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BOLSENA CITY:
The town of Bolsena lies on the slope of one of the craters
of Volsini Mountains and overlooks the coastal plains from
the northeastern shores of the lake of Bolsena, 350 meters
above sea level.
BOLSENA HISTORICAL NEWS :
The etruscans at Bolsena:
The Etruscans established diem-selves on die Italic peninsula
between die Tyrrhenian coast and within what is now Tuscany
and Lazio around the 8th century B.C.
They probably came from Asia Minor and brought a highly
developed civilization, marked by Aegean-Anatolian characteristics
(including the alphabet taken from the Greek alphabet of
Cumae), and absorbed the Villanovan population that had
occupied Etruria since Neolithic times. The occupied lands
had a wealth of raw materials, above all minerals, used
in bartering for craft products, essentially ceramics.
Etruria consisted of a federation of city-states, each of
which had a king or lucumone, with a religious
capital, Fanum Voltumnae, probably located near
Velzna, now Orvieto, to which the densely inhabited
territory of Volsinii belonged.
The Etruscans left only modest traces of their presence
in our municipality in a small fortified settlement and
in a few tombs dating to the 7-6th century B.C.
The romans at Bolsena:
When the Romans overran the territories of the areas of
the Tiber and the Tyrrhenian coast, they destroyed die Etruscan
Velzna (now Orvieto) once and for all in 264 B.C.
They settled die survivors on die northeastern shores of
die lake of Bolsena, in Volsinii Novi, in a position less
easy to defend than die former.
This was the first Roman "colonization" of a people
who, after destruction, led a much more modest social life.
Later Roman civilization began when Volsinii was included
in the tract of the Via Cassia, and at the end of the Social
War (89 B.C.) Volsinii was completely integrated into the
Roman world and elevated to Municipium.
Numerous public inscriptions document a period of prosperity
in Volsinii between the 1st and 4th centuries A.D.
It was the birthplace of famous figures
such as Lucius Sejus Strabo and Lucius Aelius Sejanus, father
and son, both prefects of the pretorio under the emperors
Augustus and Tiberius, as "well as the poet Rufus Festus
Avienus, who was also proconsul of Africa, and the philosopher
Caius Rufus Musonius.
Christianity at Bolsena:
The Catacombs of Saint Cristina and of Gratte, (in use in
die 4th and 5th century A.D.) document the presence of an
active and large Christian community in Bolsena,
which grew around the cult of Saint Cristina, although pagan
traditions continued to play an important role.
There is little to bear witness to the
first Christian community in Bolsena in literary documents,
although we know that the city was the seat of the diocese,
however briefly.
The Episcopal rank apparently then passed from Bolsena to
Orvieto and Bagnoregio, which became more important
in the Lombard period.
The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
at Bolsena:
Bolsena was razed to the ground by the Lombards in die second
half of the 6th centuiy A.D. and die survivors abandoned
the Roman city to build a new town, a modest inhabited hamlet,
on die cliff where die medieval quarter still stands.
At the end of Lombard domination, Bolsena became part of
the possessions of the Church, under the diocese of Orvieto
of which it became to all extents a property.
Indeed, in 1398 Pope Boniface IX conceded it as a vi-cariate
to the Monaldeschi della Cervara, in whose possession
it remained until the middle of the 15th century.
The fortress with the medieval hamlet at its base was built
at the end of the 14th century to control the Monaldeschi
rule of Bolsena.
In 1263, when Pope Urban IV was residing in Orvieto, the
Eu-charistic Miracle took place in Bolsena.
Its fame spread rapidly throughout the Christian world and
the pope instituted the church feast day of Corpus Christi,
with die Bull transitunis de hoc mundo, entrusting
Thomas of Aquinas with drawing up the officiation and mass
for this new solemn feast day.
In the course of the Renaissance, the story
of Bolsena and that of the Papacy were one and the same.
At the time it was coveted by illustrious figures, including
Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, future Pope Leo X, who had
the facade of'the Church of Saint Cristina (late'15th cent.)
built, Cardinal Tiberio Crispo who had the palazzo which
bears his name built around the middle of the 16th
century as residence of the Legate Cardinal of
the Patrimony with headquarters in Bolsena, Pope Pius II
Piccolomini and Paul III Farnese.
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BOLSENA 
