The area of modern Acquapendente was settled by
Etruscans in
Roman times, as archaeological finds have shown. However, the first historical document of the modern city dates from the 9th century AD, with a town named
Farisa or
Arisa along the
Via Francigena. A document from Emperor
Otto I, dated 964, contains the first recorded use of the name
Acquapendentem which means "hanging water", from several small waterfalls in the
Paglia river on the boundary between Lazio and
Tuscany. Acquapendente was the first stop in Italy in the travels of
Saint Roch in the early 14th century; the saint supposedly spent several days in the hospital there curing
plague victims. The city was later part of the
March of Tuscany and, from the end of the 14th century and beginning of the 15th, it was part of the
commune (later Republic) of Siena. In 1449 it became an independent centre within the
Papal States. After the complete destruction of
Castro, Lazio in 1649, Acquapendente, previously part of the diocese of
Orvieto, became the seat of a diocese that included what had been the diocese of Castro. The diocese of Acquapendente continued in existence until 27 March 1986, when its territory was added to that of
Viterbo. No longer a residential bishopric,
Aquipendium, as it is called in Latin, is today listed by the
Catholic Church as a
titular see. ==Geography==