Lake Albano

Castel Gandolfo (UK: , US: , Italian: [kaˈstɛl ɡanˈdɔlfo]; Latin: Castrum Gandulphi), colloquially just Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Gandolfo has a population of approximately 8,900 residents and is considered one of Italy's most scenic towns.Within the town's boundaries lies the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo which served as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church. Although the palace is located within the borders of Castel Gandolfo, it has extraterritorial status as one of the properties of the Holy See and is not under Italian jurisdiction. It is now open as a museum.The resort community includes almost the whole coastline of Lake Albano which is surrounded by many summer residences, villas, and cottages built during the 17th century. It houses the Stadio Olimpico that staged the rowing events during the Rome Olympics. Castel Gandolfo has several places of archaeological interest including the Emissario del Lago Albano and the remains of the Villa of Domitian. The area is included within the boundaries of the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani (Regional Park of Castelli Romani). There are also many points of artistic interest, such as the Collegiate Church of St. Thomas of Villanova, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Vatican Observatory (Italian: Specola Vaticana) is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Holy See. Originally based in the Roman College of Rome, the Observatory is now headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy and operates a telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in the United States.The Director of the Observatory is Brother Guy Consolmagno, an American Jesuit. In 2008, the Templeton Prize was awarded to cosmologist Fr. Michał Heller, a Vatican Observatory Adjunct Scholar. In 2010, the George Van Biesbroeck Prize was awarded to former observatory director, the American Jesuit, Fr. George Coyne.

The Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo, or the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo from its Italian name Palazzo Apostolico di Castel Gandolfo, is a 135-acre (54.6-ha) complex of buildings in a garden setting in the city of Castel Gandolfo, Italy, including the principal 17th-century villa, an observatory and a farmhouse with 75 acres (30.4 ha) of farmland. The main structure, the Papal Palace, has been a museum since October 2016. It served for centuries as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, and is afforded extraterritorial status as one of the properties of the Holy See. It overlooks Lake Albano.

Alba Longa (occasionally written Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient Latin city in Central Italy, 19 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of Rome, in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it was destroyed by the Roman Kingdom around the middle of the 7th century BC, and its inhabitants were forced to settle in Rome. In legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had come from the royal dynasty of Alba Longa, which in Virgil's Aeneid had been the bloodline of Aeneas, a son of Venus.According to Livy, Roman patrician families such as the Julii, Servilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii and Cloelii originated in Alba Longa.

The Villa of Domitian, known as Albanum Domitiani or Albanum Caesari in Latin, was a vast and sumptuous Roman villa or palace built by Emperor Titus Flavius Domitian (81–96 AD). It was situated 20 km (12 mi) outside Rome, in the Alban Hills, in the ancient territory of Ager Albanus (from the legendary Latin city of Alba Longa). Today the remains of the villa are located mostly within the estate of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, and the rest in the towns of Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale. The Villa Barberini gardens are open to visitors.

Albano Laziale (IPA: [alˈbaːno latˈtsjaːle]; Romanesco: Arbano; Latin: Albanum) is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Latium, central Italy. Rome is 25 kilometres (16 mi) distant. It is bounded by other communes of Castel Gandolfo, Rocca di Papa, Ariccia and Ardea. Located in the Castelli Romani area of Lazio. It is sometimes known simply as Albano. Albano is one of the most important municipalities of the Castelli Romani, and a busy commercial centre. It has been also a suburbicarian bishopric since the 5th century, a historic principality of the Savelli family, and from 1699 to 1798 the inalienable possession of the Holy See. It now houses, among other things, the Praetor of the district court of Velletri. The territory of Albano is partially included in the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani.

The sanctuary of Santa Maria dell'Acquasanta or Acqua Santa (also referred to over the centuries as Santa Maria dell'Orto, Santa Maria d'Ammonte or even Madonna del Sasso) is a place of Catholic Marian worship in the city of Marino, in the Roman Castles area, in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital and suburbicarian diocese of Albano. It is currently included in the parish of the basilica of San Barnaba.

Palazzo Pamphilj (or del Collegio Nazareno) is a historical palace in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, in the Roman Castles area. The palace was built between 1708 and 1717 by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj to replace some country houses dating back to the second half of the 17th century located at the top of the trident of Albano, a new urban expansion of the city conceived in the mid-17th century by Cardinal Fabrizio Savelli, commendatory abbot of the church of San Paolo. The palace became the property of the Piarist fathers of Rome's Nazarene College in 1764. It was used as a summer residence for the college's students until 1944, when it was requisitioned for use as a shelter for 52 war-displaced families. It is currently a private property and is in total disrepair and neglect, despite being cited as an illustrative example of a patrician building in the Alban Hills and an 18th-century reconstruction site in a detailed study by Marco Silvestri and Enzo D'Ambrosio for the Accademia degli Incolti in 1988.

The collegiate basilica of St. Barnabas is the main place of Catholic worship in the city of Marino, in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital and suburbicarian diocese of Albano. The basilica, built out of the devotion of the Colonna family, is one of the largest churches in the diocese, as well as one of the most important: it was the seat of the venerable archconfraternity of the Gonfalone of Marino, founded around 1271 by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio; moreover, the chapter of St. Barnabas was the most important in the diocese along with that of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta in Ariccia, as was established in the diocesan synods of 1668 and 1687.

The sanctuary of Maria Santissima della Rotonda ('a Ritonna in Albano dialect), formerly known as Santa Maria Maggiore, is an important Marian sanctuary in Lazio, located in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, in the Roman Castles area. The sanctuary occupies an ancient round building of Roman construction dating back to the 1st century, traceable to Domitian's villa at Castel Gandolfo, which was formerly a nymphaeum or, according to other hypotheses, a temple. The building was converted to Christian use at the time of Constantine the Great or in the period between the 9th and 11th centuries.Probably run in the first centuries of its existence by religious of the Byzantine rite, it was managed by Augustinian nuns from the 14th century until 1444 and was later assigned to the Girolaminian religious of the basilica of Saints Boniface and Alexius on the Aventine Hill in Rome, who held it until 1663, when the sanctuary was purchased by the suburbicarian diocese of Albano for the purpose of installing the bishop's seminary there. Between 1708 and 1799, the direction of the seminary and the sanctuary passed to the Piarist Fathers. Since then, the sanctuary has been diocesan property and is attached to the parish of the cathedral basilica of San Pancrazio. Today it is listed among the protected architectural monuments of Lazio.

Albano Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Albano, Cattedrale di San Pancrazio) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome and the region of Lazio, Italy. It is the seat of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano.The present cathedral building was consecrated in 1721, but stands on the site of a much older basilica, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, founded by Constantine the Great. Pope Leo III (d. 816) built a new cathedral on the site and changed the dedication to Saint Pancras, as it now is.

Palazzo Colonna is a historic building in the center of Marino, in the Roman Castles area of the Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy. Currently, it houses the municipal headquarters of the municipality of Marino. The palace was built between the 1630s and the 1720s at the behest of various members of the Colonna family, exploiting the pre-existing structures of a fortification that probably already existed around the 11th century. The original design was entrusted to the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, but the current appearance of the building – still unfinished on two fronts – is due to later interventions by other designers, including Girolamo Rainaldi. The palace remained the personal property of the Colonna family until 1916, when it was given in perpetual emphyteusis to the City of Marino, which installed the municipal headquarters there. During World War II, the palace was almost completely destroyed by Anglo-American aerial bombardment on February 2, 1944; it had been rebuilt by 1958.