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Hotel Viterbo

Northern Lazio's Irish & Scottish Connections

: : Map of Viterbo : : Click for a larger view Download PDF

: : Map of Province : : Click for a larger view Download PDF

Etruscan, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Risorgimento… with so many layers its no wonder a few small slices in the huge layer cake of history get left out. Until recently the part played by early Irish settlers and Scottish exiles has been unknown or forgotten.

In best seller "How the Irish Saved Civilization," Thomas Cahill narrates Ireland's role in maintaining European civilization after the fall of Rome. Over the centuries Irish men - notables and knaves- continued to play an important part in Italian history, especially in the Eternal City. Many know of Father Joseph Mullooly, the priest-archeologist who excavated the two lower levels of the Domenican church of San Clemente. Lesser known is Major Myles O'Reilly, who led the St. Patrick's Brigade of Irish volunteers fighting against Garibaldi in Italy's Risorgimento battles.
Recently information has come to light about other Irish who played minor or curious parts in Italian history, especially in Northern Lazio, then part of the Papal States.

The saga of the Denham family, lords of the land in northern Lazio for almost a century (1773-1861) began when a poor boy from Cork joined the British army to avoid debtor's prison and was sent to Portugal leaving behind his young wife Sukey.
Denham soon left Portugal for Genoa, Livorno and finally Civitavecchia as a merchant and agent for English shipowners. He eventually ended up as a landed gentleman in Italy on the border between Lazio and Tuscany, an area which until the 18th century was considered a brigand-infested no man's land.
Denham's ship and cargo of cloth was shipwrecked -due to the poor state of the pontifical port of Civitavecchia- and as payment for these losses he was granted an enfiteusi by the papal government. This rental contract or perpetual concession over all the "beni camerali " of Onano, Proceno and the customs house (dogana ) at Centeno was signed by the Pope on August 29, 1773, giving Denham and his male heirs the right to "rule" these towns, collect taxes and customs taxes while encouraging commerce and farming in the area.
Within thirty years however Denham and his sons were all dead causing his daughter Carlotta, the mistress of Onano's Palazzo Monaldeschi, to make a plea to the papal government to have the concession passed on to the female line. She obtained the enfiteusi for herself, her daughters and their descendents and continued to "rule" over the area until the Papal States became part of united Italy in 1861.
Carlotta, a true Irish lass with flaming red hair, was much loved by the people of Onano who called her Madama Carlotta and her castle-home is still known as Palazzo Madama today. A series of frescoes in the main rooms, now the mayor's office, showing the saga of the Denham family have recently been discovered and restored.

The town of Montefiascone, duly famous for its Est, Est, Est wine, has all but forgotten the famous royal love story that took place there in 1719. The exiled Stuart king, James III, and Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska were wed after Clementina's rocambolesque escape from Poland and a secret wedding by proxy with an Irishman in Bologna. The royal couple finally met up and were married in Montefiascone on September 1st, 1719 with two Scots (John Hay and James Murray) and two Irishmen (Charles Wogan and John O'Brien) as witnesses. The royal couple were guests in the bishop's palace for a month-long honeymoon and with an entourage of elegant ladies and gentlemen took boating trips on the Lake of Bolsena.
Mementos of the Stuarts are still jealously conserved in Santa Margherita, the town's magnificent church which boasts the third largest cupola in Italy. Locked in the massive chest of drawers in the Sacristy lies a royal treasure of silk vestments encrusted with pearls and gold-threaded Stuart motifs sewn by the Queen herself and donated to the church in memory of the matrimony and baptism of the royal heir, Bonnie Prince Charlie.
A MacDonald family , probable descendents of nobles in the Stuart entourage, still lives in the Palazzo Farnese overlooking the lake of Bolsena.
Other Stuart memories exist in nearby towns : Soriano nel Cimino where James III was guest of Cardinal Albani in 1719 and Caprarola's Palazzo Pettelli where another plaque records the royal couple's visit in May of 1725.
Bonnie Prince Charlie came to "take the waters" in Viterbo several times in the late 1760's while the younger Stuart, the important Cardinal Henry, passed a long autumn vacation in the Viterbo area as guest of the local bishop.
Cardinal Henry's travel diary for 1776 describes the area's Renaissance gardens, monasteries, churches and towns in detail as well as the banquets, concerts and festivals at which he was guest of honor.

The brother of Napoleone, Luciano Bonaparte, known as the Prince of Canino, was the first to express an interest in the area's Etruscan sites and artifacts. In fact with his wife, they are considered the first tomb robbers (tombaroli) smashing red-figure Attic vases by the dozens so there would not be a glut on the market.
One of his daughters Letizia married Irishman Thomas Wyse and with their numerous offspring lived in a villa (today the Hotel Nibbio near Porta Fiorentina) in Viterbo from 1820-1870. The story of the eccentric Wyse-Bonaparte brood has been recorded in the book "The Spurious Brood" (Olga Bonaparte-Wyse, V.Gollancz Ltd, London, 1969) which narrates the foibles of Napoleon Alfred (known as Nappo), William, Studholmina (who married a Rattazzi), Adelina and Lucien. The Bonaparte family tomb by Canova in Canino's main church is a place of pilgrimage for French nostalgics just as another Canova monument dedicated to the Stuarts in St. Peter's Basilica is for the Scots.

Mary Jane Cryan - www.elegantetruria.com