Lecture 1 - Collapsam Urbem Restituit: Rome’s Restoration

The Colonna family were well-established in Rome by the thirteenth century. Members had been created cardinals as the family accumulated properties across the city and increased its territories in the surrounding countryside. Oddone Colonna was elected Pope at the Council of Constance in 1417 as Martin V Colonna. On his return to Rome (the Papacy had been absent in Avignon for many decades) he found the small city in a ruined state, its economy moribund and heavily depopulated. He quickly re-established law and order and promoted an ambitious plan to restore Rome’s churches and urban infrastructure. In short, Pope Martin laid the foundations of the restoration and ‘renaissance, of Rome.

In the following century the Colonna played pivotal roles as the intricacies of the Italian Wars, as papal intrigue and the wider context of international affairs bedeviled the relationship between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. Indeed, the family’s growing prestige culminated in the figure of Marcantonio II Colonna who, as naval commander, led the papal fleet at the victorious Battle of Lepanto in 1571 when a coalition of several Christian navies (under the overall command of Don John of Austria) defeated the Ottoman Turks.