Category Archives: Palaces

The old palace, owned by the Federici family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has been recently renovated and converted into a hotel, known now as the Hotel Urbano V.

The building, now home to the Municipal Library, dates back to the 16th century and is attributed by some to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, by others to Vignola, although these imaginative attributions remain unsupported by any historical documentation. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the building belonged to the Pieri family, a family that later combined its surname with that of the Buti family.

There is no detailed information regarding the construction of the palace, which was expanded around the middle of the fifteenth century (at the behest of Pius II Piccolomini) and finished before 1734 by Cardinal Pompeo Aldrovandi.

The episcopal seminary was built near the ancient port of Borgheriglia in 1666 at the will of Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi of Albertoni, who designated for the seminary the use of the small church of San Bartolomeo.

The palace was built in the late nineteenth by the notary Francesco Cernitori and his wife, who belonged to the Renzi family.

Large doorway that overlooks the Cernitori family crest dominates the lower part of the main facade of the building. From here, there is a direct passage leading to the inner courtyard of the palace.

In the middle of Via Bixio, down and to the right of the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, you find the Antonelli family palace, which is one of the most illustrious palaces of Montefiascone, where Mercurio Antonelli once lived. He was an important historian who focused on the territory of the patrimony of St. Peter and the Avignon Papacy period of exile.

A fifteenth-century coat of arms of the Aliotti family, present in one of the rooms of the palace, suggests that the previous building was originally owned by this family. The current palace, as can be seen from the still existing side coats of arms, was built by the Pennoni family, one of the most important in Montefiascone in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Numerous fragments of different architectural styles present in the structure of the City Hall Palace tell the long and complex story of the building. The structure includes part of the entrance wall of the town, and is the base of the bell tower, the oldest part of the building. The first mention of the construction states that it was erected at the end of the 15th century.

The fortress of the Popes rose from a summit of a hill in a position that has always been considered a strategic location because it holds the power to dominate the entire area. The various cultures that have alternated in dominance over the course of the centuries have left sufficient traces to confirm their presence. There are traces from the copper age until now. Because of the strategic location, this castle was chosen by the popes as the seat of the Rector of the Patrimony of the Catholic church, and chose this location as their summer residence.