Forte Sangallo is the imposing fortress of Civita Castellana (province of Viterbo), considered to be one of the most important and best conserved military works built by the Papal States between late 1400s and early 1500s.
Constructed on the ruins of a pre-existing medieval fortress, it was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI in 1495, several years after he acceded to the throne of St. Peter, as part of a larger project to improve and strengthen the defensive fortifications that surrounded the perimeter of the Papal State, in rapid expansion at the time.
The fortress has retained its polygonal shape which encloses two open courtyards: the older courtyard by the entrance is on the same axis as the imposing octagonal keep, while the square courtyard has an inner portico with an upper loggia featuring rows of pointed arches.
The apartments, inhabited by various popes over the centuries, were frescoed by the Zuccari workshop on commission from Pope Pius IV and Pope Paul III.
Today the fortress houses the Archaeological Museum of Agro Falisco in the nine rooms of the Papal apartments on the piano nobile.
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