The Via dei Pellegrini connects the Piazza del Gesù, Viterbo‘s main square, with the Piazza San Lorenzo, the city’s religious centre.
Via dei Pellegrini Viterbo
History and description
Although the Via dei Pellegrini connects the two main squares of Viterbo, it is a very narrow and rather dark street and some of the houses look fairly run-down.
Attached to one of these houses is a large plaque, on which is written in Latin that in the Middle Ages it used to be a guesthouse for pilgrims (pellegrini). Even today the building is known as the Ospizio dei Pellegrini. The house was donated to the church by a couple towards the end of the 12th century with the aim of providing hospitality to pilgrims going down the Via Francigena on their way to Rome. In 1575, the house passed into the hands of the Guild of Shoemakers.
The Via dei Pellegrini is not to be confused with the Via di San Pellegrino.