BOLSENA (LAZIO): WHAT TO SEE

Tourist information

Located on the sloping hills of the Volsini mountains, near the homonymous lake, Bolsena was the ancient Velzna, one of the twelve cities that in the Etruscan era were confederate of Etruria.

Subsequently subjected to the Romans, it rebelled, was destroyed and rebuilt, taking the name of Volsinii and becoming a municipality, before subsequently passing to the Papal States.

The Church of San Francesco, dating back to the thirteenth century and subsequently rebuilt, has a facade with a Gothic portal and an interior with a single nave decorated with frescoes made in the period between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Near this church there is an entrance door to the medieval village.

What see

The castle, located in a dominant position on the village and on the lake, also known as Rocca Monaldeschi della Cervara, from the name of the family who had long owned it, was erected in 1156 at the behest of Hadrian IV to protect the centers located along the street Cassia, threatened by Federico Barbarossa.

With a 4-sided plan, the building includes 4 towers that rise with a reasonable height at the corners of the quadrilateral.

The municipal museum is housed inside, which conserves Etruscan and Roman archaeological finds.

The Romanesque Collegiate Church of Santa Cristina, built in the eleventh century and featuring a slender bell tower, built in the following century, has a Renaissance facade.

In the interior with three naves there are the Rosary Chapel, containing frescoes painted between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the Miracle Chapel, where the stone with the footprints of Santa Cristina is kept, famous for having been the place in which the miracle of the host that shed blood took place, following which the feast of Corpus Domini was established in 1263.

In the catacombs the sarcophagus containing the remains of the Saint is preserved.