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The Fortress of Ronciglione: the Towers Looking Out Over Tuscia
The Fortress of Ronciglione — known by everyone as "the Torrioni" (the Great Towers) — stands at the most vulnerable point and only natural access to the old town. That is precisely why a fortress was built there. This is the Tuscia area of Viterbo, and this mass of stone tells a story of centuries of power, wars, and decline
A fortress passed from hand to hand
The castle dates back to the Early Middle Ages, and belonged first to the Prefects of Vico, then to the Counts of Anguillara — local feudal lords — and to the Della Rovere family, whose coat of arms featuring crossed keys and an oak tree is still visible high up on the outer walls. Between 1475 and 1480, the Florentine architect Giovanni Dolci, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere, added the circular keep and four corner towers. That is where the popular name "i Torrioni" comes from.
From Farnese capital to decline
From 1526 to 1649 the Fortress belonged to the Farnese family, who made the town the capital of the Duchy of Castro and Ronciglione. Pope Paul III Farnese stayed there — his name is carved on the pediments of the fireplaces — as did Dukes Pierluigi and Ottavio Farnese and Cardinals Alessandro and Odoardo Farnese. After the War of Castro in 1649, the castle returned to the Holy See. In 1756 it was granted in emphyteusis (i.e. on a long lease) to the Genoese Girolamo Marè for one scudo a year, on condition that he preserve it. Marè, however, did the opposite: he stripped the marble off, and turned the building into a pasta factory.
