HISTORICAL ARCHIVE

HISTORICAL NOTES AND DESCRIPTION

From Piazza Roma, just past the door of the Madonna della Neve, on the left is the entrance to the historical archive of Vitorchiano. Like all the ancient village developed within the door of the Madonna della Neve, this building was also very likely an integral part of the development of the first nucleus of Vitorchiano, already in the thirteenth century. Unfortunately, neither the sources nor any clues help us to trace the certain origins of the construction. Through indirect documents, such as the coat of arms of the pawnshop located in the keystone of the portal and the aedicule placed above the portal, it can be said that the premises were already in existence at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century. The access door to the Archive is located within a peperino arch with the coat of arms of the Monte di Pietà on the keystone. With shaped edges, the coat of arms is characterized by a mountain with three peaks that forms a pyramid. The coat of arms in the lower part shows the words MONS / PIETATIS as a kind of cartouche that branches off on the right and left on the respective sides, symbolizing the Monte di Pietà which was located here in the sixteenth century. Furthermore, above the keystone of the entrance arch, above the access portal, there is a rectangular aedicule carved into the wall, inside which it is possible to identify on the right a fragment of a fresco depicting an angel in flight. dressed in yellow with colored wings, ascribable between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, while the rest of the fresco has been lost. The recent use of the room has seen several uses as a room belonging to the Municipality of Vitorchiano. Between the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, the premises belonging to the local Proloco were used as a warehouse, and then transformed into the headquarters of the Proloco itself. From 2004 to 2006 it was the seat of the local municipal police, and was then definitively destined to the municipal archive in 2007. The interior of the municipal archive consists of a single barrel-vaulted classroom. At the back of the hall, on the short wall, there is a frescoed lunette with the Deposition of Christ from the seventeenth century by an unknown artist. The representation shows in the center of the scene the body of Christ lying on the legs of the Virgin at the base of the cross. At the foot of Christ is Mary Magdalene kneeling with the urn containing the oil, while at the other end is Nicodemus who kneels and looks absorbed at the dead Christ. Next to the Virgin is St. John the Evangelist holding in his hand the pincer used to remove the nails from the limbs of Jesus. The scene is not particularly dramatic except for the desperate gesture of the Virgin of Sorrows. On the sides, rocky spurs with vegetation. Under the lunette is a window flanked by a large marble slab divided into three parts of different sizes, set against the wall. Set against the left wall are shelves with archival material in which ancient books and modern folders are kept. In the center of the room is a large table with a peperino lectern and antique books resting on the surface. On the sides of the walls are the shelves with the archive material. The modern use of the room has seen the documentation of the municipal historical archive placed in the hall of the Monte di Pietà. The city statutes and the parchment fund constitute the main documents kept there. The statutes are particularly valuable for examining and reconstructing the institutional reality of the local community. The Vitorchiano archive, in particular, preserves two versions of statutes: the oldest dates back to the second half of the 15th century, the other from 1613 and was reproduced through a printed volume of 1788. The post-unification documentation is well preserved , despite the fact that since the war it has been transferred to other places. In addition to the municipal fund there are other papers, such as those of the corporate institutes, the conciliator judge, the National Fascist Party and the notarial archive, deposited in 1970 with that of the Governor, in the State archives of Viterbo.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vitorchiano, il passato presente, edizione curata da Fiorenzo Mascagna, ricerche storiche Elide Vagnozzi, Stampa Arti Grafiche Artigiane 2005.

Picchetto F.- Pedrocchi A. M , scheda OA n. 12/00095495, 1977.

– A special thanks to dr. Andrea Presutti for scientific advice and photographic material provided on Vitorchiano.