Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni is at Strada Vittorio Emanuele 238, 03012 Anagni (FR), in the upper stretch of the main street that runs through the medieval town, a few steps from the Cathedral of Santa Maria. By car you get there from the A1 motorway, Anagni-Fiuggi exit, and then by the climb toward the historic center. By train the reference station is Anagni-Fiuggi, on the regional line that connects Roma Termini to Cassino, linked to the upper town by the local bus service, whose schedules often change and are worth checking the same day. The full ticket listed by the museum's management is €6 with audio guide included, €9 in the version with the guided tour at 18:15. The reduced ticket is €3 with audio guide and €6 with guide, for young people aged 12 to 18, groups of more than 15 people and school groups, while schools on a guided visit pay €5. Admission is free for children up to age 12, for residents of Anagni and for anyone with a disability above 74 percent. Hours follow four seasons: from April 1 to June 30 Monday-Saturday 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-19:00, Sundays and holidays 9:30-19:00. From July 1 to August 10 every day 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-19:00, holidays 9:30-19:00. From August 11 to October 31 Monday-Friday 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-19:00, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays 9:30-19:00. From November 1 to March 31 every day 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-18:00. Last entry is 45 minutes before closing. Individual visitors don't need to book, while groups call the toll-free number 800 266 300 or write to palazzobonifacioviii@archeoares.com. Prices and time slots should be confirmed on the museum's official site before setting out, because they vary with the seasons and with local holidays.

The palace belongs to the circuit of monuments of Anagni, the city of the popes, and together with the Cathedral and the archaeological museum it makes up the densest half day of medieval history that southern Lazio can offer.

Where Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni is and how to get there

Anagni sits on an elongated tuff plateau above the Sacco valley, at about 460 meters above sea level, and the palace occupies the highest and oldest point of that plateau, the quarter that in the 13th century belonged to the great baronial families. First-time visitors almost always make the same mistake: they stop in lower Anagni, the modern part that grew up around the expressway, and think they've arrived. The city that matters is six kilometers farther up, behind the walls.

By car to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

From the A1 you exit at Anagni-Fiuggi and climb following the signs for the historic center. The road is narrow for the last two kilometers and on spring weekends it backs up. The practical advice is to leave the car in the lots just outside the gates and walk Strada Vittorio Emanuele: it's a 10-minute walk, slightly uphill, that crosses the whole medieval fabric, and it also helps you understand the topography before entering the palace. Inside the historic center there are few parking spots and almost all are reserved for residents.

By train and public transport

The Anagni-Fiuggi station serves the regional trains on the Roma Termini-Colleferro-Frosinone-Cassino line, but it is on the plain, far from the town. The link with the historic center is handled by local buses, with runs concentrated in school hours and thinned out on holidays: anyone planning to return to Rome on Sunday evening should work out the last useful run, checking it at the stop or with the service operator. Anyone traveling without a car who also wants to see the Cathedral needs a whole day, not a morning.

The palace within the walking circuit of Anagni

Frequently asked questions about Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

How much is the ticket for Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni?

The ticket for Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni costs €6 for the full price, audio guide included, or €9 in the version with the guided tour at 18:15. The reduced ticket at €3 with audio guide covers the 12 to 18 age bracket, groups of more than 15 people and school groups, who on a guided visit pay €5. Prices should in any case be confirmed on the official site before leaving.

Where is Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni?

Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni occupies the highest and oldest point of the tuff plateau on which the city stands, the quarter that in the 13th century belonged to the great baronial families. Anagni is above the Sacco valley, at about 460 meters above sea level, and visitors have to get past the modern part of the lower city, which grew up around the expressway, to reach the historic center where the palace stands.

Did the Slap of Anagni really happen inside Palazzo Bonifacio VIII?

No, in all likelihood the Slap of Anagni did not happen inside Palazzo Bonifacio VIII. The more hurried guides say that in these rooms Sciarra Colonna struck the pontiff, but recent studies indicate that Boniface VIII was reached in the bishop's palace attached to the Cathedral, a building that no longer exists because it was demolished and absorbed by other urban transformations.

How long does the visit to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni take?

With the audio guide the visit to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni takes a good hour, because the route is not long but the second floor holds visitors for a long time. With the 18:15 guided tour it comes to an hour and a half. Anyone organizing a day trip from Rome can add an hour and a half for the Cathedral and the crypt and an hour for lunch in town.

Is Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni suitable for children?

Yes, Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni works well with children on one condition, namely telling the story before going in: a pope taken prisoner in his own city, an emperor at lunch and a wall of painted geese are excellent narrative material for children aged six and up. There are many stairs and the handrails are not always there, so the youngest ones should be held by the hand.

When is the best time to go to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni?

April, May and the first days of October are the best periods to visit Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni, with long light, temperatures suited to walking uphill and extended hours. July and August are fine for the museum, which is cool, less so for the midday walk inside the walls. Patron saint festivals can bring changes in hours, so it's best to check beforehand.

Why does the palace bear the name of Boniface VIII?

Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni bears this name because the Caetani, the pope's family, became its owners in 1297, when Benedetto Caetani had already been on the papal throne for three years. Before then the building had another identity and another illustrious owner, and over time it has been the subject of 15 different building campaigns documented by the sources.

What is around Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni?

Within a 10-minute walk of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni are the Cathedral of Santa Maria, with the crypt of San Magno and one of the most important fresco cycles of the European Middle Ages, and its museum, with ticket office and mandatory booking. 500 meters away stands the Museo Archeologico Ernico, at Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 2, with eight rooms devoted to the paleontological sites of the area.

From the palace's main door to the Cathedral is 200 meters. To the Museo Archeologico Ernico, at Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 2, it's a little over 500. The whole monumental circuit of Anagni can be covered on foot in a day without ever getting back in the car, and this is the reason why the city works so well as a day trip from Rome. For those organizing the trip with a guide, the professional services of TourLeaderPro for Rome and Lazio also cover day excursions in Ciociaria.

Tickets, hours and accessibility of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

How much the ticket costs

€6 for the full price including audio guide is, among Lazio's museums, an honest figure for a building of this scope. The version with the guided tour at 18:15 costs €9 and is worth the money if you really want to understand the stratigraphy of the walls, which you can't read on your own. The reduced ticket at €3 covers ages 12 to 18, groups of more than 15 people and school groups. Under age 12 you don't pay. It should be said clearly: some secondary sources online still report a full price of €5, a figure that is out of date. The right figure is the one published by the museum's management, and it's always worth rechecking it the day before.

Seasonal hours of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The calendar is divided into four periods and the practical difference is just one, but a heavy one: from November to March it closes at 18:00 instead of 19:00, and with last entry 45 minutes before, that means after 17:15 you can't get in. In winter, with darkness coming early, this cuts off the late afternoon. In July and the first half of August the museum is open every day. From August 11 to October 31 on weekdays the midday break remains, while on the weekend it's continuous hours. Anagni is not a city of big crowds: lines are rare, but the museum's lunch break coincides with the Cathedral's and can cost a good hour to anyone who hasn't allowed for it.

Accessibility: the fact that changes the visit

The structure is not accessible to people with motor disabilities or reduced mobility, because of a flight of stairs. It is information that the management states openly and that should be taken seriously before leaving: there is no alternative ground-floor route that does justice to the building. Anyone traveling with a family member in a wheelchair will instead find better conditions in the Cathedral area, though with the limits of a medieval historic center all on a slope.

Combined Ticket and Joint Visits

The management of Anagni's civic museums offers a combined formula that brings together the sites of the city circuit: it suits anyone staying the whole day who also wants to see the archaeological museum. The Cathedral museum, by contrast, has its own ticket office and fares, higher, and requires mandatory booking: it is a different body, and must be organized separately. The page on the visit to the Anagni Cathedral museum gathers the details of that route.

The History of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The name is deceiving, and it's best to clear the field right away. The palace bears the name of Boniface VIII, but the Caetani, the pope's family, became its owners only in 1297, when Benedetto Caetani had already sat on the papal throne for three years. Before then the building had another identity and another illustrious owner.

The Building Phases: 15 Construction Sites in a Single Building

Sources document the existence of a building in the early 13th century, but reading the masonry tells a longer and more confused story. Studies do not agree, and it's right to say so by distinguishing the positions. Rossana Ferretti, in 1980, attributed the whole complex to the age of Boniface VIII. Giovanni Carbonara, in 1989, recognized 15 different interventions, nine of them datable within a span running from the 10th-11th century to the 15th century. Teresa Rinaldi identified seven construction phases. None of these readings is a definitive truth: they are three working hypotheses built on different surveys. One shared point exists, and it is fascinating: between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century an early medieval fortified line, already existing, was incorporated into the main body of the building. The palace, then, has a piece of wall inside it. Some scholars also hypothesize the intervention of French workers who arrived with the Cistercian order, the same culture that shortly afterward would build Fossanova and Casamari: a hypothesis, not documentary certainty.

Gregory IX, the Real Builder

The residence certainly belonged to Ugolino of the counts of Segni, the future Pope Gregory IX, and sources call it maius, greater, because of the importance of the complex. The land on which it stood belonged to the pontiff's father, Mattia, and construction must have been completed within the first quarter of the 13th century, in a period of extremely intense building activity throughout Anagni: in those decades the city was an alternative capital, the place where the curia moved to escape Roman summers and the revolts of the people of Rome. Elected pope in 1227, Gregory IX assigned his inheritance, and therefore the palace too, to his niece Maria, daughter of his brother Adinolfo, reserving for himself and his relatives the right to live in it. A donation with usufruct, put in modern terms.

The Lunch with Frederick II, September 1, 1230

On September 1, 1230, after the Peace of San Germano and the lifting of the excommunication, Gregory IX received Emperor Frederick II of Swabia here. Sources report that the two sat at table together, with a splendid gathering of invited princes and notables: a reconciliation lunch between the two highest authorities of Christendom, staged in these rooms. The reconciliation did not last long. In 1239, with relations broken again, Frederick reproached the pope in an epistle for having forgotten the poverty of Peter, and brought as proof the very residence at Anagni: a lavish palace, according to the emperor. It is the oldest negative review this building has received, and it is signed by one of the most powerful men of the 13th century.

From Maria de Papa to the Caetani

On Maria's death the palace passed to her son Mattia, and it is with his name that it reappears in the chronicles: in 1254 Innocent IV, elected pope in Anagni itself in 1243, received there the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Sicily in the presence of the cardinals and the people, in palatio domini Matthiae. In 1297 the sons of Mattia de Papa, Adinolfo and Nicola, sold the palace, along with other properties, to Pietro Caetani, nephew of the pope and son of his brother Roffredo, count of Caserta. That sale may have been free or forced, and the question is open: the Caetani's acquisitions around the Cathedral, in those years, had the character of a systematic campaign, and the balance of power between a papal family at its peak and two local owners was not exactly equal.

Astalli, Debts and Cistercian Sisters

The Caetani kept the palace until 1690, when by testamentary bequest of Marquis Orazio it passed to the Astalli, related by marriage. It was a short-lived transfer. In 1764 the last of the Astalli, Tiberio, died in debt, and the Opera of the Cistercian Sisters of Charity bought back the building, annexing it to their 18th-century Mother House. From that moment the palace changed trade: the 13th-century rooms were adapted as granaries, a girls' boarding school, a residence hall, a family home. This is the reason why some frescoes come down to us fragmentary, covered by centuries of whitewash and by partitions later removed. The paradox is that it was precisely that domestic and agricultural use, not very respectful but continuous, that saved the building from the collapse that swallowed other baronial palaces of Anagni.

What the complex houses today

The different parts of the complex now house the Suor Claudia De Angelis nursery school, a guesthouse on the route of Via Francigena and the palace museum, which includes within it the collection of the Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale. A building that on the same day hears the voices of kindergarten children and the footsteps of pilgrims with backpacks: continuity of use, here, is not a slogan.

The Slap of Anagni: what the sources say and what the legend says

This is the event for which the world knows Anagni, and it deserves to be told precisely, separating what the documents attest from what tradition has built on top of it.

The background: a pope and a king who couldn't stand each other

Benedetto Caetani, born in Anagni around 1230, elected pope in 1294 with the name Boniface VIII, was the 193rd pontiff of the Catholic Church and in 1300 celebrated the first Holy Year in history, a juridical and pastoral invention destined to last to this day. His pontificate was also a head-on clash with Philip IV the Fair of France, over the taxation of the clergy and, more deeply, over who had the last word in Christendom. The bull Unam sanctam of 1302 carried the theocratic claim to its highest degree. The French response was political and brutal.

September 7, 1303

On September 2, 1303 William of Nogaret, counselor to the king of France, and Giacomo called Sciarra Colonna, a member of the family that Boniface had persecuted, learned that the pope was about to publish the bull Super Petri solio, with the excommunication of Philip IV. They moved. On September 7, 1303, shortly before dawn, they entered Anagni with their armed men. The city gates were found open: local complicity, almost certainly, in a city where the Caetani had made many enemies. Nogaret's men sacked the Caetani quarter and besieged the family's palaces. The pope, by then 73 years old, was reached and held prisoner for two days, subjected to privations and to pressure to abdicate or follow the conspirators to France. He did not yield. It was then the people of Anagni themselves who rose against the conspirators and freed their fellow citizen. Boniface VIII returned to Rome and died there on October 11, 1303, a little over a month later.

The slap: documented, tradition or hypothesis

Here the distinction has to be made with a scalpel. Documented: the armed assault, the date, the names of the protagonists, the two-day imprisonment, the revolt of the people of Anagni, the pope's death in Rome the following month. Tradition: the physical slap delivered by Sciarra Colonna to the pontiff's face. The contemporary sources do not attest it. They speak of an outrage, a humiliation, a moral and political violence. The physical gesture appears and solidifies in the later narrative, and iconography fixes it definitively in the prints and paintings of the 19th century, like the French engraving reproduced here. Modern hypothesis: the detailed reconstruction of what happened inside the rooms, hour by hour, which no document allows us to establish. Saying these three things together takes nothing away from the power of the story. If anything it adds to it, because it shows how a symbol is born.

Did it really happen in this palace?

The cautious answer, and today the majority one in the studies, is no. The pontiff was reached in the bishop's palace attached to the Cathedral, a building that no longer exists, and not in the rooms you visit. The palace that today bears the name of Boniface VIII remains the palace of his family, besieged and sacked in those same hours, in the same quarter and on the same night: the context is authentic, the precise scene belonged to another vanished building. In the visit route there is nevertheless a room that local tradition calls the Sala dello Schiaffo. The visitor has a right to know that this is a name of memory, not a record.

Dante, Avignon and the long tail of the episode

Dante Alighieri, who was a fierce political adversary of Boniface VIII and who places him in Hell for simony, treated the outrage of Anagni as an affront made to Christ himself: in Canto XX of Purgatorio Christ is taken prisoner, mocked and killed again between two thieves. It is a rare case of indignation stronger than personal hatred. On the political level the episode marked the end of the universal supremacy of the medieval papacy: two years later Clement V was elected, and in 1309 the papal seat moved to Avignon, where it would remain for almost 70 years. Anagni, city of four popes, left great history in one night of September.

The room-by-room visit of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The route unfolds on two levels, and the jump in quality happens on the second floor. Anyone short on time is tempted to rush: a mistake, because the first floor holds the architectural key to understanding the rest.

Sala Gregorio IX

A first-floor room, wooden ceiling, and in the center a large stone arch resting on half-columns crowned by capitals in the Burgundian Cistercian taste. Those capitals are the highlight: stylized leaves, sober geometries, the grammar that the white monks brought from France and that in southern Lazio is found at Casamari and Fossanova. Look at them up close and then raise your eyes to the ceiling: the distance between the refinement of the capitals and the simplicity of the wood tells, better than any caption, what a 13th-century noble palace was.

Sala Claudia De Angelis

A twin structure to the previous one, same central arch, same wooden ceilings, and the name of a nun of the congregation that lived within these walls. The room is named in memory of Suor Claudia De Angelis, to whom the nursery school housed in the complex is also dedicated. Here you can clearly gauge how a baronial building became a religious house without being demolished: the large spaces lent themselves to everything, from refectory to dormitory.

Sala delle Oche

Second floor, double cross vault and central load-bearing transverse arch. The decoration is the most popular in the palace: polychrome diamond-shaped panels framed by yellow ocher bands, inside which birds are arranged in different positions, traditionally identified as geese. Someone has proposed that the scheme is inspired by De arte venandi cum avibus, the falconry treatise of Frederick II of Swabia, the emperor who had dined at this table: a seductive hypothesis, to be handled as such. Put plainly: it's the room that children remember, and it's the only one in the palace where you smile.

Sala delle Scacchiere

The name comes from the quatrefoil shapes painted in green and brown, which enclose chessboards. The game of chess in the 13th century was a matter of learning and of morals: it appears in treatises, in sermons, in courtly literature as a metaphor for the social order, where every piece has its own movement and its own place. Painting chessboards on the walls of a papal house meant saying something precise to whoever came in. In our view it is the most underrated room on the route, because it has no cute animals and people walk past it in 30 seconds.

Sala del Giubileo

The room that alone justifies the climb to the second floor. The decoration is complex and very readable: faux marble inlays in the dado, a plant frieze in the middle, cruciform meshes with eight-petaled flowers, irregular lozenges bordered by a yellow band that imitates upholstery fabrics. An entire repertoire of fake materials, which was the medieval way of declaring wealth without spending on real marble. In the room is displayed a reproduction on canvas of Giotto's fresco with Boniface VIII proclaiming the Jubilee of 1300: the original, fragmentary, is kept in Rome, in San Giovanni in Laterano. A reproduction, then, and this needs to be said clearly because elsewhere you may read the opposite.

La Loggetta

A small open space on the second floor, often dismissed quickly and yet precious for two reasons: it restores the relationship between the palace and the landscape of the Sacco valley, and it shows how these buildings sought air and light in a compact urban fabric. It is also the point where you grasp the real height of the building, which can't be perceived from the street.

Il Lapidario

The section that most throws you off. It gathers marble slabs from the Roman catacombs, transferred to Anagni starting in 1720 at the wish of Marcantonio Boldetti and Giovanni Marangoni, two protagonists of 18th-century Christian archaeology, in an era when transferring inscriptions from the catacombs to provincial churches was a common and devotional practice. The largest piece is a slab with the Traditio legis, datable to around 390 AD: Christ handing the law to Peter in the presence of Paul. Studies have discussed its relationship with the lost decoration of the apse basin of the ancient basilica of San Pietro, hypothesizing that it is a copy of that composition. If the reading holds, that slab is one of the few windows available on how the first San Pietro looked, and it sits in a room in Anagni where almost nobody stops.

The Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale inside Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, the man who invented this museum

The enhancement of the complex is owed to Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, topographer and archaeologist. In 1950 he established the core of a permanent exhibition devoted to Boniface VIII and the Jubilee of 1300. From 1953 the display expanded with archaeological finds and historical documents and took the name Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale, becoming the first museum in Anagni open to the public. The work of setting it up continued until the 1970s. It's worth remembering, because in the postwar years, in a province scarred by the passage of the front, opening a museum was an almost political act.

Dimora Mirabile and Opera Pulchra

Since the 2000s the Boniface collection has become a distinct section within the broader palace museum, which also showcases the architectural structure and the religious vocation the building took on over the centuries. The route is organized in two thematic areas: Dimora Mirabile, which illustrates the architectural evolution of the palace, and Opera Pulchra, which tells of the establishment and history of the congregation of the Cistercian Sisters of Charity. It's an intelligent museum choice, because it keeps the visitor from reducing the palace to a backdrop for the slap.

Bronzes, terracottas and artists of Anagni

The museum displays some bronzes by Tommaso Gismondi and terracottas by Antonio Menenti, two artists tied to the city. Gismondi, a 20th-century sculptor from Anagni, worked at length on sacred themes and on the figure of the pontiffs: finding his works in this palace closes a circle of 700 years. They are short sections, but don't skip them: they tell you that Anagni did not stop producing art in 1303.

The Cistercian Sisters of Charity and the daily life of the palace

Part of the complex is the Mother House of an active congregation, and this affects the visit in a concrete way: some spaces remain private, the hours respect the life of the community, the silence in the corridors is not a museum rule but a courtesy owed. The guesthouse welcomes pilgrims walking Via Francigena on its southern branch, and the nursery school fills the courtyard with voices in the morning. Anyone arriving at 9:30 runs into the children coming in: a detail that in Anagni seems normal and that elsewhere would be unthinkable.

A curiosity about Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The most solid curiosity of this palace is not about popes, it's about geese. On the second floor, in the room named after them, a row of birds painted inside multicolored diamond-shaped panels fills the walls in different positions: birds standing still, birds in motion, birds with their necks bent. For centuries local tradition has called them geese, but the scholars who have looked closely at those panels have noticed something less rustic: the variety of poses and the anatomical attention resemble an ornithological repertoire more than a rural decoration, and some have suggested a derivation from the De arte venandi cum avibus, the treatise on hunting with birds written by Frederick II of Swabia, a work of naturalistic observation surprisingly modern for the 13th century. It is a hypothesis, it must be said, not a documented attribution. But the short circuit is formidable: the emperor who in 1230 sat at table in this palace to make peace with Gregory IX wrote a treatise on birds, and on the walls of the upper floor someone painted birds observed with the same curiosity. Add that in the next room the walls are covered with painted chessboards, another aristocratic pastime loaded with moral meanings in 13th-century culture, and you'll understand that the second floor of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni is not a place of devotion: it is the secular, cultured and worldly part of a papal house, where people talked about hunting, games and power. The point is this: if you're looking for the spirit of the Middle Ages, don't look only at the churches. Look at the geese of Anagni.

Something Nobody Tells You About Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

That the slap of Anagni, in all likelihood, did not happen here. Hasty guides and half the internet say that in these rooms Sciarra Colonna struck the pontiff, and visitors leave convinced they've walked on the floor of the episode. Recent studies indicate instead that Boniface VIII was reached in the episcopal palace attached to the Cathedral, a building that no longer exists today, demolished and absorbed by later transformations of the neighborhood. Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni was nonetheless in that night up to its neck: it was the urban residence of the pope's family, and the men of Nogaret and Sciarra sacked the Caetani quarter and besieged the family's palaces before and during the capture. The context is authentic, the key scene is not. There is then a second thing almost nobody says, and it is even more prosaic: the physical slap does not appear in contemporary sources. They speak of outrage, imprisonment, political humiliation, and the hand on the pope's face materialized in the accounts and images of later centuries, up to the 19th-century engravings that still illustrate textbooks today. A room on the route bears the name Room of the Slap: it is collective memory crystallized in a label, and should be read that way. Saying so doesn't diminish Anagni. On the contrary: it shows that this city produced a symbol so powerful it survived its own documents, and for a provincial place it's a result few capitals can match.

The Advice I Give You for Visiting Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

Arrive in the afternoon, not the morning, and plan on two and a half hours in town instead of one. The reason is practical and nobody tells you at the ticket office: Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni and the Cathedral museum have different managements, different hours and different ticket offices, and the midday break of both coincides. Anyone who arrives at 11:00 ends up seeing half the palace in a rush, coming out hungry and finding everything closed. Entering at 15:00, instead, you get the route almost empty, the late-afternoon light on the vaults of the second floor, which is the best for reading the frescoes, and in the extended-opening season the chance of catching the guided visit at 18.15. €9 instead of €6: spend it. The stratigraphy of this palace's masonry, with its 15 recognized building campaigns, is unreadable on your own, and the audio guide alone isn't enough to make you see where the early medieval wall ends and the 13th century begins. Second piece of advice, against the grain: don't enter in a mental chronological order. Go straight up to the second floor, look at the geese, the chessboards and the Jubilee Room while your eyes are rested, and go down afterward to the first floor and the lapidary. The museum this way grows instead of fading. Third: in winter check the clock. From November 1 to March 31 it closes at 18:00 and last entry is at 17.15. Many arrive at 17:30 thinking they have time.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Rarely Cited

That Anagni was the capital of Christendom for a large part of the 13th century, and that this palace was one of its operating rooms. The fact circulates, it's repeated in brochures, but almost nobody develops it into its concrete consequences. Four popes were born here or elected here: Innocent III, Gregory IX, Alexander IV and Boniface VIII all belong to this territory and to the two families that divided it, the Counts of Segni and the Caetani. The curia moved to Anagni for months, with the cardinals, the notaries, the ambassadors and the whole administrative apparatus: it means that in this hill town bulls were written that decided the fate of the empire. In these rooms, in 1254, Innocent IV received the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Sicily in the presence of the cardinals and the people, and the formula in palatio domini Matthiae recorded by the sources says that the audience was held in the palace of Lord Mattia, that is, here. A few years earlier Gregory IX had hurled his excommunications against Frederick II from this very city. The little-cited fact, therefore, is not that Anagni was the city of the popes: it's that it was so operationally, as a seat of government, and that Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni was a place where things were done, not a summer buen retiro. A remark in front of the main door: this is also the reason why the quarter was sacked in 1303. You don't assault a holiday resort.

The right photo to take at Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The photograph almost everyone takes is the facade from the street, backlit, with the wall filling three quarters of the frame: it's an image that says nothing, because the bulk of the palace can't be read from the street. The right photo at Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni is a different one, and it must be taken on the second floor, in the Sala delle Oche, standing with your back to the short wall and framing the central transverse arch together with a portion of the diamond-shaped panels. Structure and decoration, stone and color, fit into a single image: the framing tells what this room was. Technically: no flash, which is forbidden in museums with frescoes and flattens everything anyway. A moderate wide angle, because the vault needs air. Lean on the doorjamb to steady yourself, because in these rooms the light is low and without support long exposures get blurred. The good moment is late afternoon, when the light enters from the side through the windows and the poses of the birds gain relief. The second photo to take home is shot from the Loggetta toward the Sacco valley: it gives the scale and explains, to whoever looks at your pictures, why the popes came up here. The third, if you have patience, is the close-up detail of a Cistercian capital on the first floor, in raking light. None of these three is the classic souvenir photograph, and that is precisely why they work.

Some important events that happened here in history

On September 1, 1230, after the Peace of San Germano and the lifting of the excommunication, Pope Gregory IX and Emperor Frederick II of Swabia sat at table together in this palace, with a splendid gathering of invited princes and notables. It was one of the most spectacular reconciliations of the European 13th century, and it lasted as long as an armistice: in 1239, with relations broken again, Frederick reproached the pontiff in a letter for having forgotten the poverty of Peter, citing as proof the very royal palace of Anagni. In 1243 Anagni elected a pope, Innocent IV, and in 1254 the same pontiff received in these rooms the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Sicily in the presence of the cardinals and the people. In 1297 the palace changed owner: the sons of Mattia de Papa sold it to Pietro Caetani, within a campaign of acquisitions by the pope's family around the Cathedral. On September 7, 1303, shortly before dawn, the armed men of William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna entered the city through gates found open, sacked the Caetani quarter and besieged the family's palaces. Boniface VIII, reached in the bishop's palace attached to the Cathedral, remained a prisoner for two days before the people of Anagni rose up and freed him. He died in Rome on the following October 11. In 1690 the complex passed to the Astalli by bequest of Marquis Orazio. In 1764, with the last Astalli dead in debt, the Opera of the Cistercian Sisters of Charity bought it back and annexed it to the Mother House, using the rooms as granaries, a girls' boarding school, a residence hall and a family home. In 1950 Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi opened here the city's first permanent exhibition, devoted to Boniface VIII and the Jubilee of 1300, which from 1953 became the Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale. Since the 2000s the museum has been reorganized into the two sections Dimora Mirabile and Opera Pulchra.

Who has passed through Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

The list is one of those you can count on the fingers of one hand in Italy. Gregory IX, born Ugolino of the counts of Segni, was the owner of the building and lived in it as pope after 1227, reserving the use of the house he had ceded to his niece Maria. Frederick II of Swabia entered it on September 1, 1230 for the reconciliation lunch, and we know the building stayed with him, because nine years later he used it as a polemical argument against the pope. Innocent IV, elected at Anagni in 1243, held a diplomatic audience here in 1254 with envoys of the Kingdom of Sicily before the cardinals and the people. Boniface VIII, Benedetto Caetani, born in Anagni around 1230 and pope from 1294, is the figure who gives the palace its name: here he had his family's house, bought by his nephew Pietro Caetani in 1297, and in this quarter the assault of September 1303 took place. Pietro Caetani, nephew of the pontiff and son of Roffredo, count of Caserta, was the actual buyer of the building. Among the less illustrious but decisive figures, Marquis Orazio Caetani passed through here, who in 1690 left the complex to the Astalli, and Tiberio Astalli, last of the family, whose financial ruin in 1764 handed the palace to the Cistercian Sisters of Charity. In the 20th century the name that counts is that of Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, topographer and archaeologist, who from 1950 turned a half-forgotten complex into Anagni's first public museum. And that of the Anagni sculptor Tommaso Gismondi, whose bronzes are now displayed in the rooms. Through the guesthouse, finally, every year pass the pilgrims of the southern Via Francigena: they have no name in the books, but they are the most faithful continuation of this house's original function.

How long the visit to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni takes

With the audio guide, a good hour: the route is not long, but the second floor holds you. With the guided tour it comes to an hour and a half. Anyone coming for a day trip from Rome should do this math: an hour and a half here, an hour and a half between Cathedral and crypt, an hour for lunch and a walk inside the walls, and the day is full. Adding the Museo Archeologico Ernico, open Friday to Sunday and on midweek holidays, means staying until evening.

Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni with children

It works better than the name suggests, on one condition: tell the story before going in. A pope taken prisoner in his own city, an emperor at lunch, a wall of painted geese and a wall of chessboards are excellent narrative material for children aged six and up. There are many stairs and the handrails are not always there, so the very little ones should be held by the hand. Under 12 you don't pay. A child's real attention span, in this museum, is 40 minutes: build the visit around it instead of fighting it.

What to see around Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

Within a 10-minute walk are the Cathedral of Santa Maria with the crypt of San Magno, one of the most important fresco cycles of the European Middle Ages, and its museum with ticket office and mandatory booking. 500 meters away is the Museo Archeologico Ernico at Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 2, eight rooms that go back to the paleontological sites of Coste San Giacomo and Fontana Ranuccio. Widening the radius, the day is easily put together with the other towns of historic Ciociaria: Ferentino with its polygonal walls and the Roman theater, Alatri with its acropolis, Veroli, Collepardo with the Trisulti charterhouse just above, and Fumone, the castle on the summit where Celestine V, the pope who abdicated leaving the place to Boniface VIII, died a prisoner on May 19, 1296. The two stories go hand in hand: anyone visiting the palace in Anagni should go up to Fumone the same day, it's 20 minutes by car. Anyone who prefers to end with the thermal baths has Fiuggi half an hour away. For those who read English, the ItalyPlanner guide to Fumone and the castle of Celestine V is the natural complement.

When to go to Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

April, May and early October are the best periods: long light, temperatures that allow walking uphill, extended hours. July and August are fine for the museum, which is cool, less so for the midday walk inside the walls. Patron saint festivals and city events bring people and can lead to changes in hours: anyone traveling on those days should call first. If I had to pick the perfect moment I'd say a Friday afternoon in late September, with the museum almost empty and the Sacco countryside still green. Avoid instead a Monday morning in November: open, cold and without light.

Quick questions about Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

How much is the ticket for Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

€6 for the full price with audio guide included, €9 in the version with the guided tour at 18:15. Reduced at €3 with audio guide and €6 with guide for young people aged 12 to 18, groups of more than 15 people and school groups. Schools on a guided visit €5. Prices should be confirmed on the official site before leaving.

Who gets in free

Children up to age 12, residents of Anagni and people with a disability above 74 percent.

What are the hours of Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni

From April 1 to June 30 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-19:00 Monday to Saturday, 9:30-19:00 on Sundays and holidays. From July 1 to August 10 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-19:00 every day. From August 11 to October 31 split hours on weekdays and continuous 9:30-19:00 on weekends. From November 1 to March 31 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-18:00.

What is the last entry

45 minutes before closing. In winter that means no later than 17:15.

Is the museum closed one day a week

In the opening seasons indicated the museum is open every day. Extraordinary closures tied to local holidays are announced on the official site.

Do you need to book

For individual visitors, no. Groups and school groups book at the toll-free number 800 266 300 or at the address palazzobonifacioviii@archeoares.com.

How long does the visit take

About an hour with the audio guide, an hour and a half with the guided tour.

Is Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni wheelchair accessible

No. The management states that the presence of a flight of stairs makes the building not accessible to people with motor disabilities or reduced mobility.

Can you take photographs

Photographs without flash are normally allowed in the rooms of the route. For tripods, video recording and professional use, authorization is requested at the ticket office.

Did the Slap of Anagni happen inside this palace

In all likelihood no. Recent studies indicate that Boniface VIII was reached in the bishop's palace attached to the Cathedral, now gone. The Caetani quarter and the family's palaces were however sacked and besieged in the same hours.

Did Sciarra Colonna really slap the pope

The contemporary sources do not attest it. They speak of outrage and imprisonment. The physical slap belongs to later tradition and to 19th-century iconography.

How long did Boniface VIII's imprisonment last

Two days, from September 7, 1303, until the people of Anagni rose up and freed the pontiff. Boniface VIII died in Rome on October 11 of the same year.

Why is it called Palazzo Bonifacio VIII if it belonged to Gregory IX

Because it became the property of the Caetani, the family of Boniface VIII, in 1297. The building had been built and lived in by Ugolino of the counts of Segni, later Pope Gregory IX.

Which are the most important rooms

On the first floor the Sala Gregorio IX and the Sala Claudia De Angelis, with the Cistercian capitals. On the second floor the Sala delle Oche, the Sala delle Scacchiere, the Sala del Giubileo and the Loggetta. Separately, the Lapidario with the slab of the Traditio legis.

What is the Museo bonifaciano e del Lazio meridionale

The collection born in 1950 on the initiative of Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, devoted to Boniface VIII and the Jubilee of 1300 and later expanded with finds and documents. Today it is a section of the palace museum.

Is the Giotto fresco original

No. In the Sala del Giubileo you see a reproduction on canvas. The original fragment attributed to Giotto is kept in Rome, in San Giovanni in Laterano.

How do you get to Anagni from Rome

By car on the A1 with the Anagni-Fiuggi exit, about an hour. By train with the regional trains on the Roma Termini-Cassino line to the Anagni-Fiuggi station, then a local bus to the historic center: check the bus schedules the same day.

Where do you park

In the parking areas just outside the gates of the historic center. Inside the walls there are very few spots and most are reserved.

Can you also visit the Cathedral with the same ticket

No. The Cathedral and its museum have separate management, rates and mandatory booking.

Is the combined ticket for Anagni's museums worth it

If you stay the whole day and want to see the Museo Archeologico Ernico as well, yes. For the palace visit alone, no.

Is there a bookshop or a cloakroom

The sales point is at the ticket office. Luggage storage is not guaranteed: it's best to leave bulky backpacks in the car.

Is Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni suitable for children

Yes, from age six up, if the story is told beforehand. The geese and the painted chessboards always work. The stairs require attention.

Can you stay overnight in the complex

In the guesthouse of the Cistercian Sisters of Charity, located on the route of Via Francigena, hospitality is aimed mainly at pilgrims: ask the congregation directly.

Is it worth coming all the way just for the palace

Not by itself: it's worth coming to Anagni, and within Anagni the palace is the second visit in importance after the Cathedral and the crypt of San Magno. Together they make up one of the strongest medieval days in Lazio.

Our opinion: Palazzo Bonifacio VIII in Anagni rewards those who agree to slow down. Anyone who goes in looking for the slap room leaves disappointed, because that scene belongs to a vanished building and a late tradition. Anyone who goes in to look at a noble 13th-century house still standing, with its secular frescoes, its Burgundian capitals and its 15 overlapping building campaigns, leaves with something rarely seen in Italy. Pay the €9 for the guide, go straight up to the second floor and put the phone away for an hour. Then go down into town, eat something inside the walls and go to the crypt: this is the right order. And if you're organizing the day for a group, rely on a licensed guide, because between two ticket offices, two sets of hours and two bookings the logistics of Anagni are less trivial than they seem: the colleagues of the TourLeaderPro network work regularly in this area, and anyone preparing the trip from abroad will find in ItalyPlanner, in the guide to Italy's walled towns, the right context in which to place a day in Ciociaria.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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