Bomarzo

Bomarzo is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo (Lazio, central Italy), in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located 14.5 kilometres (9.0 mi) east-northeast of Viterbo and 68 kilometres (42 mi) north-northwest of Rome.

History

The city's current name is a derivation of Polymartium, first mentioned in the Historia Langobardorum by Paulus Diaconus. The etymology "polis martium", city of Mars, suggests a Roman origin. However, archeological evidence for a Roman city has not been found so far.

It was a historical fiefdom of the Orsini family, whose castle is at the edge of the densely built town, until it was sold to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere in 1645. Lante was elevated to the title of Duke of Bomarzo.

Ecclesiastical history

A bishopric was established around 400 AD, which in 700 gained territory from the suppressed Diocese of Ferento.

In 1015, it was suppressed and its territory transferred to the Diocese of Bagnoregio.

Titular see

The bishopric was nominally restored as a titular see in 1969.

Bomarzo (disambiguation)

Bomarzo may refer to:

Bomarzo (novel)

Bomarzo is a novel by the Argentine writer Manuel Mujica Láinez, written in 1962 and later adapted by its author to an opera libretto set by Alberto Ginastera, which had its premiere in Washington, D.C., in 1967.

It is set in the eerie and surrealistic Italian Renaissance town and palace of Bomarzo and concerns the morally and physically deformed Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo.

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