Bolsena

▪ Italy

      town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. It is situated on the northeast bank of Lake Bolsena (ancient Lacus Volsiniensis), just southwest of Orvieto. It occupies the site of the ancient Etruscan town of Volsinii (q.v.). After the latter was razed by the Romans in 265 BC, the inhabitants moved to another site, perhaps at modern Orvieto.

      Bolsena is famous for the miracle of 1263, when a Bohemian priest, skeptical about the doctrine of transubstantiation (the conversion of the eucharistic bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of Christ), was convinced of its truth by the miraculous appearance of drops of blood on the Host he was consecrating at mass on an altar in the crypt of the 11th-century Church of Santa Cristina. In the Vatican the marvel is commemorated by Raphael's fresco “The Miracle at Bolsena” in the Stanza d'Eliodoro. In commemoration of the miracle, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi (“Body of Christ”) and built Orvieto Cathedral, which houses the blood-stained altar cloth. The Church of Santa Cristina and the Chapel of the Miracle in the town's catacombs contain statues by the 14th- and 15th-century Della Robbia family. The town has a 10th- and 13th-century castle and a small museum of Etruscan and Roman remains.

      Market gardening, fishing, and wine and oil production are the principal economic activities. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 4,163.

* * *