Upon the vast Italian tableau of small urban centres to be rediscovered, Bomarzo is important from the architectural, archaeological and natural points of view. The most characteristic component of the town is its historic centre containing the Orsini Palace - a jewel of Renaissance architecture. The construction phases of the Orsini Palace of Bomarzo are linked to the vagaries of the near-by Sacred Forest of Pier Francesco the duke Vicino Orsini born in Bomarzo on the fourth of July 1523. His father - already a widower of his first wife countess Lucrezia Anguillara - married Clarissa Orsini, daughter of cardinal Franciotto, on the 29 of April 1520. As early as 29 December 1519 a Sienese painter and architect Baldassare Peruzzi made a project of the first wing of the new palace, situated near the cathedral and featuring a courtyard, a lodge, a staircase and other elements. Peruzzi also acted as contractor employing at the construction site the services of his half brother, pointer Pietro Antonio di Andrea. From 1520 to 1524 all the stone carvings up to the second floor are attributable to Pier Domenico Ricciarelli; those made afterwards, namely the mezzanine and the cornice, are by Bartolomeo from the workshop of Giovanni da Morco of the Corno diocese. In order to bypass the narrow mews of the mediaeval quarters Peruzzi designed and realised a new access road, also documented in the panoramic drawing in the Sienese sketch-book S.IV.7. Between 1521 and 1533 a vast area under the castle, the palace and the town dwellings had been acquired in order to create a terraced garden descending towards the volley and linked to the new road System. In 1526 the new wing of the Palace was still unfinished causing Giovanni Corrado Orsini to order his children to complete it and to undertake the necessary works in the adjacent older wing. A sketch by Peruzzi still kept in the Uffizi Gallery (U 579 retto) shows the plan of the Palace including the lodge, the courtyard and the stairs linking the wings - the still unfinished new one, and the old one yet to be restored. After Giovanni Corrado Orsini's death 21 September 1535, it was his son Pier Francesco, a.k.a. Vicino, who finished the new Peruzzi wing. Therefore, two second-floor Windows corresponding to the covered courtyard and the ground-floor entrance portal bear the name Vicino carved in relief. Having married in Giove 11 January 1544 daughter of Galeazzo Farnese - Giulia, Vicino Orsini built his private quarters called the Gallery Apartments - now the seat of the Municipality. He further enlarged them after his wife's death, I between 1560 and 1583. The lodge forming the right angles with the adjacent sides of the building is now used as the Municipal Council Hall. The sculptor and architect Francesco Moschino also worked in Bomarzo (only in 1552); as much later did his son Simone and a group of Fiorentine stone carvers – all in the service of the Orsini. The basement of Peruzzi wing was designed to hold the kitchens and other services; the ground floor - for receiving public and dispensing justice; and the first floor with the mezzanine were residential. After Giulia Farnese's death Vicino Orsini lived in the Gallery Apartments. The ground floor of Peruzzi wing was used by his son Corradino Orsini with Margherita Sabella, while the second floor was consigned to the other son Marzio Orsini with Porzia Vitelli. In fact, around 1575 the middle hall of the second floor was adorned, probably by Orazio Bernardino di Domenico from Viterbo, with a frieze containing the Orsini and Vitelli coats of arms and the representations of the castles of both families. In 1564 Annibal Caro provided the instructions for painting of a tale of the Giants in one of the Palace lodges. Unless totally destroyed, it might stili be hidden beneath the layers of later paintwork. In 1645 Bomarzo and the Orsini Palace were sold to the duke Ippolito Lante della Rovere who produced the great hall of the second floor. The vault of the latter contains an allegory of war and peace by a painter from Cortona Lorenzo Berrettini. The stone doorways of the second floor belong to the 17th century; all those by Peruzzi are on the ground floor. In 1836 the Palace went to Borghese family, which made the little hall with the representations of the castles of Mugnano, Chia and Attigliano. The Municipality came into possession of most of the Orsini Palace only after the Second World War. Now it uses the Gallery Apartments, with the inscriptions of Vicino Orsini and Giulia Farnese, for its offices.