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Fontana di Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo

Fountains in ViterboItalian building and structure stubsRenaissance architecture in Lazio
Fontana, Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo, Italia
Fontana, Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo, Italia

The Fontana della Piazza del Gesù is a Renaissance-style public fountain located in a piazza of the same name in the historic center of Viterbo, region of Lazio, Italy. A fountain at this site, in front of the Jesuit church, now known as San Silvestro is mentioned for the first time in public documents in 1450. After centuries of litigation related to the flow of water, in the year 1727 the fountain was purchased by the Chigi family, they commissioned the repair of the tank and pipes in 1806. By 1915, it was decided to replace the fountain with a new structure made utilizing spolia from the fountain of the convent of San Domenico. A design by Giovanni Pizzichetti was selected. The lower basin is decorated with lion heads (symbol of Viterbo); while the upper basin stands on a tree decorated with alternating lion heads, oxen, horses and sheep.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fontana di Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fontana di Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo
Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo

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Latitude Longitude
N 42.41578 ° E 12.10377 °
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Fontana del Gesù

Piazza del Gesù
01100 Viterbo
Lazio, Italy
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Fontana, Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo, Italia
Fontana, Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo, Italia
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Palace of the Popes in Viterbo
Palace of the Popes in Viterbo

Palace of the Popes in Viterbo (Italian: Palazzo dei Papi) is a palace in Viterbo, region of Lazio, Italy. It is considered to be one of the most important monuments in the city, situated alongside the Duomo di Viterbo (Viterbo Cathedral). The Papal Curia was moved to Viterbo in 1257 by Alexander IV, due to the hostility of the Roman commune and constant urban violence: the former bishop's palace of Viterbo was enlarged to provide the Popes with an adequate residence. The construction, commissioned by the Capitano del popolo ("Captain of the People") Raniero Gatti, provided a great audience hall communicating with a loggia raised on a barrel vault above the city street. It was completed probably around 1266. The massive façade, facing the central piazza San Lorenzo which is dominated by the Duomo, is approached by a wide staircase completed in 1267. The top of the palace walls is decorated with square merlons. On the right is a wide roofless loggia with a seven-bay arcade, supported by slender doubled columns and decorated with crests and reliefs. Within the loggia is a 15th-century fountain, made with material of various ages, sporting the coat of arms of the Gatti family. Viterbo remained the residence of the papacy for twenty-four years, from 1257 to 1281. After Alexander IV, the palace was the residence of Urban IV, then housed the papal election of 1268–1271 which elected Gregory X (the longest papal election in Church history, which ended after the palace's roof was removed), the residence of John XXI (who died in the building in 1277 when his study collapsed), and the residence again of Nicholas III and Martin IV, who moved almost immediately to Orvieto in 1281. They were all elected in the most famous hall of the palace, the Sala del Conclave so called because it was home to the first and longest conclave in history. In c. 1454 Pope Nicholas V commissioned building a bath palace in Viterbo, and the construction at the Bagno del Papa was continued on through the reigns of several popes after Nicholas V. The Vatican accounts mention payments "for building done at the bath palace of Viterbo" during the reigns of Calixtus III, Paul II, and Sixtus IV. There also is evidence Pope Pius II was responsible for the addition of a western wing to the building.