Civita Castellana

Civita Castellana is a town and comune within the province of Viterbo, 65 kilometres north of Rome. Mount Soracte lies approximately 10 kilometres to the south-east. Civita Castellana changed into settled all through the Iron Age by means of the Italic people of the Falisci, who called it "Falerii". After the Faliscan defeat towards the Romans, a brand new town turned into built via the latter, about 5 kilometres away, and referred to as "Falerii Novi". The deserted town changed into repopulated beginning within the early Middle Ages, with the new name of Civita Castellana noted first in 994.

In the following centuries the city turned into a flourishing independent commune, regularly contended by using the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. Captured with the aid of Pope Paschal II at the start of the 12th century, the town turned into given as fief to the Savelli with the aid of Gregory XIV. Sixtus IV assigned the city to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, the destiny Pope Alexander VI, who started the development of the Rocca, which turned into finished under Julius II.