Fountains of Viterbo Itinerary

Follow this itinerary for a walk through medieval Viterbo and its history.

Viterbo, less than an hour’s drive north of Rome, is still a bit of a mystery to most Romans. The northern Lazio capital (pop. 72,000) is famous for its perfectly preserved medieval quarter and the unique Santa Rosa festival that has been celebrated every September 3^rd for the past 700 years. A walk through the historic centre reveals another of the city’s landmarks – its numerous fountains that have earned Viterbo, along with Aix-en-Provence, the title “city of beautiful fountains”.

 Ninety-nine fountains enliven piazze or lie hidden inside monastery and convent courtyards. Twenty or so public wash houses lavatoi still exist too although most are no longer used on a regular basis. A neighbourhood lavatoio is useful for cleaning voluminous curtains and dust covers and the music of the running water is a soothing sound during summer nights.

  Viterbo’s historic centre, encircled by medieval walls, is reached through Porta Romana, embellished with two huge coat-of-arms hung in honour of visiting Pope Innocenzo X° (Giambattista Pamphili 1644-1655) and Clemente IX (Gianfrancesco Albani 1700-21). During the assault by French troops under Major Kellerman in 1799 the besieged city invoked patron Santa Rosa and in thanks for her protection a statue of the saint now tops the entrance way.

  From Porta Romana, Via Cavour slopes down to Fontana Grande, the largest of the city’s spindle or “fuso” fountains. Built during the 13^th century on the site of an earlier fountain, it is considered Viterbo’s most beautiful with its numerous moss-covered lion heads spouting water. Until a few decades ago the weekly markets were held here and vendors set their wares on the fountain’s steps . An exact reproduction (1: 2 scale) of the fountain exists in the main square of Rhodes in Greece.

 Newer lions added in 1877 adorn the 16^th century fountain of Piazza delle Erbe, the “salotto” of Viterbo where the evening passeggiata takes place . Over the centuries the fountain has been called Flajana, S. Stefano, Alessandrina, Vittorio Emanuele and was once enclosed by iron railings.

 The fountain in the courtyard of Viterbo’s City Hall, dating from 1624, is a perfect photo opportunity with its two rampant bronze lions holding a palm tree -the city’s symbols.

 Viterbo is also known as the city of beautiful women, a saying that probably goes back to the legend of a beautiful local girl, La Bella Galiana. It seems that a Roman noble, so besotted with her beauty, laid siege to the city trying to win her. When she refused his hand for the final time, he asked that she show herself from a tower along the city walls. Here a sharp-shooter’s arrow ended her life and began her legend. A white marble sarcophagus in the Civic Museum and a reproduction inserted in the façade of the church in the main square, are proof of her existence.  

Following Via San Leonardo towards the medieval section, one enters Piazza del Gesù. Here the spindle fountain is a reconstruction (dated 1915) that incorporates parts of an older one from a nearby monastery. The restored church of Gesù was the site of the murder, mentioned by Dante in “Inferno”, of Henry of Cornwall by Simon de Montfort in 1271.

A few steps further bring to leafy Piazza della Morte with its fountain dating from mid 13^th century. From here the “Compagnia della Morte”, a fraternity that buried the abandoned dead, began funeral processions. In 1777 the fountain ran dry and since its water was used also in the lavatoio under the bridge leading to the Duomo, 120 scudi were spent to repair the fountain’s precious hydraulic system.

Two contrasting buildings connected with other women in Viterbo’s history can be seen from this piazza. The modern church is the burial place of a Ruspoli princess- St. Giacinta Marescotti who grew up a turbulent teenager in the family castle of Vignanello to become a saint and founder of a religious order. The imposing Gothic palazzo now housing hospital administration offices once belonged to Giulia Farnese, known as Giulia “la Bella”. Sister of one pope (Paolo III Farnese ) and lover of another (Alexander Borgia) , they say she slept on black silk sheets to show of her fair skin. She was further pampered by the circular marble bath , or stufa, built in her castle at Carbognano and until then a perogative of popes and enlightened Renaissance men.

The fountain in the Papal Palace loggia, “fons papalis”, is made from pieces of an earlier fountain that was destroyed when the back part of the loggia collapsed into the valley. The earlier fountain was probably connected to an underground cistern to provide the palace with water in the days when the first papal conclave (1268-72) was held here.  

 One enters another lively neighbourhood through Porta Della Verità, across from the Civic Museum (presently closed for restoration). The Porta, built in 1728 is adorned with Pope Benedetto XIII°’s coat of arms (Francesco Orsini 1724-1730). Nearby one can see the ruins of Emperor Federico Barbarossa’s palace (1242), buy a great ice cream at the gelateria or watch the children playing at the public gardens just inside the doorway. Up the street is Piazza Dante and another fuso fountain in peperino stone, its lion-faced spouts furnishing drinking water to the neighbourhood since 1254. In 1731 the pipes were restored and the fountain was moved further back in the piazza to widen the street.

Instead of the usual lions the fountain in Piazza della Crocetta has sculpted human heads holding the water jets. The tiny fountain is connected with the patron saint of Viterbo, Santa Rosa, whose preserved, leathery body is venerated in the sanctuary around the corner.

One of Viterbo’s oldest areas, Pianoscarano, has an artistic fuso fountain that flows with wine during the neighbourhood’s feast each year, but in 1376 was the scene of a bloody revolt . The servants of the French Cardinal Carcassona washed a dog in the fountain: a sacrilegious act for it was the source of the neighbourhood’s drinking water. The full-scale revolt that followed left several dead ,houses and towers demolished and ended only when the Pope himself intervened.

History has been unkind with the fountain in Piazza della Rocca in front of the Archaeological Museum. Many artists worked on it including Vignola in 1575, but it was unstable and had to be modified several times. In 1944 it was completely destroyed by Anglo-American bombings and later reconstructed.