Isola Bisentina. Lago di Bolsena

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Isola Bisentina. Lake Bolsena, at the Art Pavilion until September 3, the Fondazione Luigi Rovati hosted a meeting focused on the history of the island, its natural ecosystem and the restoration and preservation project of the historic buildings with Sofia Elena Rovati, art historian and Director of the Isola Bisentina project, Yuri Strozzieri, Officer in charge of the Architectural Heritage Area for the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria, and Barbara Barbaro, Officer in charge for the same Soprintendenza.

Bisentina is the largest island of Lake Bolsena, which, located in the Viterbo area, is the largest lake of volcanic origin in Europe and the fifth largest lake in Italy. The predominantly flat island preserves numerous tree species and forests with centuries-old trees and is dominated by Mount Tabor, whose name deliberately recalls that of the hill of Galilee because of the presence of a chapel that preserves a fresco of the Transfiguration. Frequented since the Bronze Age, it has been a place of Etruscan presence-because of its proximity to Mount Bisenzio on which stood one of the cities of the dodecapolis-as evidenced by several objects found here and now preserved in museums and private collections, related to sacred ceremonies. Inhabited since the 9th century AD by coastal populations who took refuge there to escape Saracen raids, from the end of the 14th century the island became part of the domain of the Farnese family.

The exhibit also includes the foundation stone of the Church of Sts. James and Christopher engraved with the cardinal's coat of arms of the patron Alessandro Farnese.