Palazzo di Bonifacio VIII cronologia storica

Ultimo aggiornamento il 9 ottobre 2026

Valuta

Il palazzo porta il nome di un papa che non ne fu proprietario se non al terzo anno di pontificato, e che in città abitava altrove. La sua storia vera è quella di Gregorio IX: una residenza papale duecentesca tanto sontuosa che un imperatore la usò come prova a carico di chi l'aveva costruita.

Cronologia

1100-1200 Sul sito stanno due dimore della fine del XII secolo, e una linea fortificata altomedievale con due torri viene inglobata nel corpo principale. Le unità di misura impiegate sono francesi, il che è stato letto come indizio di manodopera francese giunta con i cistercensi, che proprio allora stavano erigendo lì vicino l'abbazia di Fossanova.
1208 Innocenzo III consacra Fossanova. Il nesso cistercense sostiene l'ipotesi che la struttura più antica qui fosse sua.
entro il 1225 Ugolino Conti costruisce la propria residenza su un terreno del padre Mattia, completandola entro il primo quarto del secolo, in un periodo di intensa attività edilizia in tutta Anagni. Il complesso è abbastanza rilevante da essere detto maius.
1227 Ugolino è eletto papa come Gregorio IX. Assegna la propria eredità, palazzo compreso, alla nipote Maria, figlia del fratello Adinolfo, riservando per sé e per i familiari la possibilità di abitarlo.
1230 Il primo settembre, dopo la Pace di San Germano e il ritiro della scomunica imperiale, Gregorio IX e Federico II siedono qui insieme a mensa, con splendido concorso di principi e maggiorenti invitati, a sancire la riconciliazione.
1239 Dopo una nuova rottura, Federico scrive a Gregorio che il papa ha dimenticato la povertà di Pietro, e porta a prova proprio questa residenza di Anagni, una reggia sfarzosa fatta costruire per sé.
1254 Innocenzo IV, eletto ad Anagni nel 1243, riceve gli ambasciatori del Regno di Sicilia in palatio domini Matthiae, alla presenza dei cardinali e del popolo. Il palazzo è passato a Mattia, figlio di Maria.
1283 Benedetto Caetani, futuro Bonifacio VIII, avvia con i parenti ad Anagni una campagna di acquisti che si chiude con la famiglia padrona dell'intero quartiere Castello. Accanto a essa commissiona Palazzo Traietto, la Cappella Caetani sul fianco meridionale della cattedrale nel 1292, la residenza dei canonici e l'ampliamento dell'episcopio.
1297 Adinolfo e Nicola, figli di Mattia de Papa, vendono — o sono costretti a vendere — il palazzo a Pietro Caetani, nipote del papa. Bonifacio è pontefice da tre anni.
1303 Il 7 settembre oltre mille mercenari guidati da Giacomo Sciarra Colonna raggiungono Bonifacio VIII ad Anagni, entrando dalle porte aperte dai traditori del papa, tra cui i pronipoti di Gregorio IX. Sciarra ne chiede l'abdicazione; Bonifacio rifiuta — "Ecco il collo, ecco la testa! Riconosco il primogenito di Satana" — e si narra sia stato colpito. La sua residenza in città è Palazzo Traietto, non questo edificio.
1690 Il palazzo esce dalle mani dei Caetani per lascito testamentario del marchese Orazio, passando agli Astalli, imparentati per via matrimoniale.
1764 Tiberio, ultimo degli Astalli, muore indebitato. L'Opera delle Suore Cistercensi della Carità riscatta l'edificio e lo annette alla propria Casa Madre settecentesca; le sale diventano granai, educandato, convitto e una casa famiglia.
1950 Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, topografo e archeologo, costituisce una mostra permanente su Bonifacio VIII e il Giubileo del 1300, e lega il complesso, impropriamente, all'ultimo papa anagnino. Il nome resta all'edificio.
1953 L'esposizione si amplia con reperti archeologici e documenti storici e viene battezzata Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale, prima realtà museale di Anagni aperta al pubblico.
2000 La collezione diventa una sezione distinta dentro il più ampio museo del palazzo, che valorizza la struttura architettonica e la natura religiosa dell'edificio, con nuovi percorsi di visita del complesso storico.

Verificato su Wikipedia, ottobre 2026.

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Verificato su Wikipedia — It is difficult to establish with certainty the sequence of interventions that brought the palace to its present form: the researcher Rossana Ferretti holds the building entirely attributable to the will of Boniface VIII, while Giovanni Carbonara identifies fifteen different interventions, nine of them datable between the 10th-11th and the 15th century -- in the course of the first half of the 13th century the union of two dwellings of the end of the 12th century led to the creation of a Romanesque palazzetto with an adjacent tower, the structure was then modified in the Gothic taste in the second half of the century and enlarged with substructures consisting of imposing arches on very high pillars, For the scholar Teresa Rinaldi the building phases would instead be seven: between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the next, an early-medieval fortified line with two towers was incorporated into the main body of the building, entailing the construction of a structure with transverse arches and wooden floors, and the use in it of French units of measurement led Rinaldi to hypothesise the presence of workmanship of French origin or influence, probably through the Cistercian order -- not far away, at Fossanova, Cistercian monks from beyond the Alps were working on the erection of an abbey consecrated in 1208 by Pope Innocent III, a hypothesis that could support the presumed Innocentian ownership of the first structure; to the subsequent pontificate of Gregory IX would be attributed the building of the southern wing and of the two floors over the pre-existing fortifications and the raising of the northern wing, while to the Caetani would be owed the enlargement of the eastern wing, The sources report with certainty the existence of a building dating to the beginning of the 13th century, although stratigraphic analysis of the masonry allows still older structures to be hypothesised; it was certainly the dwelling of Ugolino Conti, Pope Gregory IX, described as "maius" for the importance of the complex, its construction took in land owned by the pontiff's father Mattia and must have been completed within the first quarter of the 13th century, a period of generally intense building activity throughout Anagni, and on his election as pontiff in 1227 the pope assigned his inheritance, and therefore also the Palace, to his niece Maria, daughter of his brother Adinolfo, reserving for himself and his household the possibility of living in it, In this setting Gregory IX and the emperor Frederick II of Swabia met on the first of September 1230, following the Peace of San Germano and the pontiff's withdrawal of the excommunication hanging over the sovereign: the two "sat together at table, with a splendid gathering of princes and notables invited there", to underline the reconciliation between the two authorities; Frederick cannot have forgotten that visit, for in a letter of 1239, following a new rupture with Gregory IX, he reproached the pontiff with having forgotten the poverty of Peter, as the Anagni residence itself demonstrated, having had a sumptuous palace built for himself, After Maria's death the Palace was inherited by her son Mattia, recalled by the sources on the occasion of a new political meeting between Papacy and Empire: in 1254 Innocent IV, elected at Anagni itself in 1243, received the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Sicily in the presence of the cardinals and the people, in palatio domini Matthiae; and in 1297 the sons of Mattia de Papa, Adinolfo and Nicola, sold -- or were forced to sell -- the Palace to Pietro Caetani together with other properties, At Anagni, Benedetto -- the future Boniface VIII -- together with other relatives began from 1283 a series of purchases and sales until he owned the whole Castello quarter, to which must be added the works commissioned by Boniface VIII: the great palace today known as Palazzo Traietto, an imposing construction with a front of great arches, the Caetani Chapel added in 1292 to the southern front of the Cathedral, the residence of the canons and the enlargement of the Episcopio; the Palace, with some structural modifications, therefore falls within an urban programme aimed at creating a family stronghold, defended by the ancient wall circuit of the acropolis still visible today, on the model of the Roman noble families, and in this light it takes a prominent representative role, as the richness of its decorative apparatus also testifies, Although its name attributes ownership to Pope Boniface VIII, the Palazzo became the property of the Caetani, the pontiff's family, only in 1297, when Boniface had already been raised to the papal throne three years earlier, and the building was bought by Pietro Caetani, the pope's nephew and son of his brother Roffredo count of Caserta, within a series of acquisitions of houses and land around the Cathedral of Anagni by the powerful house, The Palazzo del Museo "Bonifacio VIII" is in reality the Palazzo of Pope Gregory IX, which from the 1950s began to house the museum dedicated to the Caetani pope; it was one of the buildings of Anagni bought by Pietro II Caetani, and Boniface VIII owned another palace in the city today known as Palazzo Traietto, while until the middle of the twentieth century this building was called the Palazzo di Gregorio IX, being the property of the other Anagni pope, Ugolino di Anagni, and afterwards of his heirs; today it forms part of the Casa Madre of the Cistercian Sisters of Charity, The palace remained Caetani property until 1690, when it passed by testamentary bequest of the marquis Orazio to the Astalli, related by marriage; in 1764 the last of the Astalli, Tiberio, died in debt and the Opera delle Suore Cistercensi della Carita then redeemed the building, annexing it to its own 18th-century Casa Madre, so that some of the rooms underwent a change of use, being turned into granaries, a boarding school, a hostel and a family home; currently the different parts of the complex house the "Suor Claudia De Angelis" nursery school, a guesthouse on the route of the Via Francigena, and the museum dedicated to the Palace with the collection of the Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale inside it, The valorisation of the complex is owed to Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, topographer and archaeologist, who tied it improperly to the last Anagni pope: in 1950 he formed the nucleus of a permanent exhibition dedicated to Boniface VIII and the Jubilee of 1300, and the exposition, expanded from 1953 with a collection of archaeological finds and historical documents, was named "Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale", constituting the first museum in Anagni to be open to the public; from the 2000s the collection became a distinct section absorbed into the wider museum of the palace, which also valorises the architectural structure and the religious nature that has characterised the building over the centuries, inaugurating new visitor routes through the historic architectural complex (ottobre 2026).
Verificato su ArcheoAres (concessionaire, Palazzo di Bonifacio VIII, Anagni) — Boniface VIII was ready to excommunicate Philip IV but did not have time: on 7 September 1303 more than a thousand mercenaries led by Giacomo Sciarra Colonna reached him at Anagni, the enemies entering through gates already opened by the pope's betrayers, among them the great-nephews of the other Anagni pontiff Gregory IX, shouting "Long live the king of France, death to pope Boniface"; negotiations began, Sciarra demanded surrender and resignation from the papal throne, the pope refused and answered "Here is the neck, here is the head! I recognise the firstborn of Satan", and it is on this occasion that Sciarra Colonna is said to have slapped him (ottobre 2026).

Palazzo di Bonifacio VIII cronologia storica

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