Daytrip to Monterano: visit to the ghost town September 20, 2009

This is the first of a new series of daytrips, with the objective to show the beautiful area surrounding our city to foreigners who live in Rome but still don't know its close countryside.

The trip will take place on Sunday, September 20th to the natural reserve of Monterano, less than a hour drive from Rome.

We will leave from Rome in the morning - meeting point at 9:30 at Piazzale dei Partigiani, in front of the Stazione Ostiense - with a rented bus and head to the town of Canale Monterano, then walk to the natural reserve and with a short hike reach the ghost town. After a brief visit of Monterano's architecture we are going to have a picnic.

Please bring your own food and drinks (there's nothing up there! No bars, nor restaurants within 5 Km), as well as anything you might want to have after the visit (ball, frisbee, ...).

Depending by the time, the weather and the mood we might consider visiting the nearby old Mola or the town of Bracciano.

Return to Rome around 7:00 pm.

As the bus can bring only 50 people, that is the maximum number of participants selected on the first-pay-first-in criterium: sorry buy I will have to pay for the bus on Friday. Tickets can be purchased during various events that will be posted here, or contacting me (Flavio) directly.

*** Sat. Sept. 12th at The Third Ceilidh event, by the St.Andrew Church of Scotland, Via XX Settembre - from 19:00

*** Tue. Sept. 15th at the Bodeguida Nueva, Piazza Pollarola (near Campo de' Fiori) - from 20:30

*** Wed. Sept. 16th at the Garden Grove, Borgo Pio 42 (near the Vatican) - from 19:00

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A brief story of Monterano as posted on http://flavtrips.blogspot.com/2009/09/monterano-ghost-town.html

Monterano is an ancient feud abandoned on top of a tuff plateau within the natural reserve of Canale Monterano. For its beauty and its proximity to Rome, and therefore to the Cinecittà studios, it has been and still is a set for numerous films, such as "Ben Hur" and "Il Marchese Del Grillo".

Monterano has been inhabited since the Bronze Age but only started to flourish, both culturally and economically, during the Roman Etruscan time, between the fifth and fourth centuries BC, when the Etruscs made a clearing [pic. 1] to reach the top of the plateau from the valley of the river Mignone and the Solfatara.

The town was again flourishing in Roman High Medieval, when it become a powerful Episcopal diocese which included the land between the Lake Sabatinum (today's Bracciano) and the mountains of Tolfa.

In the eleventh century it became property of the St. Paul's Abbey of Rome, and a Squared Tower [pic. 2] was build; the tower was to become part of the later Ducal Palace.

During the time of the Comunes, Monterano maintained its importance due to it being alongside a consular road, and in the thirteenth century, together with other areas nearby the Urbe, it became desired territory from both the Papacy and the Prefect of Rome.

The town became a feud of the Anguillara family in the fourteenth century, then a Ducate in the hands of different families close to the Papacy, including the Orsini.

The Aqueduct [pic. 3], which emerges at the surface right near the village, is from the seventeenth century and due to recent restoration is still well preserved.

The most impressive building in the center of Monterano is the Castle, probably dating back to the eighth century's Episcopal time.

The citadel, which bears the testimony of numerous architectural changes over the centuries, went through a remarkable transformation in the Baroque period. In 1679, at the behest of Prince Altieri (a relative of Pope Clemens X), Gian Lorenzo Bernini redesigned the Fortress transforming it into a Ducal Palace [pic. 4], decorating the outer wall with a fountain dominated by the statue of a lion [pic. 5], hence the name of the Fountain of the Lion [pic. 6].

On a flat area just outside the ruined village we find the breathtaking Convent of St. Bonaventure [pic. 7] which dates from the same period: it was designed by Bernini and realised by Mattia De Rossi. At its feet the Octagonal Fountain [pic. 8]. The convent's roof fell down and today a secular fig tree grows in the convent.

As Monterano lost its commercial importance, and slowly depopulated, the monastery became property of the Secolari and later of the hermitage of Monte Senario.

In 1799, following a dispute between the Monteranesi and the Tolfetani, French troops looted the village and decreed its decline. Monterano didn't recover also due to malaria, and after it was abandoned. The last inhabitants moved to the municipalities of Canale and Montevirginio.

Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=67927109985