' palace was described by the Viterbese chronicler [[Niccola della Tuccia]] in the 1470s, who stated the new Bagno del Papa as a battlemented building, resembling a fortress, about 30 x 20&nbsp;m in size with high towers at the corners of its southern façade. Located outside Viterbo, the spa would have been an easy target for assaults had the building not assumed a militant character, which also affirmed papal authority.  Aside from the regal apartments described by Manedtti there were vaulted chambers at the lowest level to accommodate the patrons of the several thermal springs.<ref name="Mack, 1992, 46"/>

Manetti and Vasari both named the Florentine architect and sculptor [[Bernardo Rossellino]] as the architect of the project in Viterbo.<ref>Valtieri</ref> There is, however, no documentation or architectural evidence to connect Rossellino directly with the construction of the Bagno del Papa. To the contrary, Vatican payment records from 1454, preserved in the state archives in Rome, identify a stonemason from Lombardy, named Stefano di Beltrame, as the builder who "had done or was doing in the house ordered by the pope at the bagni della Grotta and Crociata of Viterbo."<ref>Mack,1992, 46–47</ref>

Construction at the Bagno del Papa was continued on through the reigns of several popes after Nicholas V. The Vatican accounts mention of payments "for building done at the bath palace of Viterbo" during the reigns of [[Pope Callixtus III|Calixtus III]], [[Pope Paul II|Paul II]], and [[Pope Sixtus IV|Sixtus IV]]. There also is evidence [[Pope Pius II]] was responsible for the addition of a western wing to the building.<ref>Mack, 1992,47</ref>

Travelers' descriptions, etched views, and local guidebooks chronicle the fate of the Renaissance Bagno del Papa over the years and through several rebuildings resulting in a general assumption that most of the original 15th-century structure had vanished. A guide to Viterbo from 1911 does note that some remnants were still to be detected in basement piers and vaults. In operation as a thermal hospital in 1927, the building was blown up by retreating German forces in 1944.<ref>Mack, 1992, 47–49</ref>

Despite all the travails, much of the original Bagno del Papa built by Popes Nicholas V and Pius II survives, including the corner towers and the vaulted chambers where Renaissance patrons once bathed.<ref>Mack, 1992, 50. For a general discussion of medieval and Renaissance thermal bathing practices and the architectural environments in which the waters were taken see Charles R. Mack, "The Wanton Habits of Venus: Pleasure and Pain at the Renaissance Spa," ''Explorations in Renaissance Culture'', 26,2 (Winter), 2000, 257–76</ref>