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is a small
Italian town in
Lazio that occupies a height overlooking
Lake Albano about 30 km south-east of
Rome , on the
Alban Hills . It is best known as the summer residence of the
Pope .
Archaeological findings from the
16th Century BC have been found in the area of what is now Castel Gandolfo.
The modern city occupies the site of ancient
Alba Longa , capital of the
Sabine league. Its name is derived from a fortification of the ducal Gandolfi family (of
Genoese origin) in the
12th Century , which passed to the
Savelli family from whom the Apostolic Camera purchased it in
1596 for 150,000 scudi. Pope
Clement VIII was the first pope to come to Castel Gandolfo, but the rebuilding of the old castle was the project of
Urban VIII who first came in
1626 .
and
George W. Bush in Castel Gandolfo.]]
- The (''residenza papale'' in Italian ) is a 17th Century building designed by Carlo Maderno for Pope Urban VIII . The papal palace, and the adjoining Villa Barberini that was added to the complex by Pius XI have enjoyed extraterritorial rights since the 1929 Treaty with Mussolini , the little piazza directly in front was renamed ''Piazza della Libertà '' in the first flush of Italian unity after 1870 . The papal palace remained unused from 1870 until 1929 . Popes Pius XII (1958) and Paul VI (1978) died at Castel Gandolfo.
- The site of the papal palace, rebuilt on the ruins of the former castle, partly occupies the foundations of a summer residence of the Emperor Domitian that occupied 14 km² (5.4 square miles). The residence was designed by the famous architect Rabirius . In the palace's inner courtyard is a Roman bust depicting Polyphemus , the Cyclops from whose cave Ulysses escaped; it was found in the nymphaeum of the Imperial villa's gardens, an artificially constructed grotto of the crater lake's outlet.
