All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in July 2024.
All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in July 2024.
The lower Aniene valley: blue dots: towns covered in this section; black dots: Palombara,
Marcellina, S. Polo dei Cavalieri, Tivoli and
Ciciliano which are covered in other sections
May 15th, 1802. We rose about three in the morning, and although the weather appeared rather lowering, mounted at four, and forming a party of nine proceeded from Tivoli on our road towards the Sabine mountains, to visit Horace's villa at Roccagiovine.
The Via Valeria is, without doubt, the shortest road to Vico Varo but we took one which, though very bad and somewhat longer, gave us an opportunity of seeing more of the country. Winding along the hills we saw the river meandering beneath us through a beautiful dell, and forming a variety of pleasing scenes, especially near a spot where the ruins of two aqueducts throw their arches over the road, and form a sort of frame for the towers of Tivoli, and its neighbouring mountains, about a mile and a half distant. An artist who was in company with us took a sketch on the spot, and has since made a very fine drawing of it. The aqueducts frequently reappeared during the course of the day sometimes rising like masses of brown rock on the hills, and sometimes sweeping in a succession of lofty arches over the plains. The face of the country, here wooded and there naked, but always bold and in general very fertile, was pleasing. Its most striking features were a ruined castle on the bank of the river, distant towns lodged in the high recesses of the mountains, particularly St. Polo on the left and Castel Madama just opposite.
John Chetwode Eustace - A Classical Tour through Italy in 1802
The railway-station of Tivoli lies outside the Porta Sant'Angelo. The train follows the right bank of the Anio, to the left of the road, the ancient Via Valeria, and the Aqua Marcia. Fine view of the green valley to the right. - 3 M. San Polo de Cavalierl; the village lies on the hill. Two tunnels. - 5M. Castel Madama; the conspicuous village lies high up on the other bank of the Anio. - We now pass through another tunnel and cross to the left bank. 7 M. Vicovaro. The small town is on the right bank of the Anio. (..) 81/4 M. Mandela; the village lies on the hill to the N. The Road to Subiaco (about 14 M.) ascends the valley of the Anio. Passing Roviano (railway-station), whence another road leads to the S., crossing the river, to Anticoli Corrado, the railway now leaves the valley of the Teverone and ascends a steep incline to (41 M.) Arsoli, prettily situated on a hill, with a castle of the Massimi. Tunnel. 47 M. Carsoli (in Abruzzo), commanded by a picturesque ruined castle.
Karl Baedeker - Handbook for travellers in Italy - 1900
(left) The River Aniene at Vicovaro; (right) an old Roman bridge crossing the Aniene near Anticoli Corrado
The development of the valley was initially due to Via Tiburtina Valeria, a Roman road opened in the IIIrd century BC which was eventually extended to reach the Adriatic Sea. In the Ist century AD its importance was increased by Anio Novus, an aqueduct built by Emperor Claudius, which ran across the valley and by a large villa built by Emperor Nero at Sublaqueum in the upper valley.
Anticoli Corrado is a town of less than a thousand inhabitants, located on the top of a hill overlooking the lower valley. It became known in the XIXth century because its inhabitants used to pose as models for the community
of artists living near Piazza di Spagna. Some artists eventually went to see the birthplace of their models and found
Anticoli a very picturesque site to the point of living there for some time. This occurred also at Cervara in the upper valley.
Olive groves seen from Arsoli
In the ancient past the valley of the Aniene was inhabited by the Aequi, an Italic tribe which the Romans subdued in the IVth century BC. Today it is renowned for its olive oil, which competes with that of neighbouring Sabina. The climate however is colder than that of Sabina and olive groves are limited to the lower parts of the valley.
(above) Arsoli and behind it Oricola; (below) Oricola (see it from Carsoli)
The Orsini, one of the most powerful families of Rome in the Late Middle Ages, had many fiefdoms in the Aniene valley and in the mountains to its east. They held them as vassals of the Popes or as vassals of the King of Naples. When eventually a formal border was established between the State of the Church and the Kingdom of Naples, all the Aniene valley was included in the former, but the latter retained Oricola, a fortified town in a commanding position. In 1556 the Spanish troops of Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, invaded the valley from Oricola and sacked Arsoli and Vicovaro.
View of Castel Madama and of S. Michele, its parish church, from the south
Castel Madama is said to be extremely healthy on account of its airy situation; it affords a fine view of the valley, the river, and the mountains, with their various hamlets. Eustace
On the road from Tivoli to San Cosimato the traveller
perceives, at a little distance, Castel Sant' Angelo, or, as it
is more generally called, Castel Madama, seated on an
eminence, and very picturesque in its appearance. (..) The beautiful vales which surround this delightful eminence, the fruitfulness of the soil, the excellence
of the water, the variety of trees, and abundance of game,
still render this spot one of the most advantageous
situations of the Campagna.
Ellis Cornelia Knight - Description of Latium: or, La Campagna di Roma - 1805
The view of the historical centre of the town still retains the picturesqueness which impressed many XIXth century travellers.
Castello Orsini: walls and towers
In the archives where descriptions of Ampiglione (ancient "Empulum") are to be found, we learn that in the thirteenth century, it was a most conspicuous city; that a magnificent palace and fortress adorned it; and that without the walls were gardens in which plane-trees, pines, cypresses, and oaks, afforded the most pleasing shade. (..) The three nobles who escaped from the general destruction of Ampiglione (in ca 1256) took refuge in Vicovaro, and deliberated what was to be done for the re-establishment of the city. They consulted a hermit who had a small chapel, named Sant'Angelo, on a neighbouring hill, subject to the jurisdiction of Ampiglione; and, despairing of being able to rebuild that city, they fixed on this spot for their habitation, and obtained the permission of Pope Urban IV., then reigning, to lay the foundations of a town, which they called Sant'Angelo, from the hermitage which they had found there. They brought workmen from Vicovaro, and, in the year 1268, twelve families were settled at Sant'Angelo: it was afterwards fortified with walls and turrets, and there is an inscription on one of the gates, which says, that it was erected by a Fortebraccio, of the Orsini family, together with a castle and one of the suburbs in 1308. Knight
Castello Orsini: (left) Renaissance entrance; (right) coat of arms at the top of the entrance: its central part could be a reference to the Pallavicini (see a Pallavicini coat of arms at Gallicano) whereas the double-headed eagle could refer to the House of Habsburg
The number of inhabitants gradually increased under
the government of the Fortebracci till the year 1500, when
Alfonsina Orsini being married to one of the Medicis, this
fortress became part of her dower, as it was afterwards part
of the jointure settled on a natural daughter of the Emperor
Charles V. who married first into the house of Medici, and
secondly into that of Farnese. She was called Madama
d'Austria, and the fortress took, on that account, the name of
Castel Madama. Knight
Castel Madama is named after Margaret, natural daughter of Emperor Charles V, who married Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, and then
Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and grandson of Pope Paul III. In England she is known as Margaret of Parma. In addition to Palazzo Madama and Villa
Madama in Rome she acquired Castel Sant'Angelo and other fiefdoms in Abruzzo.
(left) Entrance to the historical part of the town; (right) main street between the Castle and S. Michele
The Pallavicini family afterwards became
possessors of it. We have already remarked, that the situation of this little town is peculiarly delightful. Knight
At the beginning of the XVIIIth century the Pallavicini, similar to the Theodoli at S. Vito and the Pio di Savoia at S. Gregorio a Sassola, enlarged the town by building a new ring of houses on the slope to the west of the castle.
(left) Façade of S. Michele (1771-1775); (right) fresco in S. Sebastiano, attributed to Federico Zuccari
The image used as background for this page shows an old clock indicating the Italian Hour at Castel Madama.
Move to:
Vicovaro
Mandela and Roviano
Roccagiovine and Licenza
Sambuci
Anticoli Corrado and Arsoli