Viterbo OnLine

Monuments

Montefiascone

<< BACK

The Chiesa di S. Flaviano, built around the year 1000 in Romanesque style on a pagan construction, consists - like the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi - of two superimposed churches. In 1200 it was enlarged in Gothic style by Urban IV, the first pope to be elected in Viterbo. From the back part you acceed to the upper church where an arcaded Romanesque interior conserves the throne of Urban IV.

The interior of the lower church offers frescoes of various periods and the tombstone of John Defuc (†1113), connected with the legend of the Est! Est!! Est!!! wine. According to the legend, John Defuc was part of the retinue of Henry V - on his way to Rome for the coronation by the Pope as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - and used to send his servant to scout the inns along the journey in order to discover good wines, which the servant marked by writing on the door of the inn the word Est! (here's some good). When the servant reached Montefiascone and after having sipped the local excellent Moscatello, he wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! . Defuc condivided the tastes of his servant and established himself in Montefiascone where he died in 1113. The rather uncommon epigraph on his tombstone says: EST EST EST. Here died, because of too many EST, my master John Defuc.