PIAZZA ROMA

HISTORICAL NOTES AND DESCRIPTION

A feature common to the construction of medieval squares in the Italian municipalities between the 1000 and 1500, also in Vitorchiano took shape under the name of Piazza Roma, the public square. The classic model, of a civic and religious square, represented in the space of political-religious-administrative practices, in which the places of citizenship are in the first instance the town hall, the tower, the church and the public source, an urban community scenario, where all the single structures of the square play an essential role within the place of sociality and collective recognition. Incorporated between the first and second walls, it overlooks what was once the ancient “fortress”. The square, developed between the 13th and 15th centuries, is, today as in the past, the fulcrum and focal point of all city activities. Entering through the Roman gate, and following via Arringa, you finally reach the square. Several and important monuments overlook Piazza Roma. In the front elevation we find the spindle fountain, located at the base of the tower. Behind it, incorporated into the inner circle of walls, we find the clock tower, the Town Hall, and the door of the Madonna della Neve, access point to the oldest part of the village. On the east side of the square we find the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, and on the left side, finally, is the Fidelitas Palace. For further information, a small description of these which are the most important monuments overlooking Piazza Roma will be necessary. The spindle fountain at the base of the Clock Tower was made entirely of peperino by artists from Viterbo between 1200 and 1300, and has reminiscences of Lombardism. So called for its particular “spindle” shape, it is characterized by a circular basin with rectangular mirrors inside which are trilobate arches. At the center of the basin, a column with a large-leaved capital rises, surmounted by a stone with four columns supported by trefoil arches with the emblems of the four Evangelists: the lion that identifies San Marco, the calf that identifies San Luca, the eagle which is the symbol of San Giovanni and finally the angel, the symbol of San Matteo, and from whose mouths the water gushes. The fountain ends with a truncated pyramid surmounted by an ogive flower and decorated with four heraldic coats of arms, one of which is the coat of arms of Rome with the acronym S.P.Q.R. Behind it, the clock tower. At the base of the tower there is a plaque that bears an inscription in carved Gothic characters, which reports a municipal ban that prohibits murderers and traitors from residing in the municipality. An integral part of the building. the epigraph could be a direct indication of the existence of the building as early as the early fourteenth century. Unfortunately, it is not known whether the construction of the tower had already taken place on that date or the epigraph and only waste material, then inserted into the wall at the base of the tower later. Undoubtedly, its content is purely civic and social for its purpose and value. Almost as a function of customary rule that could form part of the municipal legal system, clear evidence of the common sense of protection and an administrative reality already well defined in the fourteenth century. In any case, its location in Piazza Roma expresses its purely medieval value as a “place of power”. In the Middle Ages all the great public events were held in the town square: assemblies, executions, shows, markets and processions. The square is testimony to this organization of power. Just as the Town Hall was the symbol of municipal power, the public square it overlooked was translated as an expression of municipal autonomy, the perfect place for communication through a notice placed in a public square. We do not have much information regarding the clock tower. Built close to what must have been the ancient fortress, which in the past was accessed through a door that could be identified with the one walled up at the base of the Clock Tower itself, in 1471 it was provided with the clock from which it takes its name. In Piazza Roma the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate overlooks the east side, with a single nave, seat of the Confraternities of Vitorchiano, in which the wooden “Crucifixes” of the seventeenth century are kept, together with the costumes and apparatuses of the brotherhoods that are brought to procession on the occasion of the most important religious celebrations. The church is accessed through a wooden portal with grooved jambs and architrave, flanked, on the left, by a small window with a grate. On the right you can see the presence of a round arch now walled up. The façade is divided into two levels by a string course on which the following inscription is engraved: VIRGILIUS-FLAMINIUS-VI-D-RECTOR-ET-LATERAN-COMM-REST-MDLXXIX. In the center of the same there is a coat of arms. Above the string course, in the center of the façade, is a large oculus flanked at the top by two other coats of arms, including that of Vitorchiano on the right. Adjacent to the right of the church of S. Antonio is the small building that overlooks vicolo dante. it stands on three levels and overlooks Piazza Roma. On the facade there is a plaque with an inscription that recalls the distinguished and valiant general Ugo Chiaravalli. IN THIS HOUSE ON 23 2 1898 UGO CHIARAVALLI WAS BORN / GENERALE DEI GRANATIERI DI SARDEGNA / THREE SILVER MEDALS TWO OF BRONZE / FOR MILITARY VALOR / HIS GRANATIERI, THE MUNICIPALITY, THE PRO-LOCO / IN HIS PERENNIAL MEMORY / POSERO- 25 JUNE 1989. On the south side of the pizaa, the Palazzetto is located at the corner between via Arringa and via Dante, which stands on two levels separated by string courses. At the center of the façade there is a peperino coat of arms on which two lions reaching out towards the sun are recognizable. This representation is inscribed in an oval surrounded by relief scroll decorations. On the west side of the square stands the Fidelitas palace. The building rises on three levels that have decreasing height, separated by string courses that also run along the façade on the right. On the left, the building communicates with a house. The entrance door is surmounted by a smaller window and flanked by two grated windows, one on each side. The entrance door is surrounded by a fluted architrave and jambs with the emblem of the city of Rome in peperino stone in the center and, at the top, on the architrave, the word FIDELITAS engraved in large block letters. On the left side there is still a small door with access below the floor, an access arch to a small street and finally a small window. The building is also called Palazzetto della Cultura because it is home to the Pro Loco, the ASD -TEAM ALBATROSS (sport fishing company) and the town’s music school, as indicated by the inscriptions engraved on the facade. The second level has four windows and has applied the coat of arms of Rome between the second and third and, to the right corner of the building, that of Vitorchiano on which the surrounding walls and the Roman Gate are recognizable, surmounted by the acronym SPQR. of the city of Vitorchiano, the walls are inscribed in an oval surrounded by scroll decorations in relief with the Latin phrase VITOR-MEBV-ROMANU engraved on the sides and at the bottom. Around other decorations in relief and engraving. The last order has four smaller windows than the others due to the low height of the walls. The other visible facade is characterized by two access doors on the lower level, three windows on the first level, two of which are walled up, while on the third level there are as many windows, one of which is walled.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aleandri V.E., Artisti ed artieri lombardi a Vitorchiano, 1911, p. 15.

D’Arcangeli V., Vitorchiano, in “Tuscia viterbese. I Comuni”, vol II, 1968, pp. 473-476.

Vitorchiano, il passato presente, edition edited by Fiorenzo Mascagna, historical research by Elide Vagnozzi, Stampa Arti Grafiche Artigiane 2005, p. 52.

Special thanks to Dr. Andrea Presutti for scientific advice and archival photographic material provided on Vitorchiano.