The Palazzo Viscontini is a historic building in the Via C. Battisti in Acquapendente (Province of Viterbo). It has a lavishly decorated façade and the family coat-of-arms above the entrance.
Palazzo Viscontini Viterbo
History and description
The Palazzo Viscontini was built in 1581 by Hippolito Scalza on behalf of Antonio Viscontini.
The bluestone facade is richly decorated, while the piano nobile is somewhat more austere, with windows decorated with architraves and tympans. The upper floor is even more austere.
The coat of arms above the entrance, a palm tree with two snakes with a crown on a white background above it, is that of the Viscontini.
After Viscontini‘s death, his granddaughter Egidia inherited the building. Later it would come into the hands of the Benci family. An architrave inside the palace bears the name of Andreas Bencius.
From the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century it was owned by the Cerri family. The current owners are the Cordeschi.
The palace has a large garden, where Alessandro Antonaroli Feliziani had an amphitheater dedicated to Girolamo Fabrizio built in 1871, with room for up to 800 spectators. Girolamo Fabrizio, or Hieronymus Fabricius (1537-1619), was an anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as “The Father of Embryology.”