Pozzo di San Flaviano (Pozzo di Urbano V)

Montefiascone's Pozzo di San Flaviano, also known as the Pozzo di Urbano V, belongs to the town's medieval water system. The monumental well is associated with the underground aqueducts that supplied the settlement.

Why it matters

Montefiascone sits on the edge of a volcanic landscape without a river, so its growth depended on systems that conveyed spring water from the slopes into the settlement. The well's name recalls Pope Urban V, who resided at the Rocca dei Papi from 1367 to 1370 and reorganised the town. Speleological research has identified tunnels associated in part with the years of his pontificate, connecting the well with a wider history of hydraulic engineering.

What to notice

The name Pozzo di San Flaviano links the well to the quarter and church of San Flaviano, beneath which an aqueduct of the same name runs. The alternative name, Pozzo di Urbano V, recalls the pope's fourteenth-century presence. Local tradition attributes the well's design to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, whose work in Montefiascone's fortress is documented in the early sixteenth century; the attribution to the well itself remains uncertain.

Context and history

Recent underground surveys have examined tunnels belonging to three aqueducts that supplied the settlement. One passes beneath the church of San Flaviano, and parts of the network have been dated to the pontificate of Urban V. In 2023, a caving group worked with the town administration and the superintendency of Tuscia to re-explore and map the aqueducts in three dimensions. The surveys add scientific context to the town's medieval water infrastructure.