The Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo are buildings erected in an area of about 55 hectares located in the Roman Castles, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, included among the extraterritorial areas of the Holy See in Italy.
They were granted to the Holy See by the Lateran Pacts of 1929 as they constituted the suburban residence frequented by the popes since the time of Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644).
History
Ancient preexisting buildings
The crater of the Latian Volcano collapsed about 150,000 years ago, giving rise to several smaller volcanic vents, some of which simply vanished (Vallericcia, Valle Marciana) and others flooded with water (Lake Albano, Lake Nemi).
The slopes of the collapsed volcano became a favored destination for residential tourism of the Roman patriciate since the Republican age. In the ager Albanus, so called from the memory of the legendary Latin capital, the "mother" of Rome, Alba Longa, the ruins of at least two large Republican villas remain, attributed to Publius Clodius Pulcher. and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.. Other more modest villas have been identified on the shores of Lake Albano (at least three), at Cavallacci in Albano Laziale, at Costa Caselle near Marino, and at Palazzolo in the municipality of Rocca di Papa.
All of these properties were in one way or another acquired by the state, and under Octavian Augustus they constituted a single imperial estate known as Albanum Caesari.. The last Flavian emperor, Domitian, wanted to build himself a sumptuous villa in the center of this estate, in a panoramic position overlooking both the lake and the coastal plain below.. The villa was frequented until the Hadrianic period, and then decayed. Septimius Severus built on the edge of the property the encampment of his veterans of the Legio II Parthica, the Castra Albana, of which abundant ruins remain in the historic center of Albano Laziale..
The Liber Pontificalis reports that under the pontificate of Sylvester I (314–335) Emperor Constantine I donated the villa and other imperial properties in the Alban Hills to the cathedral basilica of St. John the Baptist (probably the ancient Albano Cathedral, today named after St. Pancras).. It is not known whether the donation is true or is an apocryphal (like the more famous donation of Constantine), but certainly the villa was abandoned, although perhaps the property was included in some patrimonia or domusculta, typical institutions of the agrarian organization of early medieval Latium.
From the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Chamberlain rule
In the 11th century, the powerful Basilian monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata had important economic interests in the area of Castel Gandolfo, which arose and developed on the edge of the ancient imperial and then ecclesiastical property, around a church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, first mentioned in 1116..
Later, around the first half of the 13th century, the fief was occupied by the Gandolfi, a family of Ligurian nobles, who left an everlasting mark on the place name. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the castle was the subject of alternating changes of ownership between the Gandolfi, the Capizucchi and the Savelli, the powerful Roman baronial family, who came into permanent possession of Castel Gandolfo at the beginning of the 15th century,. after the turbulent period of anarchy that in the ecclesiastical territories coincided with the absence and weakness of the Papacy.
The fief followed the alternating fortunes of its owners throughout the 15th century. In 1436, during the war between Pope Eugene IV and the Colonna family (whose allies were the Savellis, along with the Prefects of Vico, in an anti-Orsini capacity), the castle was razed to the ground by Cardinal Giovanni Maria Vitelleschi, field commander of the papal army.. It was again taken from the Savellis by Sixtus IV in 1482, during the war between the State of the Church and the Kingdom of Naples; and finally the Savellis, like all other Roman baronial families hostile to the Borgias, were stripped of all their fiefs by Alexander VI, who gave them to his own nephews in 1501.
Upon the death of Pope Borgia in 1503, the Savelli family regained possession of the fiefdom. The powerful family, however, found itself in a very bad economic situation, and several times sold the castle, except to buy it back with the right of pre-emption.. In 1585 the fief of Castel Gandolfo was elevated to a duchy; however, the Savelli's debt situation was now so compromised that eleven years later, in 1596, the Apostolic Camera seized the fief in exchange for the payment of 150,000 florins to the creditors of the fallen princes.
Faced with the Savelli's insistence on regaining ownership of the fief and surrendering the remaining shares of the property, Pope Clement VIII became annoyed, declared Castel Gandolfo an inalienable property of the Holy See (1604), had some of the Savelli's properties seized (including Palombara Sabina) and had a significant plaque placed on the facade of the baronial palace that reads: Qui potenti minora negat, maiora permittit (“He who denies the powerful the smallest things, then allows him the greatest”), now walled on the interior facade of the Papal Palace on the side of the gardens..
The chamberlain period: from Urban VIII to 1798
The popes, who returned to Rome after the period of the "Avignon Captivity" (1309–1377) and the Western Schism (1378–1417), took up the custom of leaving the Urbe at certain times of the year. Pope Martin V (1417–1431) liked to travel to his native fiefdom of Genazzano, owned by his family, the Colonna family;. his successor, Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) was too caught up in the relentless struggles against the Roman barons, which also forced him to flee (but not to vacation) in Florence; Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) began construction of the papal complex on the Vatican Hill, outside the Aurelian Walls and in a more salubrious location than the Lateran. The humanist pope, Pius II (1458–1464), loved to travel and described the places he visited in "Commentarii." Pope Paul II (1464–1471) frequented Palazzo Venezia; Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) began to frequent the Magliana Castle, built by his nephew Girolamo Riario: and his successors Innocent VIII, Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo X continued to frequent it. Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) had Villa Madama built on the slopes of Monte Mario.
The first pontiff to choose the Alban Hills to establish his suburban residence was Paul III (1534–1549), who established his residence at Villa Rufina,. now Falconieri, in Frascati, a suburbicarian bishopric of which he had been cardinal-bishop. However, he inhabited the villa only for short periods, as he went more often to the fiefdoms of his family, the Farnese, in Tuscia.
The first pope who vacationed in Castel Gandolfo was Urban VIII, born Maffeo Barberini.. Cardinal Barberini in fact already owned an apartment in Castel Gandolfo, outside the walls near the Porta Romana: and as pope he thought of continuing his castellan vacations, adapting to his new dignity. He therefore commissioned Carlo Maderno,. assisted by Bartolomeo Breccioli and Domenico Castelli,. to readjust and enlarge the ancient castle and baronial palace of the Gandolfi and Savelli families to its new function as a papal palace: a new wing facing the lake was built, and the back garden, not very large, was planted, substantially unchanged since then. Under the pontificate of Urban VIII the two lower and upper "galleries" were planned, so called because of the thick oaks that created almost a "gallery" of leaves on the street. The work had to be finished by 1629, when a commemorative medal of the new "suburbana aedes pontificum" was minted, as reported by Gaetano Moroni in his "Dictionary of Historical-Ecclesiastical Erudition."
On 10 May 1626, Urban VIII left for his first vacation to Castel Gandolfo.. In that same year, Urban VIII was also the first pope to sign an official document with the words (of his own coinage) "ex arce Gandulphi.". The following year, on 24 October 1627, he celebrated in the chapel of the papal palace the marriage between his nephew Taddeo Barberini and Anna Colonna, daughter of Prince Filippo I Colonna,. duke of Paliano and of nearby Marino, in whose Colonna Palace the guests were served a sumptuous dinner, and the newlyweds spent their wedding night. In 1628 Taddeo himself bought some land at the Pontifical Villa, and in 1631 the nearby villa of Monsignor Scipione Visconti:. thus Villa Barberini was created. Urban VIII stopped vacationing at Castel Gandolfo in 1637, after a serious illness. His successor, Innocent X (1644–1655), never went to Castel Gandolfo.
Pope Alexander VII (1655–1667), born Flavio Chigi, returned to use the Castellan Villa, visiting for the first time in 1656.. He commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to enlarge the Papal Palace and build the new collegiate church of St. Thomas of Villanova, dedicated to Thomas of Villanova, whom he canonized in 1658.. In 1662, Alexander VII commissioned the Observant Friar Minor Giorgio Marziale, formerly Bernini's helper,Alberto Crielesi, Santa Maria "ad Nives" di Palazzolo, p. 18, Velletri, Edizioni Tra 8 & 9, 1997. to reestablish the road from the convent of Santa Maria ad Nives of Palazzolo around the lake from the south to the Galleria di Sopra and Castel Gandolfo, a road that was renamed "via Alessandrina." Gaetano Moroni reports a medal celebrating the works promoted by the pope at Castel Gandolfo coined in 1660..
After Alexander VII, no pope returned to vacation at Castel Gandolfo for forty-four years.. Only Innocent XI (1691–1700), finding himself passing through on his way to visit Anzio and Nettuno, spent a night in the Papal Palace: but it was a rainy and foggy evening, and the place made such an impression on him that he never wanted to return.
Clement XI (1700–1721) returned there to vacation in May 1710 on the advice of the archiater Monsignor Giovanni Maria Lancisi,. after an illness, and returned to Castel Gandolfo until 1715.. In 1710 he conferred on the town the title of Pontifical Villa, which effectively equated the inhabitants with those of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces in the Vatican, placing the fief under the administration of the butler of the Sacred Palaces.
This privilege generated a minor legal controversy, which was dissolved by Pope Benedict XIII with the apostolic constitution "Aequitatis" of 24 September 1728, which confirmed the jurisdiction of Castel Gandolfo to the then butler Camillo Cybo-Malaspina.. Castel Gandolfo retained this special status until the end of the Papal States in 1870, apart from the brief Republican (1798–1799) and Napoleonic (1807–1814) interludes.See also .
After Clement XI, another twenty-five years passed without any pope vacationing at Castel Gandolfo: only Benedict XIII (1724–1730) wanted to stay there, on 7 June 1729, on his way back from a visit to the papal exclave of Benevento, during which he had stopped to stay overnight in Albano..
Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758) returned to vacation assiduously at the Papal Villa between 1741 and 1756:. he, among other things, was the pope who issued the most official documents "ex arce Gandulphi." Under his pontificate, the interiors of the Papal Palace were frescoed by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1747) and the new Loggia delle Benedizioni was built with a small bell gable dominating the palace facade (1749)..