CASTELGANDOLFO. — The small town that overlooks Lake Albano from the heights of the volcanic crater in which it is nestled now has 3,500 inhabitants, mostly farmers. It has very ancient origins, for on the very spot where the Apostolic Palace now stands there once rose the Arx Albana, the sacred center of Alba Longa, founded, according to legend, by Ascanius, son of Aeneas, who was in turn the cradle of Rome and later its rival.
The Arx Albana, though destroyed, still retained its shrines into the imperial era, when mention is made of the Salii arcis albanae and the Vestal Virgins who tended the fire of Vesta Alban. This place was chosen by Domitian as his residence even during the winter. The Alban estate of the Caesars covered an immense area, including the lake itself, with a total extent of about 14 km; it belonged to the imperial demesne and was assigned by Constantine, according to the Liber Pontificalis, as an endowment to the basilica of St. John the Baptist, the cathedral of Albano, which he founded.
The papal villa now stands upon the ruins of what was once the principal nucleus of Domitian’s Albanum. Besides a few fragments of columns, marble statues and friezes, part of the cryptoportico survives—a grand nave measuring 300 meters in length, with coffered vaulting and painted walls, intended to shelter the emperor’s promenade from inclement weather.
The earliest record of the present name of C. dates to 1218, in a document in which the Gandolfi (a family apparently of Genoese origin) appear as lords of the place. The Gandolfi were soon succeeded in dominion by the Savelli, who were dispossessed by Eugenius IV and reacquired it under Nicholas V. They lost it again, as rebels, under Alexander VI, only to regain it in 1593 and finally cede it, for financial straits, to the Apostolic Chamber in 1596.
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who as a private citizen had frequented this land, became pope in 1623 as Urban VIII and ordered the fortress enlarged and refurbished by Carlo Maderno, inaugurating it in 1626 and spending eleven further autumns and springs there. His example was followed by Alexander VII, who commissioned the parish church of St. Thomas of Villanova, designed by Bernini, adorned with a painting by Pietro da Cortona on the high altar and another depicting the Annunciation by Maratta.
Among the popes who made extensive use of the residence at C. were Clement XI (1700–21) and Benedict XIV (1740–58), who during his eighteen-year pontificate made lengthy stays. Clement XIII (1758–69) visited the villa during the first seven years of his reign, while his successor Clement XIV (1769–74) preferred to come in autumn for more than a month each year. Pius VII (1800–23) spent three years there before his captivity and four after the Restoration, until 1817, and in 1816 and 1817 also came in spring. Gregory XVI, for eleven of his fifteen years as pope (1831–46), took his holidays at C. Pius IX, during his long pontificate, visited nine times in all, staying only briefly; his last sojourn was in May 1869.
After 1870 the villa remained constantly closed, though it was included, under the law of guarantees, among the properties that the Italian State granted for the use of the Supreme Pontiff, with the same immunities as the other apostolic palaces. This continued until the Lateran Treaty of 1929, which recognized full ownership of the villa by the Holy See, including the Villa Barberini, and made possible the Pope’s return to his summer residence. Yet it was not until 1 August 1934 that Pius XI entered the old Apostolic Palace.
Thus, after sixty-five years, the series of papal sojourns at C. recommenced, though the Pope returned no longer as sovereign but as a guest of another state—in his own house, to be sure, and covered by extraterritorial privileges, yet part of the Kingdom of Italy, in the words of the treaty, and his stay virtually confined to the precincts of the residence. The villa was therefore enlarged by the addition of the Villa Barberini, intended to give greater scope to the former cramped papal property, to which it was joined by an elevated walkway.
Some sculptures uncovered during the landscaping adorn the gardens: among them a notable equestrian statue, perhaps representing Domitian, whose head was later replaced. In the former Barberini palace have been placed a porphyry torso of athletic stature, a perfect copy of a work by Polyclitus, and a small, faithful replica of the Cyniscus, another masterpiece by the same sculptor. A copy of Myron’s Marsyas has been transferred to the Vatican Museums. Among the works of art preserved in the Apostolic Palace is a large bas-relief of the Deposition from the Cross in the Swiss Hall, and in the adjoining rooms a canvas by Wicar depicting the Ratification of the Concordat of 1801, a gift from Napoleon to Pius VII, and a Madonna by Dolci. Near the Consistory Hall is the chapel of Urban VIII, and in the private apartments the Polish chapel, decorated by Rosen and containing a copy of the Madonna of Częstochowa offered to Pius XI by the Polish episcopate.
The Pontifical Palace also houses the astronomical observatory, transferred from the Vatican and equipped with new instruments and a modern astrophysics laboratory.
Pius XI spent more than two months at C. during his first sojourn there, and in subsequent years prolonged his stays ever further. Pius XII, who in the summer of 1939 had already taken up residence at C. for more than three months, emphasized the simplicity of this dwelling, where he would go without retinue and with only the strictly necessary staff. This austerity befitted the recent wartime ordeals that the papal villa had endured.
In January 1943, after the Anzio landings, the Pope—who had not returned to the villa since his first visit—welcomed the populations of C., Albano and the surrounding countryside who sought refuge and protection from the advancing war. In the first weeks of February more than 12,000 refugees were counted, even as aerial bombardments rained down on the pontifical residence, causing over 500 deaths and thousands of injuries. Besides sheltering refugees, throughout that time and in the immediate postwar period the villa served as a providential aid station for populations in the rear of the Anzio battle zone left without assistance, cut off from supplies, and hard-hit by bombardments and forced evacuations.
Once the battle for the capture of Rome had ended, restoration work began as soon as possible to repair the severe damage suffered by the villa. Yet it was not until the summer of 1946 that the Pope—who since 1939 had left the Vatican only to rush to the aid of Rome’s devastated districts—returned to C., as he did in the two following years, staying from early August to the end of November.