Bracciano
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. The town is famous for its volcanic lake (Lago di Bracciano
Lake Bracciano
Lake Bracciano is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio, northwest of Rome. It is the second largest lake in the region and one of the major lakes of Italy...
or "Sabatino", the eighth largest lake in Italy) and for a particularly well-preserved medieval castle Castello Orsini-Odescalchi
Castello Orsini-Odescalchi
Castello Orsini-Odescalchi is a castle in Bracciano, in the Province of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano. It was built in the 15th century, and combines the functions of a military defence structure and a civilian residence of the feudal lords of the period,...
. The lake is widely used for sailing and is popular with tourists; the castle has hosted a number of events, especially weddings of actors and singers.
The town is served by an urban railway (Line FR3) which connects it with Rome (stations of Ostiense and Valle Aurelia) in about 55 minutes. Close to it lie the two medieval towns of Anguillara Sabazia
Anguillara Sabazia
Anguillara Sabazia is a town and comune in the Province of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, around 30 km northwest of Rome. It nestles on a small cape on the coast of the Lake Bracciano; its medieval center and its beach make it a popular destination for tourists.Anguillara is served by a local...
and Trevignano Romano
Trevignano Romano
Trevignano Romano is a small town and comune near Rome. It has a population of about 5,000. Trevignano is on Lake Bracciano. It is about 47 km away from Rome.-Main sights:...
.
History
There is no certain information about the origins of Bracciano, on the Via Claudia overlooking the lake. It probably rose from one of the numerous towers built in the tenth century as a defence against the Saracen attacks, as implied by the ancient name of Castrum Brachiani. In the eleventh century the neighbouring territory was acquired by the Prefetti di VicoPrefetti di Vico
The Prefetti di Vico were an Italian noble family, of German origin, who established in Rome from the 10th century.They obtained the title of praefect urbis by the Holy Roman Emperor. The rest of the name derived from the Lake Vico, in northern Lazio, where most of their lands were located...
family, who turned the tower into a castle. Ferdinand Gregorovius
Ferdinand Gregorovius
Ferdinand Gregorovius was a German historian who specialized in the medieval history of Rome. He is best known for Wanderjahre in Italien, his account of the walks he took through Italy in the 1850s, and the monumental Die Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter , a classic for Medieval and early...
dated the possession of Bracciano by the Orsini to 1234. The area was later acquired by the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia and, from 1375, was a Papal
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
possession.
In 1419 the Colonna Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V , born Odo Colonna, was Pope from 1417 to 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism .-Biography:...
confirmed the fief of Bracciano in the Orsini family branch of Tagliacozzo
Tagliacozzo
-History:Near the modern city was fought the Battle of Tagliacozzo between Conradin of Hohenstaufen and Charles I of Anjou.-Main sights:*The Palazzo Ducale , built by Roberto Orsini....
. Under this powerful family the city developed into a flourishing town, famous in the whole of Italy for its castle, which was enlarged, starting from 1470, by Napoleone Orsini
Napoleone Orsini
Napoleone Orsini was an Italian condottiero.The son of Orso Orsini of Bracciano, he fought for Pope Eugene IV against Francesco Sforza in 1443. Later, in the 1450s, he flanked Ferdinand of Aragon in the struggle between the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan...
and his son Virginio. In 1481 it housed Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
, who had fled from the plague in Rome; the Sala Papalina in one of the corner towers commemorates the event. Four years later, however, the city and the castle were ravaged by Papal troops under Prospero Colonna
Prospero Colonna
Prospero Colonna , sometimes referred to as Prosper Colonna, was an Italian condottiero in the service of the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire during the Italian Wars.-Biography:...
, and subsequently a new line of walls was built.
In 1494 Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
and his troops marching against Rome stopped at Bracciano. This act led to the excommunication of the Orsini, and in 1496 the city was besieged by a papal army headed by Giovanni di Candia, son of Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
Borgia, though it resisted successfully. Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giovanni Borgia , Duke of Gandia; and Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace...
, another of Alexander's natural sons, was unsuccessful in his attempt to take the Orsini stronghold a few years later. The sixteenth century was a period of splendour for Bracciano. The notorious spendthrift and libertine Paolo Giordano I Orsini
Paolo Giordano I Orsini
Paolo Giordano I Orsini was the first duke of Bracciano from 1560. He was a member of the Rome family of the Orsini.-Biography:...
, having married in 1558 Isabella de' Medici
Isabella de' Medici
Isabella Romola de' Medici was the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo....
, daughter of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, received the title of duke of Bracciano in 1560. The castello received some modernization for the brief visit of the Medici that year. He hired the most prestigious painter available in Rome, Taddeo Zuccaro, to fresco with allegories and coats-of-arms the fortress's most prestigious room, the Sala Papalinia that had been occupied by Sixtus IV. Isabella spent the remainder of her life avoiding a return to the castle, which a modern tourist tradition would have her haunting.
The economy was boosted by the exploitation of sulphur and iron, the production of tapestries and paper. The latter was favoured by the construction of an aqueduct whose ruins can still be seen in the city. Bracciano in this period had some 4,500 inhabitants.
However, the expensive tenor of life of the Orsini eventually damaged the economic conditions of the city. The last great ruler was probably Paolo Giordano II, a patron of arts and literature who made Bracciano a center of culture in Italy. The decline culminated in 1696 when the castle was sold to Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI
Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...
; the Odescalchi family still retain the castle.
In the castle, richly frescoed frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
s and ceilings now contrast with blank walls, which were hung with richly-coloured tapestries when the lords of Bracciano were in residence. Fortunately, the important late-15th century frieze showing the labours of Hercules is still visible.
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, now eradicated; as a result, none of the fine villas were built at the water's edge, but all stood on healthier rises of ground.
Main sights
The main monument of Bracciano is its castle, Castello Orsini-OdescalchiCastello Orsini-Odescalchi
Castello Orsini-Odescalchi is a castle in Bracciano, in the Province of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano. It was built in the 15th century, and combines the functions of a military defence structure and a civilian residence of the feudal lords of the period,...
, one of the most noteworthy examples of Renaissance military architecture in Italy.
3 km outside the city, alongside the road leading to Trevignano Romano, is the ancient church of San Liberato (ninth century). It occupies what was once the Roman settlement of Forum Clodii, now surrounded by an herb garden, part of the complex of English-style gardens at the adjoining Villa San Librato, designed by Russell Page
Russell Page
Montague Russell Page was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect.Former partner of Geoffrey Jellicoe and author of The Education of a Gardener . In this book he includes some reference to Islamic and classical gardens...
in 1965 for the art historian conte Donato Sanminatelli and his contessa, Maria Odescalchi, and carried out over the following decade.
On the same road are the ruins of the Aquae Apollinaris, a complex of baths famous in the Roman age.
At Vigna di Valle, next to the lake, the former seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
base today houses the Italian Air Force Museum
Italian Air Force Museum
The Italian Air Force Museum is an aircraft museum at Vigna di Valle, on the Lake Bracciano , central Italy. It is operated by the Aeronautica Militare.- Propeller aircraft :* Ansaldo AC.2* Ansaldo SVA 5* Blériot XI* Caproni Ca.3* Caproni Ca.100...
. The museum's four hangars hold a number of historical military aircraft, including famous planes such as the MC. 202, the Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
, the Savoia Marchetti S.79, the F-104 Starfighter
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
, the Caproni Ca.100
Caproni Ca.100
|-References:...
and the Panavia Tornado
Panavia Tornado
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...
. Also on view is a remarkable collection of three Schneider Cup racers, including the Macchi M.C.72
Macchi M.C.72
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Cowin, Hugh W. The Risk Takers, A Unique Pictorial Record 1908-1972: Racing & Record-setting Aircraft . London: Osprey Aviation, 1999. ISBN 1-85532-904-2....
. The museum stages an annual 'Giornata Azzura' airshow at Pratica di Mare airport.