Piazza Di San Lorenzo
The piazza itself, although dominated by the cathedral and its campanile also possesses several other important buildings, including the town's oldest hospital in a medieval building which once housed the cathedral administration offices as well as providing a fortified townhouse for one of Italy’s numerous feuding medieval families. The Etruscan foundations of this building are clearly visible from street level. To the south of the square, the House of Valentino della Pagnotta received a direct hit from an Allied bomb in World War Two but was reconstructed to original specifications. The ground floor now houses the cathedral’s gift shop.
The piazza boasts several small fountains and a number of other medieval buildings, but it is dominated on its north-facing side by the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo, which was enlarged and reconstructed in 1266 following the Papal move to the city. The Palazzo was the original location of the initiation of the conclave tradition, taken from the Latin cum claves or with keys. The cardinals were taking so long picking a new pope following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 that their presence was bankrupting local businesses. This drove the infuriated local people to lock the cardinals inside the palace and to steal the roof, exposing those inside to the elements. They only returned the slates and unlocked the door once a decision had been reached.
The rest of the piazza is taken up by the ruins of the palace’s loggia, half of which tumbled into the valley below around 1300 and was never repaired.
Read more about this topic: Viterbo Cathedral
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