VITERBO, a province of Central Italy, in the States of the Church, is bounded N. by the province of Perugia, E. by those of Spoleto and Rieti, S. by the Comarca di Roma and the province of Civith-Vecchia, and W. by the Tuscan Sea and Tuscany. The area is 1083 square miles: the population in 1850 numbered 129,074. The surface is hilly in the north. The eastern part of the province lies in the basin of the Tiber; the central part consists of the basin of the Lake of Bolsena, and its outlet the river Marta ; and the western part consists of the lower valley of the river Fiore, which, rising in the Tuscan territory, enters the Papal State, and after a course of nearly 50 miles falls into the sea below Montalto. These three basins or valleys slope southward towards the sea, and merge in the unhealthy maritime plain of the 31aremma, which extend., along the sea coast. There is a good deal of fertile land in the province, which yields wine, oil, and corn. Great numbers of cattle are reared. Alum is very abundant.
The ridge called Cimino, the ancient Cimiuns, of volcanic formation, runs from north to south for a length of about 30 miles, from Monte Soriano, north-east of Viterbo, which is its highest summit, being 4000 feet above the sea, to Monte Virginio near the lake of Bracciano, and divides the basin of the Tiber from that of the Lake of Bolsena. The Citnions and its impervious forest arrested for many years the progress of Roman conquest on the aide of Etruria. It is still a well wooded and picturesque mountain. Between Ronciglione and Viterbo it is crossed by the high road from Rome to Florence. A succession of lower hills incloses the lake of Bolsena on three sides, leaving an opening to the southward, through which flows the river Marta (Boisexa.) On the south-east, between the lake and the Ciminian ridge, is a wide plain, at the south-eastern end of which is the town of Viterbo.
Viterbo, the capital of the province, a bishop's see, and the resideuce of the delegate or governor, is pleasantly situated at the northern base of the Monte Cimino, on the high road from Rome to Florence, 40 miles north-west of Rome, and has about 14,000 inhabitants. It Is a large well-built town, inclosed by walls and towers; it has more than fifty churches, several convents, and other considerable buildings; the streets are well paved but narrow, and adorned with handsome foun tains. The cathedral of San Lorenzo is adorned with some good paintings, and with the monuments of popes John XXI., Alex Ruder IV., Adrian V., and Clement IV. Villani (vii. 40) says that Prince Henry of England, son of the Earl of Cornwall, was murdered at the high altar of the cathedral of Viterbo by Guy do Montfort, fourth son of Simon de Montfort, who fell at the battle of Evesham.
Dante alludes to this tradition in the 12th canto of his ' Inferno.' In the piazza before the cathedral Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman, com pelled the emperor Frederick Barberosea to hold his stirrup while he dismounted from his mule. The episcopal palace annexed to the cathedral dates from the 13th century ; it contains the great hall where the conclaves of the sacred college were held for the election of several popes in the 13th century. The other ecclesiastical edifices worthy of notice ere—the church of Santa Rosa, where the body of that saint is preserved. The church of Santa Maria della Verith, outside of the walls, which has a very good fresco painting representing the ' Spo salizlo,' or Marriage of the Virgin Mary, by Lorenzo di Giaootno of Viterbo, a pupil of Masaccio, and the church of San Angelo in Spate, which contains a Roman sarcophagus with a basso-rilievo, and an inscription, which says that it was used as a sepulchral urn for the fair Giuliani', a beauty of the 12th century, whole charms are said to have caused a war between Rome and Viterbo, in which the Rotorua were defeated.
The Palazzo Pnblico, or town-hall, begun in 1264, has some good paintings and a collection of Etruscan sepulchral monuments and other antiquities. The old palace of the Farness family is now a foundling hospital. Viterbo is celebrated by old Italian writers for the beauty of its women and its fountains.
It is the commonly received opinion that the Famine Vollanence, at which the ancient Etruscans held the general meeting of deputies of the different states of their confederation, was on the site of Viterbo. The name indicates that there was a temple on the spot, but the meetings were of a political nature, although briglnally they may have been of a merely religious character, There was no town in ancient times on the spot, but a large fair seems to have been held simulta neously with the meetings of the deputies. Viterbo is said to have been built, or inclosed, by Desiderius, the last king of the Longobards, aud to have been peopled by the inhabitants of several ruined towns of the neighbourhood. It governed itself for a long time during the middle ages as a free municipality, and was often at war with the people of Rome, to which it was obliged at last to make its submission about the year 1200.
The population of Viterbo and its neighbourhood are supported chiefly by agriculture; wine and oil are the principal produce of the country. There are however some manufactures of woollens. Many of the landed proprietors and local nobility reside at Viterbo.