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Our history

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The complex of Santa Maria in Gradi was a Dominican convent for several centuries.

Built in 1244 by the will of Raniero Capocci, a notary of the Pope from Viterbo, it was restored after significant renovations carried out by the University of Tuscia starting in 1996. The complex still stands impressively and is rich in historical and artistic testimonies. Among these, particular relevance is represented by a cloister dating back to the mid-13th century, where the original decorative apparatus can still be entirely read: five arches with pointed arches for each side, resting on paired marble columns, 160 in total. Each pillar features a beautiful gargoyle with a lion’s head, which, even though it no longer serves the original purpose of draining rainwater, constitutes a prominent decorative element. In the center stands a well from 1557 (the date is inscribed on the lintel), supported by a base consisting of tomb slabs salvaged from the ancient church of Santa Maria in Gradi.

In addition to a cloister that has remained almost intact for over eight centuries, there is a second one, built in 1306 but modified several times, which now presents severe seventeenth-century forms. In this case, there is a fountain in the center, created in 1480; it has a classical layout but is characterized by an original octagonal “enclosure” surmounted by a classicistic lintel with a Renaissance spirit.

 

The entire complex has its focal point in what remains of the imposing church of Santa Maria in Gradi, founded in the second half of the 13th century. The place’s toponym suggests that the church was characterized from the beginning by a staircase at the entrance (“ad gradus”). Altered at the end of the 15th century and then radically reconstructed in the mid-18th century, by the Roman architect Nicola Salvi, also the author of the Trevi Fountain, it suffered significant damage due to bombings, the collapse of the roof following heavy snowfall in the winter of 1956, and neglect during the period when the entire complex was converted into a prison (1873-1993).

 

UNIVERSITY ORIGIN

The choice of Viterbo as the seat of the ‘University is closely related to the history and cultural traditions of the city, and in part to the history of the S. Maria in Gradi complex. Indeed, it seems that as early as the mid-13th century there were itinerant studios in Viterbo, at which the disciplines of the trivium and quadrivium were taught.

In the year 1546 a “Studium” was founded at the behest of Pope Paul III Farnese.

This Studium, which established chairs of logic, philosophy, jurisprudence and medicine, had as its seat the Palazzo dei Priori and functioned, albeit with some brief interruptions, until 1581. Later, in the early 19th century, a university-level medical-surgical school was established in Viterbo, which also included a chair of physics and chemistry. The university clinic, which was based at the Ospedale Grande degli Infermi, functioned until 1853, when, following Leo XIII’s bull “Quod divina sapientia,” which reorganized the Studies of the Papal States, it was suppressed.

In more recent times, in 1969, the Free University of Tuscia was established, with the Faculties of Magisterium, Economics and Business and Political Science, which was suppressed in 1979. The repeated attempts by the citizens to make Viterbo the seat of an Athenaeum were crowned with success with the creation of the State University of Tuscia, established by Law No. 122 of April 3, 1979.