Flanking Piazza San Lorenzo, this handsome Gothic palazzo was built for the popes who lived in Viterbo from 1257 to 1281. To go inside you'll have to sign up for a tour at the Museo Colle del Duomo, but you can sometimes pop up the stairs to the loggia (colonnade) and peer into the Sala del Conclave , scene of the first and longest ever papal conclave.
The story goes that in 1271, three years after the death of Clemente IV, the college of cardinals still hadn't elected a successor. To encourage them in their deliberations, the Viterbesi locked the dithering priests in the turreted sala and fed them nothing but bread and water until they eventually elected Pope Gregory X.
