Rocca Albornoz

About

The palace was erected soon after the defeat of Giovanni dei Vico in the Battle of Viterbo on 10 March 1354. The first stone was laid by Albornoz himself, and was atop the palace of Messer Campano, located near San Faustino church and the Porta di Santa Lucia (now Porta Fiorentina). Pope Urban V in 1367, upon his return to Rome from Avignon, was the first pope to reside in this fort.

In 1375, the fortress fell again into the hands of a prefect of Viterbese forces including Francesco Di Vico, son of Giovanni, and the castle was razed in the civil conflicts. Pope Boniface IX was able to wrest Viterbo back into the papal state and rebuilt the castle. In 1438, Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi allowed the townspeople to again raze the fortress.

Nineteen years later, under Pope Calixtus III, the fortress was again rebuilt starting in 1457. To do so, various confiscated properties in town, including the Palazzo of the rebellious Tignosini, were destroyed. In the 16th-century, Pope Julius II commissioned Bramante to help rebuild the central courtyard.

In 1523, the castle briefly housed the Knights of Rhodes, who had been exiled by Ottoman armies. Depictions of the former castle demonstrated…