scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
Viana is renowned for the three tiered bed of the albergue there, someone has written that the Hospitaleros there will give parachutes to those on the higher bunks – oops that was me! A nice enough place and after a hot hot day a better place to stop than say Logroño. The good people of Logroño think we pilgrims enjoy walking on asphalt into town, are intrigued by industrial zones, and someone might just buy that plant which prepares frozen chips, throwing their waste into the back yard to titillate the nostrils of all pilgrims who pass, what a smell!
I am reading a fascinating and rather gossipy historical account of a wonderful figure in Renaissance Italy in the book entitled "The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici". The countess was a true Renaissance figure, the illegitimate child of the Sforza family in Milano who had no connection with the Camino but please bear with me. She was very intelligent, very well educated, and usually sensitive to those over whom she reigned. As regent for her son, Giovanni, she came to enjoy wielding power and refused to relinquish her position when he became of age to rule. Things went well until she was confronted by Cesare Borgia, the bastard son of Pope Alexander VI, one of eleven, those Renaissance guys had trouble with their zippers, well no zippers then, with their pantaloons. As a result, her lands were invaded, her fortress destroyed, and she herself was violated by General Borgia.
C. Borgia hoimself was doing not bad until he was confronted by a later successor to his father, Pope Julius II. C.B. was imprisoned then in 1504 he was transferred to Spain where after several adventures and misadventures he found himself leading a besieging army before the castle walls of Viana. There, he was ambushed, killed, and stripped of all his luxurious garments, valuables and left lying naked. End of story? Not quite.
Borgia was originally buried in a marbled mausoleum at the altar of the Church of Santa María in Viana. The tomb was destroyed sometime between 1523 and 1608, during which time Santa María was undergoing renovation and expansion. Tradition goes that a bishop of Calahorra considered inappropriate to have the remains of "that degenerate" lying in the church, so the opportunity was taken to tear down the monument and expel Borgia's bones to where they were reburied under the street in front of the church to be trodden on by all who walked through the town. The remains were exhumed and examined several times and in 1945 declared those of C.B. Whatever may have been left was finally moved back inside the church on 11 March 2007. In the courtyard of the church closeby the entrance may be seen:
Cesare Borgia was quite a period piece, violent though attractive, lustful - he too fathered at least 11 illegitimate children, and as he lived, he died, a brutal, some say deserving, death. Do take the time to pop over and consider " Sic transit gloria mundi".
I am reading a fascinating and rather gossipy historical account of a wonderful figure in Renaissance Italy in the book entitled "The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici". The countess was a true Renaissance figure, the illegitimate child of the Sforza family in Milano who had no connection with the Camino but please bear with me. She was very intelligent, very well educated, and usually sensitive to those over whom she reigned. As regent for her son, Giovanni, she came to enjoy wielding power and refused to relinquish her position when he became of age to rule. Things went well until she was confronted by Cesare Borgia, the bastard son of Pope Alexander VI, one of eleven, those Renaissance guys had trouble with their zippers, well no zippers then, with their pantaloons. As a result, her lands were invaded, her fortress destroyed, and she herself was violated by General Borgia.
C. Borgia hoimself was doing not bad until he was confronted by a later successor to his father, Pope Julius II. C.B. was imprisoned then in 1504 he was transferred to Spain where after several adventures and misadventures he found himself leading a besieging army before the castle walls of Viana. There, he was ambushed, killed, and stripped of all his luxurious garments, valuables and left lying naked. End of story? Not quite.
Borgia was originally buried in a marbled mausoleum at the altar of the Church of Santa María in Viana. The tomb was destroyed sometime between 1523 and 1608, during which time Santa María was undergoing renovation and expansion. Tradition goes that a bishop of Calahorra considered inappropriate to have the remains of "that degenerate" lying in the church, so the opportunity was taken to tear down the monument and expel Borgia's bones to where they were reburied under the street in front of the church to be trodden on by all who walked through the town. The remains were exhumed and examined several times and in 1945 declared those of C.B. Whatever may have been left was finally moved back inside the church on 11 March 2007. In the courtyard of the church closeby the entrance may be seen:
Cesare Borgia was quite a period piece, violent though attractive, lustful - he too fathered at least 11 illegitimate children, and as he lived, he died, a brutal, some say deserving, death. Do take the time to pop over and consider " Sic transit gloria mundi".
I enjoyed it, I hate to admit. Now I need to stop in Viana to see Cesare Borgia's grave stone and where Cesare Borgia was killed.
