This content was automatically translated. View the original text.
Palazzo Baronale Orsini in Anguillara Sabazia: the Fortress on the Lake That Became the Town Hall
Palazzo Baronale Orsini is the first thing you come across after passing through the Porta Maggiore (Main Gate) of Anguillara Sabazia, on the right. Probably built at the beginning of the 16th century, it was constructed on pre-existing structures of the Palazzo degli Anguillara and annexed to the fortifications of the family that had dominated the village for centuries. Today it is the seat of the municipality. The piano nobile (main living floor) reveals once-hidden 16th-century frescoes of remarkable quality beneath the office space.
The Painted Halls
The Loggia overlooking Lake Bracciano was the rest room of Gentil Virginio Orsini, commander of the papal fleet: the frescoes on the ceiling celebrate his naval exploits. The Sala dei Putti features a coffered wooden ceiling with a frieze of cherubs playing with bears — the symbolic animal of the Orsini. The Sala delle Cariatidi, today the seat of the Town Council, is the most striking: large figures in chiaroscuro support a cornice above which there is a frieze with sea deities. Orsini is depicted here as Aeneas, amid architectures painted in perspective. These decorative cycles, rediscovered during the restorations of 1978 and 2000, date from the period 1535–1539.
An Irregular Floor Plan
The palace follows the contours of the steep tufa slope on which the village is built: it thus has an asymmetrical plan, different levels, and underground rooms carved from the rock. Three hypogea have recently been discovered beneath street level.
