Anagni (a city of approximately 22,000 inhabitants in the Frosinone province. 60km southeast of Rome on Via Casilina, at 470m altitude on the first Ernici foothills ridge above the Sacco valley plain) is the most historically specific of the Ciociaria cities: the city that four medieval popes claimed as their birthplace (Innocent III, the most powerful pope of the medieval papacy. Gregory IX, the pope who excommunicated Frederick II. Alexander IV. And Boniface VIII, the pope whose confrontation with Philip IV of France produced the specific 1303 episode that the Italian historical tradition records as the "schiaffo di Anagni"), whose Cathedral contains the finest Cosmatesque mosaic floor in Italy, and whose 13th-century urban fabric (the papal palaces and the episcopal complex on the hill summit) represents the most complete surviving evidence of a medieval Italian episcopal capital.
The "schiaffo di Anagni" (the "slap of Anagni", the September 7, 1303 confrontation at the Anagni papal palace where Guillaume de Nogaret, the agent of Philip IV of France, arrived with armed men to arrest Pope Boniface VIII on charges of heresy and sodomy, and the specific physical violence that accompanied the confrontation, the "slap" that the Italian historical tradition attributes to Sciarra Colonna, the Roman baron accompanying de Nogaret, and whose precise nature is debated by historians but whose political significance is beyond doubt): the event that broke the medieval papal claim to supremacy over secular monarchs. Boniface VIII died one month later, and the papacy moved to Avignon within a decade.
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Anagni: Cathedral Crypt, Papal Palace, and the Slap
The Cathedral Crypt of San Magno
The Cathedral of Anagni (the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata, the 11th-12th century Romanesque cathedral on the highest point of the city, adjacent to the papal episcopal palace): the crypt of San Magno (the underground crypt beneath the cathedral, built in the 11th century and decorated between 1231 and 1255 with the Cosmatesque mosaic floor and the Byzantine-style fresco cycle that are the primary artistic monuments of Anagni): the Cosmatesque floor (the floor covering approximately 900 square meters of the crypt, the largest surviving Cosmatesque mosaic floor in any single Italian space, executed by the Cosmati workshop in the specific technique of geometric pattern in marble tesserae, porphyry, and gilded glass that the Cosmati family of Roman marble workers developed in the 12th-13th century) is the specific Anagni monument that art historians identify as the masterpiece of the tradition. The fresco cycle (the 13th-century paintings covering the crypt vault and walls, the medical theme including the rare depiction of the "Ars medica" tradition, showing Hippocrates and Galen, unique in Italian medieval painting) is the specific intellectual content of the Anagni cathedral that places it beyond the standard cathedral visit.
The Boniface VIII Museum
The Museo del Tesoro del Duomo e del Palazzo Bonifacio VIII (the cathedral treasury museum and the papal palace, accessible through the specific guided visit organized by the Fondazione Anagni, check fondazioneanagni.it for current opening hours and the guided visit times which change seasonally. Admission approximately €8 including the crypt): the Boniface VIII palace (the specific room where the 1303 confrontation took place, now a museum space with the furniture and the specific architectural documentation of a 13th-century papal residence).
Q&A: Anagni
How do I visit the Anagni crypt?
The Anagni crypt is accessible only through the guided visit organized by the Fondazione Anagni (the visits depart from the cathedral entrance at specific times, typically 10:30, 12:00, 15:30, and 17:00 in high season). Individual visits without a guide aren't permitted. The guided visit covers the crypt, the treasury, and the papal palace in approximately 90 minutes. Advance booking: recommended in summer (June-August) and on public holidays when the visit slots fill. The visit is one of the most specifically rewarding 90 minutes in the entire Ciociaria cultural circuit.
