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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.
EPISCOPAL PALACE
THE PALACE
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 building is built in muratura (masonry brickwork) with finishing in peperino (a type of lava stone common to the Province of Viterbo). The flat and smooth façade is marked horizontally by frames in peperino ending with a slightly overhanging cornice. The windows and the wooden entrance are bounded by simple frames in peperino, while a staircase connects the building with the little square opposite the building.
THE GARDEN
The plaque, dated 1737, is located above the peperino entrance, which recalls that it was the Cardinal Pompeo Aldrovandi, bishop of Montefiascone from 1734, who achieved in leveling the hill. The garden was conceived as a series of ramps, stairs, niches, and fountains, embellished with a series of statues in white marble, now largely destroyed. The statues were mutilated in 1798, during a raid by French Republicans against the Cardinal Maury, Bishop of Montefiascone since 1794, due to the fact he sided with that of Napoleon.
Palazzo Vescovile
Translation by John Dutch, Clemson University, enrolled in the USAC Viterbo program at Università degli Studi della Tuscia.
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
BRECCOLA G., Montefiascone. Guida alla scoperta, Montefiascone 2006.
BRECCOLA G. – MARI M., Montefiascone, Grotte di Castro 1979.
