What to see in Bracciano, an itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including Orsini Odescalchi Castle, Duomo Santo Stefano, Palazzo Comunale.
Tourist information
Located in the province of Rome, halfway between the capital and Viterbo, Bracciano is a town located in a dominant position on the homonymous lake, also known as Lake Sabatino.
Although the origins of this very ancient place, dating back to the Etruscan era, Bracciano became an important center only from the fifteenth century, when the Castle was built by Braccio Montone, a member of the Bracci family, whose possession passed later to a militant in the troops of Braccio, a certain Orsini of the homonymous family, at the explicit request of the then Pope Martino in 1418.
The Bracciano Castle became the property of the Odescalchi in the seventeenth century, when this family took command of the local Lordship.
The Orsini Odescalchi Castle, which constitutes the most important building in the inhabited center, consists of three external walls, pentagonal in shape, and equipped with five towers, one for each vertex of the external fortification.
The arch overlooking the driveway to the castle was built by Jacopo del Duca on commission by Paolo Giordano Orsini, following the construction of the castle gardens built at the end of the sixteenth century, in it the protruding stone blocks alternate with roses Orsini, above which is the family crest.
What see
Inside this fortified building, which still retains the original furnishings and frescoes, it is possible to admire on the first floor the halls of the library, the Umberto I room, the Pisanello room, the hunting trophy room, the hall of the Orsini and the red room on the first floor.
On the second floor there are other rooms, including the balcony room, the room of the labors of Hercules, where ancient weapons are kept, the science room and the tower room, from which you can access the patrol path, which it constitutes a privileged position to enjoy a suggestive panorama on the lake of Bracciano.
In addition to the castle, the main monuments and places of interest include the Cathedral of Santo Stefano, dating back to the thirteenth century, the period of the Prefects of Vico, a Germanic family who settled in Rome between the tenth and fifteenth centuries.
Inside this building of worship there are works of art created by students of the Guercino and Maratta pictorial school, as well as a beautiful painting on canvas by Domenichino.
The most valuable objects include a baptismal font from the sixteenth century, a wooden ciborium from the end of the sixteenth century, a reliquary in gilded wood from the end of the seventeenth century and two triptychs painted on wood, one of which attributed to Gregorio and Donato d'Arezzo, made in 1315, depicting the Redeemer and, laterally, the saints Giovanni Battista and Nicola, the Virgin of the Cintolatra and the saints Stefano and Lorenzo.
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The Civic Museum is housed inside the Church of Santa Maria Novella, which is an Augustinian convent complex.
The town hall is located in Piazza 4 novembre, usually called Piazza del Comune.
