Latera is a small town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

Province of Viterbo The province of Viterbo () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. Geography Viterbo is the most northerly of the provinces of Lazio. It is bordered to the south by the Metropolitan Cit ...

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Stephen Owen considers it to be an "

archetypal The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a stat ...

" Italian

hill town A hill town is a type of a Human settlement, settlement built upon hills. Often protected by defensive walls, steep embankments, or cliffs, such hilltop settlements provided natural defenses for their inhabitants. The term "hill town" is occasio ...

. Situated near

Bolsena Lake Lake Bolsena () is a lake of volcanic origin in the northern part of the province of Viterbo called ''Alto Lazio'' ("Upper Latium") or ''Tuscia'' in central Italy. It is the largest volcanic lake in Europe. Roman historic records indicate act ...

and Mezzano Lake, is important for volcanic underground activity near the town centre. It has a small rock with a medieval palace by Farnese family, surrounded by medieval stone houses.

History

Latera and its castle are known by documents from around the beginning of the 12th century. It began its long-lasting link with the

Farnese family The House of Farnese (, also , ) was an influential family in Renaissance Italy. The titles of Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Duke of Latera and Duke of Castro were held by various members of the family. Its most important members included Po ...

in 1408, when

Pope Gregory XII Pope Gregory XII (; ; – 18 October 1417), born Angelo Corraro, Corario," or Correr, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 November 1406 to 4 July 1415. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was opposed by the Avignon claimant Benedi ...

conceded vicardom of the city to Ranuccio Farnese (1390-1450), creating with the namesake city of Farnese a Duchy independent from that of the nearby Castro, which later became capital of the

Duchy of Castro The Duchy of Castro was a fiefdom in central Italy formed in 1537 from a small strip of land on what is now Lazio's border with Tuscany, centred on Castro, a fortified city on a tufa cliff overlooking the Fiora River which was its capital and ...

. The House of Farnese reigned over the Duchy of Latera until 1650, when it was subsumed back into the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

. The last ruler was Pietro Francesco Farnese, Duke of Latera, General of the Spanish Army (1592-1662).

Main sights

*The Palace of Ranuccio Farnese *The Three Fountains *Museum of Earth, inaugurated in 1999

References

Sources

External links

* * Cities and towns in Lazio Former monarchies of Europe Former duchies {{Lazio-geo-stub

History

Main sights

See also

References

Sources

External links