Castel gandolfo

The territory of the modern Castel Gandolfo settled from the XVI century before Christ . The modern city is partially located on the territory of ancient Alba Longhi , the capital of the Latin League . It is believed that the city was founded by Ascanius and destroyed by the Romans. From the end of the republican period, noble Roman families began to use this place to build summer residences. The most famous of these was the villa of Emperor Domitian . Subsequently, the emperor Hadrian (117-138) lived in the villa while his own villa was built next to Tivoli; Marcus Aurelius (161-180) spent some time here during the uprising of 175. AD Septimius Severus (193-211) set up a camp for the 1st Parthian Legion south of the villa. Emperor Constantine gave the land, after banishing the legionnaires, to the Basilica of St. John the Baptist (now in its place is the cathedral in Albano )

Presumably the name comes from the castle of the Genoese Gandolfi family (from St. Gandolph), built around 1200. According to another version, Gandolfo is the name of one of the members of the Savelli family , who owned the castle since 1221 for three centuries. 1596 Pope Clement VIII was the first Pope to settle in Castel Gandolfo, but the restoration of the old castle was a project of Urban VIII , who first visited the site in 1626.

• The summer residence of the Pope ( Italian. Residenza Papale ) - built in the XVII century . Pope Urban VIII Barberini ordered the construction of architect Carlo Madern . Since 1870, the papal palace remained empty for some time due to the fact that the popes did not leave the territory of the Vatican. In 1929, the Lateran Agreements were signed with Italy, and the popes again began to use the residence. Since the signing of the agreement, the Papal Palace and the adjacent Barberini Villa , which was added to the complex of Pius XI , have extraterritorial rights . A small area directly in front of the residence was renamed Piazza della Libertà (“Freedom Square”). Pope Pius XII (1958) and Paul VI (1978) died in Castel Gandolfo. For the first time, the residence was opened to the public after the Italian unification of 1870. Since 1929, it was closed and again became available to the public in 2016 at the request of Pope Francis ^[1] .
• Under John Paul II , official events took place at the residence, in particular, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Yury E. Charles in his memoirs wrote that it was here that the Pope received the Soviet delegation in August 1989 and the Russian summer of 1993 ^[2] .
• The gardens of the papal palace, restored on the ruins of a former castle , are partly located in the territory of the summer villa of the emperor Domitian , “Albanum Domitiani”, which occupied 14 km² (5.4 square miles). It was built by renowned architect Rabiriy . In the courtyard of the palace - a Roman bust depicting the cyclops Polyphemus , from whose cave Odysseus escaped; He was found in the nymph of the gardens of the Imperial Villa.

• The parish church dedicated to St. Thomas of Villanueva was built by Bernini (1658–1661) by order of Pope Alexander VII Chigi . The square construction of the temple in the plan is a symmetrical Greek cross, here is the famous canvas of Pietro da Cortona , depicting the Crucifixion of Christ .
• The two Vatican Observatory telescopes, which were moved from Rome to Castel Gandolfo in the 1930s , were still in use until the 1980s . The headquarters of the Vatican Observatory is still located in Castel Gandolfo.

Many pontiffs of the Catholic Church lived here, including Pope Benedict XVI after his abdication, until the election of a new pontiff.

• The official site of the commune
• Dr. Hans-Joachim Kracht. Historic villas towering over L'Osservatore Romano Lake Albano , September 29, 1999
• Castel Gandolfo: the summer residence of the pontiffs - in the Benedict Encyclopedia. Photo, video, Pope's farm.
• Castel Gandolfo on the Vatican site