Civita Castellana

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Comune di Civita Castellana
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Lazio
Province	Viterbo (VT)
Mayor	Massimo Giampieri
Elevation	145 m
Area	83.28 km²
Population
- Total (as of 2001)	15,219
- Density	182.74/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	42°17′N 12°24′E
Gentilic	Civitonici
Dialing code	0761
Postal code	01033
Frazioni	Borghetto, Sassacci
Patron	St. John and Marcianus
- Day	September 16
Website: www.comune.civitacastellana.vt.it

Civita Castellana is a town in the province of Viterbo, 65 km from the city of Rome.

Mount Soracte lies about 10 km to the south-east.

[edit] History

Civita Castellana was settled from the Iron Age by the Italic people of the Falisci, who called it Falerii. After the Faliscan defeat against the Romans, a new city was built by the latter, about 5 km, and called Falerii Novi.

The abandoned city was repopulated starting from the early Middle Ages, with the new name of Civita Castellana (roughly maning "City of the Castle") mentioned first in 994 BC. In the following centuries the city was a flourishing independent commune, often contended by the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. Captured by Pope Paschal II at the beginning of the 12th century, was given as fief to the Savelli by Gregory XIV.

Sixtus IV assigned the city to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, the future Pope Alexander VI, who started the construction of the Rocca ("Castle"), which was completed under Julius II.

Civita Castellana became an important road hub with the connection to the Via Flaminia (1606) and the construction of Ponte Clementino after the French victory against a Neapolitan army in 1709.

[edit] Main sights

The cathedral of Santa Maria di Pozzano possesses a fine portico, erected in 1210 by Laurentius Romanus, his son Jacobus and his grandson Cosmas, in the Cosmatesque style, with ancient columns and mosaic decorations. The right portal has a rare example of Early Middle Ages Germanic figurative art, portraying a boar hunt. The interior was modernized in the 18th century, but has some fragments of cosmatesque ornamentation. The high altar is made out of a Paleo-Christian sarcophagus of the 3rd or 4th century. The ancient crpyt and the old sacristy are also interesting.

The church of Santa Chiara as a Renaissance portal from 1529, while the Church of the Carmine has a noteworthy, small belltower from the 12th century, including antique Roman elements.

The Rocca (citadel) was erected by Alexander VI from the designs of Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, over pre-existing fortifications, and enlarged by Julius II and Leo X.

Ponte Clementino, the pont by which the town is approached, belongs to the 18th century.

The town also contains the ruins of the Castle of Paterno, where, on 23 January 1002, the Emperor Otto III died at the age of 22.

The National Archaeological Museum contains findings from

[edit] Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. [1]