BOLSENA (anc. _Volsinii_),[1] a town of the province of Rome, Italy, 12
m. W.S.W. of Orvieto by road, situated on the north-east bank of the
lake of Bolsena. Pop. (1901) 3286. The town is dominated by a
picturesque medieval castle, and contains the church of S. Christina
(martyred by drowning in the lake, according to the legend, in 278)
which dates from the 11th century and contains some frescoes, perhaps of
the school of Giotto. It has a fine Renaissance facade, constructed
about 1500 by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici (afterwards Pope Leo X.), and
some good terra cottas by the Della Robbia. Beneath the church are
catacombs, with the tomb of the saint, discovered in 1880 (E. Stevenson
in _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1880, 262; G.B. de Rossi in _Bullettino
d'Archeologia Cristiana_, 1880, 109). At one of the altars in this crypt
occurred the miracle of Bolsena in 1263. A Bohemian priest, sceptical of
the doctrine of transubstantiation, was convinced of its truth by the
appearance of drops of blood on the host he was consecrating. In
commemoration of this Pope Urban IV. instituted the festival of Corpus
Christi, and ordered the erection of the cathedral of Orvieto. The
miracle forms the subject of a celebrated fresco by Raphael in the
Vatican.
The Lake of Bolsena (anc. _Lacus Volsiniensis_), 1000 ft. above
sea-level, 71 sq. m. in area, and 480 ft. deep, is almost circular, and
was the central point of a large volcanic district, though it is
probably not itself an extinct crater. Its sides show fine basaltic
formation in places. It abounds in fish, but its banks are somewhat
deserted and not free from malaria. It contains two islands, Bisentina
and Martana, the former containing a church constructed by Vignola, the
latter remains of the castle where Amalasuntha, the daughter of
Theodoric, was imprisoned and strangled. (T. As.)