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 Crenellated
towers, imposing walls…nothing of this will be seen driving
along the noble consular roads (in the antiquity the Latina and
Appian way) which lead to this famous area of Lazio region. You
will not see castles but a series of small villages scattered on
a territory of vulcanic origin, called Roman Castels only in recent
times. Small towns sometimes separated one from the other by woods
of chestnut trees, by a rich and untouched vegetation, sometimes
linked one to the other by a continuity of buildings, some other
times isolated on the top of the ancient extinguished vulcan.
The
name Castles derives from the villages that aroused around the
Popes’ villas and the rich noble families palaces that, following
an old tradition, chose these sites for their summer residences.
With a jump in a remoter past, back to the middle ages, searching
into an age whose episodes are still misterious, we can imagine
to find in the region plenty of castles, strongholds of the most
important families that had them set in strategic places, like
pawns on a chessboard, so to control all southern Lazio and communications
with the Reign of Naples.
The authentic Roman Castles were then
the same villages that rose around those castles, that through
the centuries became autonomous. The name reminds of no longer
exhisting castles, symbols of power of families in continuous struggles
to get control of the area.
Actually, the name Roman Castles referred
originally to all the inhabited areas of the Ancient Districtus
Urbis, an area of about 100 miles, reduced then to 40 miles, that
surrounded Rome from North to South. After the unification of Italy,
in the new maps of the region the name Roman Castles indicated
only the area of the Albani and Laziali Hills, characterized by
a peculiar geographical unity. In the Midlle Ages this area was
inhabited for practical reasons: after the fall of the Roman Empire
and the setting of the Popes in Avignon, Romans preferred to refuge
around the secure castles of Princes. A sudden change occured when
the Popes returned to Rome. Due to the humanistic love for antiquity,
the attention of the erudites, starting with Pope Pius II member
of the Piccolomini family, turned to the Vetus Latium, with its
the solemn and impressive memories of the Roman history, that had
left in these places huge civil and religious testimonies.The beauty
of the area, still untouched, the purity of the air, moved both
Popes and the high Roman society to build here their country villas,
decorated by the same artists who were embellishing their Roman
residences. The ways of the otium of these noble families, made
of meetings, games, parties and adventures, followed the" French
living-style " fashion while the Roman people came here for
short journeys, for excursions to the country sides or to partecipate
to popular and folkloristic festivals which are a big attraction
even to modern visitors.
The beauty of the landscape, although
menaced by modern and wild constructions, the quality of its air,
its famous wine accompanied by tasty gastronomical specialties
of the region, such as the porchetta served in the famous"fraschette" (cluster
of little wine cellar), contributed to hide its artistical jewels
behind thick and often impenetrable walls. And those places, loved
and celebrated by painters and writers ever since, this same Roman
countryside, picturesque and full of contrasts and history, so
uselessly celebrated, because the words and the images of those
who have preceded us have not prevented from wild deturpation,
remain just a place of the mind, and only at times the ancient
image returns alive to us, from the stillnes of a deep forest,
from a limpid horizon, ruins noticed from car windows only because
abandoned in the middle of a crossway. Noble imposing palaces,
hidden behind town-walls, reveal themselves to the most curious
and artistic eye, as old paintings they tell stories of gods and
saints or sepulchres of important men. The invisibles Castles,
are not at a glance, but they wait to be discovered.
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