Viterbo: Early conclaves and a papal palace

The ‘Palazzo dei Papi’ in Viterbo is perhaps the most remarkable medieval papal palace in Italy. Although some fine buildings also survive at other sites, such as Anagni, Rieti, and Orvieto, the palazzo at Viterbo is exceptional. With the sole exception of the well-known 14th-century ‘Palais des Papes’ in Avignon, France, the Viterbo palace is the best-preserved papal complex outside Rome. During its short period of use by the Pope, in the later 13th century, a great deal happened at Viterbo, not least the holding of five papal conclaves. These are well-documented, as are all the major building phases.

Viterbo lies some 60km north of Rome, with the papal palace occupying a prominent setting on the northern side of the Castel S Lorenzo, an old castle lying within the south-western part of the later medieval walled city of Viterbo. (The fortifications of the castle were destroyed after the people of Viterbo defeated the emperor Frederick II in November 1243, while the city walls were built in stages during the late 12th and 13th centuries.) Immediately to the south of the palace is the church of S Lorenzo, which was given episcopal status by Pope Celestine III (1191-1198) in 1193. The bishop’s cathedra was moved here from Tuscania at this time, and the former parish church of S Lorenzo was rebuilt soon afterwards as a cathedral with an aisled basilica featuring a western transept containing three shallow western apses. Adjoining this transept and running northwards from it was a c.34m-long range, built as a residence for the first bishops. The surviving southern part of this range extends further westwards and may be, in part, a building dating from before 1193, perhaps belonging to the castle. The rest of the range, however, must be the episcopal residence that was built in the years around 1200.

This residence forms two parts: a long southern first-floor hall on a barrel- vaulted undercroft, and a northern chamber block that was built above a lower portion of the hill, and has two levels of undercrofts (the lower one barrel-vaulted) below the principal room. On its west side, the range incorporates an internal staircase, and to the west a set of latrines or garderobes, with a series of chutes emptying beneath them (between buttresses and covered by semicircular arches). The uppermost part of this chamber block was apparently rebuilt for Pope John XXI in 1276-1277, as part of a western addition to the palace. As we will see, this extension became infamous when it collapsed in 1277, while the Pope was inside. The main entrance to the bishop’s residence must have been reached via an external staircase on the east side, which led to the first-floor hall. A covered walkway may have run southwards, as a claustro S Laurentii is mentioned in 1244, connecting the north door of the residence to the nearby 12th-century cathedral of S Lorenzo.