NETWORK OF THE UNIVERSITY’S MONUMENTAL COMPLEXES
Santa Maria in Gradi
This complex currently serves as the seat of the Rector and the Department of Human Communication and Tourism Sciences(DISUCOM) and once acted as a Dominican convent built in the thirteenth century.
In 1215, Raniero Capocci, a nobleman of Viterbo and notary of the papal chancery, purchased the land where a little chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross stood. The construction of a full-scale convent complex followed and it was donated to the Dominicans in 1244. It was the thirteenth century. These were the years of Pope Innocent III and Emperor Frederick II, and the years of Viterbo’s greatest splendor. With development and culture booming, Viterbo soon became a point of reference for trade and for pilgrims traveling to sacred sites. Santa Maria in Gradi was a vibrant center for Dominican culture and that of the papal curia, hosting scholars of the highest profile, such as Roger Bacon and Vitello.
Although the majestic complex of Santa Maria in Gradi was altered several times during the centuries, the articulated relationship between church, chapter house, dormitories, refectory, cloister, cemetery, hospital and defensive walls are still evident. Only the medieval cloister with its double-columned mullions remains in its original form and recalls the nearby cloister of the Abbey of San Martino. The second cloister, annexed in 1306 and originally Gothic in form, currently exhibits forms dating back to the 17thcentury, at which time the dormitory area was transformed. One of the most radical transformations of the convent took place in the 18th century, to which the elegant portal at the complex’s entrance dates.
The medieval church played an important role in civic life, competing with the cathedral of San Lorenzo and becoming the burial place of members of the curia and popes. Few traces remain of this phase, including the funerary monument of Pope Clement IV (who died in 1268), now at the Church of San Francesca alla Rocca. It plays a role of absolute importance in the history of Italian sculpture. Other works originating from Santa Maria in Gradi are now preserved at the Museo Civico di Viterbo: sculptures, painted panels and detached frescos. After the fifteenth century addition of a portico on the facade, the church was completely renovated in the Baroque style by the architect Nicola Salvi from 1736 to 1758. The radical operation was justified by the precarious static stability of the building; it preserved the structure’s outer walls and created a space with a single nave and side chapels, punctuated with elegant stucco decoration.
Following the suppression of religious orders in 1874, the entire complex of Santa Maria in Gradi was designated as a detention center. The Prisoners’ Chapel dates back to this period (1902) and now serves as the Aula Magna, noteworthy for its articulted decorative apparatus. In 1996, the complex was bestowed to Tuscia University which oversaw the restoration which overhauled the whole structure and rendered it operative.
The former church which was heavily damaged by the bombings of 1944 and left abbandoned for decades. The restoration is still in progress and executed in conjunction with the Soprintendenza per i beni architettonici e paesaggistici per le province di Roma, Rieti, Viterbo, Frosinone e Latina.
In the Exhibition Room of the Rectorate on the ground floor of the south wing, there are two Etruscan sarcophagi in temporary storage on behalf of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Etruria Meridionale.
The Complex of Santa Maria in Paradiso
Today, the complex houses the Department of Economy and Enterprise (DEIM). The complex was built on the site of a church dedicated to St. Michael, belonging to the monks of Farfa and this structure dates to the first half of the thirteenth century to accommodate Cistercian monks. Later, it became a monastery for nuns. In 1439, by order of Pope Eugenius IV, Franciscan monks settled in the church of Santa Maria del Paradiso up through 1870.
The building was remodeled several times over the centuries, causing the church to quickly lose its thirteenth century characteristics which are still partly visible in the apse. The last radical intervention dates back to 1816 when the church was largely demolished, with the exception of the choir and the right wall. The cloister, however, remains stylistically intact and reveals an obvious similarity with the coeval loggia of Viterbo’s Papal Palace. In fact, the mullions are composed of characteristic, acute arches held up by paired colonnettes, interspersed with pillars, similar in form to those of the Papal Palace’s loggia, in that which remains of the cloister of the Abbey at san Martino in Cimino, in the medieval cloister of Santa Maria in Gradi and in that of the church of Santa Maria della Verità (currently the Civic Museum). Yet the arches and columns of Santa Maria del Paradiso appear more grave and imposing.
The frescoes of the lunettes date back to the first half of the seventeenth century and are the work of Angelo Pucciati.
The Complex of San Carlo
The Seat of the Department of Institutions Linguistic-Literary, Historical, Legal and Communicational Europe (DISTU) is located in the neighborhood called Piano Scarano near Porta di Piano. The complex originated as the ancient church of St. Nicholas of Scolari that, according to documents from 1152, depended on the Benedictine abbey of Farfa. Its proximity to the city walls – built here in 1187 – must have been joined to a building dedicated to hosting pilgrims arriving in the city and to aiding them. This origin gave rise to a hospice for the poor, sick and aged.
Little remains of the medieval church, the current Aula Magna: the belfry and the façade with characteristic arrow-shaped decoration. Inside restoration begun in 1994 has recovered the medieval church that was drastically altered in 1593. The church, badly damaged by humidity, was halved in height by an attic and a floor raised nearly three meters off the ground, accessed via an external staircase positioned on the façade. The inside is articulated into three naves by rounded pillars in peperino and conserves a fifteenth century fresco of the Virgin and a medieval fresco above the entrance on the right hand wall. What remains of the hospice date back to the seventeenth century with subsequent additions and transformations.
In 1619, along with the vegetable patch and the cloister of the adjacent house, the complex transfers to Confraternity of San Carlo, who opened a hospice for invalids and the ill on this site, thanks to a generous donation on behalf of the nobleman Agostino Nini. A few years later, in 1639, the complex passed on the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary, along with the church and the hospice – and the road, which used to be dedicated to Saint Nicolas – took the name of San Carlo.
In 1870, with the suppression of religious orders, the State appropriated churches and the Institution’s goods, which were ceded to the Comune of Viterbo that continued to use the structure to assist the elderly until 1970. In 1989, the complex was acquired by Tuscia University.
Translated by Yvonne A. Mazurek, Università degli Studi della Tuscia
Scientific coordinator: prof.ssa Maria Raffaella Menna
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