Paliano is a 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 Frosinone, in the

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 ...

region of 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 ...

History

Paliano was the seat of a branch of the powerful

Colonna family The House of Colonna is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It played a pivotal role in Middle Ages, medieval and Roman Renaissance, Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Pope Martin V, Martin V), 23 cardinals and many ot ...

whose head was

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

, then

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

, then Prince of Paliano. Their fortress dominates the town. In 1556 papal forces captured the town, which was governed for a few years by Giovanni Carafa, nephew of

Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV (; ; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559. While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed ...

, as Duke. His wife, , was the Duchess of Paliano celebrated in Stendhal's novella of the same name. Upon the death of Paul IV in 1559,

Marcantonio Colonna Marcantonio II Colonna (sometimes spelled Marc'Antonio; 1535 – August 1, 1584), Duke of Tagliacozzo and Duke and Prince of Paliano, was an Italian aristocrat who served as Viceroy of Sicily in the service of the Spanish Crown, general of ...

regained the town. His participation in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 is commemorated by the Via Lepanto leading to the family palazzo. The 17th century church of Sant’ Andrea contains the tombs of the Colonna, including a magnificent tomb for Prince Filippo II Colonna by Bernardino Ludovisi, completed in 1745. In the 19th century the Colonna fortress was sold to 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 ...

, which used it as a prison.

References

* Robert Enggass, “Ludovisi’s Tomb for a Colonna Prince.” ''The Burlington Magazine''. CXXXV (1993): 822–824.

External links

Abridged History of Rome: Paliano

Cities and towns in Lazio {{Lazio-geo-stub