Vetralla

Infobox CityIT

|250px img_coa = vetralla-Stemma.png img_coa_small = yes
official_name = Comune di Vetralla
region = Lazio
province = Viterbo (VT)
elevation_m = 300
area_total_km2 = 113
population_as_of = december 31, 2004
population_total = 12459
population_density_km2 =105.45
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|42|18|38|N|12|04|45|E|
frazioni = Cura di Vetralla, La Botte
telephone = 0761
postalcode = 01019
gentilic = Vetrallesi
saint = St. Hyppolite
day = August 14
mayor = Massimo Marconi (since May 2006)
website = [http://www.comune.vetralla.vt.it www.comune.vetralla.vt.it]

Vetralla is a town and commune in the Province of Viterbo, 18 km to the south of that city, located on a shoulder of Monte Fogliano.

History

Vetralla's dominating fortified position in the heart of Etruscan territories has been continuously occupied since the Early Middle Ages. The Roman site, two km distant, was a posting station on the Via Cassia; some ruins of walls and paving at S. Maria di Forcassi still mark the Roman Forum Cassii. The site was depopulated in the later Empire, when a smaller population retreated to the present strategic position commanding the valley, where it remained exposed to attack, in spite of the imposing walls that encircled it.

The little fortress had been incorporated into the Papal States from their historic beginnings with the Lombard king Liutprand's Donation of Sutri (728) to Pope Gregory II, but the lords of Viterbo held it from 1110 to 1134. By 1145, Pope Eugene III was installed at Vitralla, apart from the violence and party strife of Rome; from here he issued his bull "Quantum praedecessores", calling for the Second Crusade.

The territory was given extensive woodlands by Pope Innocent III in 1206, which brought it into fierce contention with the lords of Viterbo who coveted the land. To this day, in the annual ceremonial "Sposalizio dell'albero" ("marriage of the tree"), the "Sindaco" of Vetralla reaffirms the commune's rights of possession on Monte Fogliano. The fief was entrusted through the centuries to various noble families associated with the Papacy, as "signori di Vetrallo": first the Orsini, then the Di Vico until 1435, when the last "signore" Giacomo di Vico was forcibly ousted by the cardinal-condottiere Giovanni Cardinal Vitelleschi, confined in the fortress of Soriano, then beheaded. Vetralla then passed in rapid succession among a series of Papal nobles, to Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, to Lorenzo Cybo (1529), and to Alessandro Cardinal Farnese in 1534.

Main sights

*Chiesa di San Pietro
* Chiesa di San Francesco
*Chiesa di Sant'Angelo
*Grotta Porcina
*Chiesa di Santa Maria in Forocasii
*Casa Museo
*Museo della Città e del Territorio

External links

* [http://www.discoversoriano.com/festivals/december/vetralla---living-nativity.html Info about and pictures of Vetralla's Living Nativity]
* [http://www.vetrallaonline.com/vetralla/storia.htm Vetralla: official website] (in Italian)
* [http://www.tuscia360.it/scheda.php?l=it&q=vetralla Tuscia 360 about Vetralla with VR panoramas]