A Jacobite Gazetteer - Lazio

Frascati - La Rocca

La Rocca facade on Piazza Paolo III
Facade on Piazza Paolo III

La Rocca facade on Piazza San Rocco
Facade on Piazza San Rocco

La Rocca is a mediaeval castle-like structure located between Piazza Paolo III and Piazza San Rocco. From 1759 it has served as the episcopal palace (Palazzo Vescovile, or Episcopio) of Frascati.

When Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (later King Henry IX and I) was named Bishop of Frascati in 1761, he took up residence in this palace. Even when he was required to resign as Bishop of Frascati in 1803 and take up the more senior office of Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, Pope Pius VII and the new bishop of Frascati, Cardinal Giuseppe Doria, allowed Henry to continue to reside in the episcopal palace of Frascati. On July 13, 1807, Henry died here in the Sala della Loggia. ¹

"All is still much the same as in the Cardinal's day. One can see his private chapel with the altar consecrated by him in 1768, his living and sleeping apartments, and the little wall-painting of the Blessed Virgin, before which he used to pray." ²

The main entrance on Piazza Paolo III leads into an open courtyard. In 1769 Henry placed an ancient sarcophagus in this courtyard and adapted it as a fountain. The sarcophagus is of white marble and has two carved lions, one at each end, from which the water flows. From 1906 to 1954 the sarcophagus was placed outside La Rocca, but it has now been returned to its former location, along with a second ancient sarcophagus, which Henry had formerly placed in the courtyard of the Seminary. Over the sarcophagus there was formerly a Latin inscription, now lost: ³

HENRICUS CARD. DUX EBORACEN. EPISC. TUSCUL.
AQUAM A PAULO BURGHESIO PRINCIPE ALDOBRANDINO
SIBI MUNIFICE ULTRO DONATAM
IN EPISCOPALES AEDES DEDUCI CURAVIT
A. D. MDCCLXIX

Against another wall of the courtyard leans a semi-circular tablet with a Latin inscription:

Semi-circular tablet in courtyard

HENRICO ·EPISC · TVSCVLANO ·
CARD · S · R · E · VICE · CANCELL ·
DVCI · EBORACENSI
QVOD · HAS · AEDES · A · FVND · EXTRVCTAS ·
EA · RESERVATA · EPISC · INFERIORI · PARTE ·
QVAE · CVSTODIENDIS · RHEDIS · INSERVIT ·
EPISCOPALI · SEMINARIO · DONAVERIT ·
SEMINARIVM · IPSVM · GRATI · ANIMI · ERGO ·
LVBENS · POSVIT ·
ANNO · REPARATAE · SALVTIS · MDCCLXXIX

A door across the courtyard from the main entrance leads into a hallway at the end of which is a white marble bust of King Henry placed on a grey marble column. This bust was sculpted by Agostino Penna ⁴ and was originally placed in the Seminary. Some time after the Seminary was destroyed in 1945, the bust was brought to La Rocca. On the left wall of the hallway across from the bust is a framed notice signed by Henry in 1762 announcing the celebration of the feast of Saint Peter in the Cathedral.

Bust of King Henry IX and I

Document signed by King Henry IX and I

On the first landing of the stairwell is the following Latin inscription:

ARCEM HANC EPISCOP. TUSCULAN. SEDEM
VETUSTATE PENITUS FATISCENTEM
REFECTIS CONTIGNATIONIBUS TECTIS PARIETIBUS
ADDITIS SACELLO CUBICULO EQUILI
NOVA FRONTE ERECTA
INFIM. ETIAM PARTE AEDIUM
IN EPISCOP. JUS ET USUM
A PIO VI. P.M. ET MAGNIFICENT.
OBTENTA
HENRICUS S.R.E. CARD. DUX EBORACENSIS
EPISCOPUS TUSCULANUS
INTER RUINAS DIVINA PROVVID.
INCOLUMIS SERVATUS
PENE A FUNDAMENTIS RENOVAIT
A.D. MDCCLXXVI

Formerly in the stairwell there was an inscription recording the 1802 visit to King Henry by Pope Pius VII and King Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia (later King Charles IV). ⁵ This was destroyed in the bombing of September 8, 1943. ⁶

In the Sala dei Vescovi Tuscolani, Henry had the Polish painter Thaddeus Kuntze paint a series of small oval portraits of the bishops of Frascati, including one of Henry himself (the last in the central panel); the series has been continued to the present.

Bishops of Frascati by Kuntze

King Henry IX and I by Kuntze

Next to the Sale dei Vescovi Tuscolani is the salone; it is in this room that Henry died in 1807. The wall decoration is from his time. On one wall is painted a statue of Architecture (with a carpenter's square and a pair of dividing compasses); presumably this celebrates the many church restorations undertaken by Henry. Above the doors are painted landscapes. In between are panels at the bottom of which are two lions guardant below a blue label with a Latin inscription in gold letters:

HENRICUS CARDINALIS
DUX. EBORACENSIS.

Henry, Cardinal
Duke of York

Salone

Next to the salone is the chapel, the altar of which has a Latin inscription along the front side of its mensa (all on one single line):

HENRICVS · EPISC · TVSCVLAN · S · R · E · VICECANC ·. CARD · DVX · EBORACEN · CONSECRAVIT · PRID · NON · SEPTEMBER · MDCCLXVIIII.

Henry, Bishop of Frascati, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Duke of York, consecrated this altar, September 4, 1769.

Over the altar hangs a painting by Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari given by Pope Clement XI to King James III and VIII, La navicella di San Pietro con le Virtù Teologali. ⁷ Saint Peter can be seen steering his boat (symbolic of the Church) on storm-tossed seas; in the boat sit the three theological virtues: Faith (with a cross), Hope (with an anchor), and Charity (with a child).

Chapel

The wall decoration of the chapel also comes from Henry's time. On the back wall is a painted version of his coat-of-arms (when Duke of York) with a Latin inscription below (now somewhat damaged) which records the dedication of the chapel to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Peter.

Arms of Henry in the chapel

Today La Rocca houses a number of ecclesiastical offices. The Curia Vescovile (the office of the bishop of Frascati) is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. If one asks at the porter's office, one can enter the courtyard, and usually the hallway with the bust of King Henry. Access to other areas of the palace is only by special permission.

Largo Duca di York street sign

Adjoining Piazza Paolo III is a street called "Largo Duca di York". The street sign describes King Henry as "Benemerito Cardinale Tuscolano" (well-loved cardinal of Frascati).

Notes

¹ Giuseppe Toffanello, Frascati: Civitas Tusculana, terza edizione (Frascati: Edizione Tuscolo, 1966), 166.

² Robin Anderson, Rome Churches of Special Interest for English-Speaking People (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1982), 124. Cf. Toffanello, 166.

³ Leonello Razza, "La Rocca di Frascati ed il Cardinal Duca di York", Casali e Castelli in Roma e nel Lazio: Storia e Leggende, Lunario Romano (Rome: Gruppo Culturale di Roma e del Lazio, 1977), 355-356.

⁴ Agostino Penna was a sculptor active in Rome in the later half of the eighteenth century; he died in 1800.

⁵ Amy Vitelleschi, A Court in Exile (London: Hutchinson, 1903), II, 428.

⁶ Leonello Razza, "La Rocca di Frascati ed il Cardinal Duca di York", Casali e Castelli in roma e nel Lazio: Storia e Leggende, Lunario Romano (Rome: Gruppo Culturale di Roma e del Lazio, 1977), 371. Razza reproduces the text (or, more probably, an Italian translation of the original Latin): A PIO VII, PONTEFICE MASSIMO IL CARDINALE ENRICO DETTO DUCA DI YORK, VESCOVO TUSCOLANO E VICE CANCELLIERE DI S. ROMANA CHIESA PER CONSEGNARE AI POSTERI IL GIORNO IN CUI VOLENDO AUMENTARE LE ESPRESSIONI DELLA SUA SINGOLARE BENEVOLENZA VERSO DI LUI, CON UNA AGGIUNTA DI ONORE COMPLETAMENTE NUOVA, CON LA SUA FELICISSIMA VENUTA HA ONORATO E CONFORTATO LA CITTA DI TUSCOLO ACCOLTO DAL GIOIOSO APPLAUSO DEL POPOLO, CHE IN GRANDE FOLLA GLI E ANDATO INCONTRO; DOPO AVER VISITATO LA CATTEDRALE, IL MONASTERO DELLE VERGINI CONSACRATE, LA BIBLIOTECA DEL SEMINARIO, LA VILLA CESARINI, CON TANTA DOLCEZZA, E DOPO AVER CONSOLATO IL CLERO DIOCESANO E RELIGIOSO, AMMETTENDOLO AL BACIO DEI SACRI PIEDI, IN QUESTO PALAZZO, DEPOSTA OGNI ETICHETTA PROPRIA DEI REGNANTI, SI E ASSISO A CONVITO TRA CARLO RE DI SARDEGNA E IL CARDINALE DI CUI SOPRA, ESSENDO STATI AMMESSI ALLA STESSA MENSA ALCUNI PRESULI E MEMBRI DELLA SUA CORTE: RARO ESEMPIO DI LIBERALITA.

⁷ Rossella Pantanella, "Palazzo Muti a Piazza SS. Apostoli, Residenza degli Stuart a Roma", Storia dell' Arte 84 (1995): 314-315. The painting is sometimes called "The Allegory on the Papacy". Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari was born either in Lucca or Rome in 1654, and died in Rome in 1727. His works can be seen in many Roman palaces and churches.