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Piazza del Plebiscito in Viterbo: the Main Square of the City of the Popes
Piazza del Plebiscito is the beating heart of Viterbo's historic centre, a large rectangular space on which some of the city's most important buildings are located. It is here that the main civic events take place, such as the transportation of the “Macchina di Santa Rosa” and the Christmas fair. It is here that the people of Viterbo love to gather for a stroll, an aperitif at the café tables, a chat in the shade of the clock tower.
A Space for the Community
Originally it was a simple meadow, called Cavalluccalo, with the church of Sant'Angelo in Spatha and its cemetery. In the mid-13th century the town’s transformation got under way: within a few decades the Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo dei Priori (today the town hall) and Palazzo Papale (today the Prefecture) were erected, defining the perimeter of the future main square. In the 15th century the Palazzo del Governatore was added, finishing off the eastern edge of the square on the Valle di Faul side.
Architectures of Power
The square is an open book of architectural history spanning eight centuries. The façades of the palazzi display the styles that have succeeded one another from the Middle Ages to the Baroque: the arcade of columns and arches of the Palazzo dei Priori (late 15th century), the tall cross-mullioned windows of the Palazzo Papale (late 13th century, with Renaissance additions), the more linear façades of the Podestà and the Governatore buildings (both remodelled over the centuries). This ensemble is completed by the slender stone profile of the Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower), 44 metres high, which was rebuilt in 1489.
The “Navel” of the City
More than an open-air museum, Piazza del Plebiscito is a living place, a stage on which the community of Viterbo performs. The activities around it — in the Town Hall, the Prefecture, the Ardenti library, cafés and restaurants — and the events that take place there all year round, from the "Piazze d'Estate" festival to the Christmas concerts, are a testimony to this open-air theatre, where the people of Viterbo love to gather, under the gaze of the stone lions that have been looking on from the columns at the corners of the Palazzo dei Priori and the Prefecture for centuries.
