“Touring Afternoons”, in the fifth conference we talk about the Holy Year of 1650

Viterbo – The appointment is for Friday 26 April at 4.30 pm in the Assembly Hall of Palazzo Brugiotti

Viterbo – A conference of the “Pomeriggi Touring” on brotherhoods

Viterbo – We receive and publish – There is a lot of Viterbo Tuscia in the Holy Year of 1650. All thanks to Olimpia Pamphilj, sister-in-law of Pope Innocent indulgences. Never had there been so many as that year (we’re talking about 700 thousand) to the satisfaction of street artists, opportunists, innkeepers, hoteliers, swindlers and whores. Many VIPs, some of rank, such as kings, princes, dukes, marquises and ambassadors. The procession that accompanied Philip IV of Spain with an entourage of 300 carriages was spectacular.

Luciano Osbat, scientific director of the Diocesan Documentation Center of Viterbo, will talk about it in the fourth conference of the “Touring Afternoons” on Friday 26 April at 4.30 pm in the Assembly Hall of Palazzo Brugiotti in Viterbo (via Cavour 67) headquarters of the Carivit Foundation.

These were certainly not peaceful times for Rome and the papacy, so much so that a few months before the opening of the Jubilee year in December 1649 the papal army invaded and razed to the ground the city of Castro of the hated and cursed Farnese family which stood a few kilometers away of Viterbo, on the border with Tuscany. Practically, on August 31st of that year, Innocent

Meanwhile, Rome was redoing its make-up as happened in every Holy Year. Piazza Navona, above all, the Pamphilj headquarters, had a restyling designed by artists such as Bernini and Borromini. Rainaldi, Algardi, Pietro da Cortona and others. The highlight of the celebrations was the Easter mass on Holy Saturday celebrated in front of the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, where the pontifical altar was set up.

The pilgrims of that jubilee year were welcomed in Rome in specially set up hospices including that of the Trinità dei Pilgrini capable of providing a bed and soup to two thousand Romei a day. The one reserved for bishops and priests where they were hosted “with royal magnificence and liberality” was more refined.

Obviously there was a rush for organized “all-inclusive” processions to deal with the dangers along the journey. Among the many, we should remember that of the Confraternity of the SS. Sacrament of Acquapendente with around 400 participants (between brothers and sisters). After about ten days of prayers, guided tours and dinners in starry refectories served by nobles and knights, they returned home as they had come. Standing. .

The Confraternity of the Rosary and the SS Sacrament of San Martino al Cimino was no exception and commissioned a processional banner from Mattia Preti for the occasion which is still visible in the abbey church: it depicts Saint Martin on horseback in the act of donating his cloak to a poor man and in the back Christ in pity.

The “Touring Afternoons” have been organized since 2009 by the Viterbo Consular Group of the Italian Touring Club, with the patronage of the Carivit Foundation and the support of Fidapa, the “Nimpha” Cultural Association and Inner Wheel.

Vincenzo Ceniti

April 22, 2024