S. Maria di Galeria Formello Osteria Nuova Isola Farnese Veii (original) (raw)
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Formello
(left) Main gate; (centre) Chigi coat of arms; (right) XVIIth century tower of Villa Chigi
Formello. A large village of five hundred and ten inhabitants, on the right of the Via Cassia, at about fifteen or sixteen miles from Rome, and about four from the ruins of Veii. The now neglected villa of the Chigi family, called Versaglia, is near the village, being separated only by a ravine. (..) A large mansion, so called by one of the princes Chigi, in allusion, it is said, to the palace of Versailles. It is situated under Mont Aguzzo, near Formello and the site of Veii, and may be seen from the Via Cassia on the right from Rome.
Sir William Gell - The topography of Rome and its vicinity - 1834
In 1661 Cardinal Flavio Chigi, nephew of [Pope Alexander VII](Storia25.html#Alexander VII), acquired the fiefdom of Formello and decided to set his countryside residence there, at least in spring and autumn, because in summer the heat and the risk of malaria made it unsuitable for entertaining guests. He built a villa a few miles from Formello to which he gave the exceedingly ambitious name of Villa di Versaglia. He and his brothers had also a large countryside palace at Ariccia in a much healthier location. Their descendants did not maintain the villa and in the XIXth century they even took away the roof of the main building to use its beams in another of their properties (in 1763-1771 they built a small villa near Ponte Nomentano). Today a tower which made the villa visible from a distance is almost the only building left standing.
(left) Palazzo Orsini Chigi; (centre) courtyard; (right) ancient statue of an emperor which belonged to the Chigi; the building houses "Museo dell'Agro Veiente"
In the village is the statue of a Roman emperor in marble, upon a pedestal. Gell
Formello was a fiefdom which belonged for a long time to the Orsini, similar to nearby Sacrofano and Campagnano and in 1560 it became part of the Orsini Duchy of Bracciano. Cardinal Chigi restored and enlarged the castle built by the Orsini to protect the entrance to Formello. Today the building is the Town Hall and its courtyard houses statues, inscriptions and sarcophagi which were part of the Cardinal's collection. An Orsini coat of arms can be seen in the image used as background for this page.
Sarcophagus which belonged to the Chigi in the Town Hall (IInd century AD)
A palace of an important Roman family was expected to have a collection of antiquities. The Chigi gathered at Formello a small museum of antiquities and curiosities which were found in the environs of the town, chiefly Etruscan terracotta fragments from Veii (see page one), but also a fine Roman sarcophagus (see a similar one in Rome).
Museo dell'Agro Veiente: (left) relief of Mithra slaying the bull (IInd century AD); (right-above) the Moon; (right-below) Cautopates, a torch bearer holding his torch down. Other details can be seen in pages dealing with the "mithraea" of S. Prisca and S. Clemente
This extremely interesting relief was recovered by Italian authorities in 2009 when it was about to be shipped to the Far East. It was initially displayed at Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. In the lack of exact data about its origin it was eventually relocated to Museo dell'Agro Veiente under the assumption that it had been found inside a private Roman villa near Formello (see an exceptional monument which was recovered before it was sold abroad at Museo di Lucus Feroniae, not far from Formello).
The relief depicts all the key features of the traditional bull sacrifice performed by Mithra. It is set inside a cave. On the left we see the rising Sun driving a chariot pulled by four horses and on the right the falling Moon driving a chariot with two horses. The god Mithra wears the traditional oriental costume with a sleeved tunic, Phrygian cap, long trousers and a cloak fastened by a fibula and he turns his face away from the bull. The torch bearers Cautopates (left) and Cautes (right) complete the scene, together with a series of animals (dog, snake, scorpion and crow). All the animals, including the bull are thought to represent constellations. You may wish to see the same scene in a fresco found near Palazzo Barberini.
Frescoes decorating some halls of Palazzo Orsini Chigi
The palace retains some fragments of its XVIth century fresco decoration. It is based on decorative friezes, coats of arms, grotesques and small landscapes. This type of decoration is similar to that of the palaces of the Anguillara at Bassano, the Santacroce at Oriolo and the Orsini at Bracciano.
Museo dell'Agro Veiente: excerpts from the 1554 Statuto (charter of rights) of Formello: (above) biting dogs: they should be kept on a leash inside the town and their masters are subject to fines; (below) penalties for cheating with false cards and loaded dice
In 1554 Francesca [Sforza di Santa Fiora](Francige1.html#Palazzo Sforza), widow of Girolamo Orsini and mother of Paolo Giordano granted a limited autonomy in dealing with minor aspects of everyday life to the citizens of Formello. The charter of rights is very detailed and it was not changed when the Chigi replaced the Orsini. It makes an interesting reading as it provides a picture of the life of a small XVIth century community.
Museo dell'Agro Veiente: bronze sculpture of a Roman emperor by Wil van der Laan
The museum has facilities for conferences and space for temporary exhibitions. In May 2024 it housed an exhibition of bronze statues portraying Roman emperors by Wil van der Laan, a contemporary Dutch sculptor and painter.
S. Lorenzo: (left) bell tower; (centre) interior: the wooden ceiling is decorated with the gridiron of St. Lawrence; (right) image of the interior seen from Palazzo Chigi showing the reconstructed aspect of a line which was crossed by a sunbeam at noon (similar to what occurs at S. Maria degli Angeli)
The church adjoins Palazzo Chigi and it was redesigned in the XVIth century. The top of its XIIth century Romanesque bell tower was modified in 1667. A few years ago some marble pieces were found in the floor of the church during maintenance works. They bore marks and images of the zodiacal signs. A review of the parish records indicated that in 1795 Don Luigi de Sanctis, the parish priest, made a sundial similar to that existing in Rome. Not only he had astronomical and mathematical knowledge, but it appears that he sculpted himself the marble stones. The floor of the church was modified in the XXth century and the stones were dismantled; eventually the memory of the sundial was lost.
Two 1570 frescoes by Donato Palmieri in S. Lorenzo: (left) The Adoration of the Cross; (right) Madonna and Child surrounded by female saints; (inset) detail of the eyes of St. Lucy (blue dot)
S. Lorenzo houses two fine frescoes by Donato Palmieri, a local painter who worked with Giorgio Vasari. They show the typical elegance of Mannerist paintings with very elongated bodies and elaborate postures. They were painted at a time when the Church was developing rules to be followed to ensure works of art had a proper religious purpose. One of the rules stated that the early saints were to be portrayed with a clear reference to their martyrdom (see a page on their iconography). Donato Palmieri had to comply with this rule, but as he did not want to disturb the serenity of his Madonna, he placed the severed breasts of St. Agatha in the lower part of the painting (see the icon of this page and a relief in Rome) and he almost hid the tray with the eyes of St. Lucy.
(left) S. Angelo; (centre/right) views of the oldest part of the town
S. Angelo is a medieval church with another high Romanesque bell tower, in the oldest part of Formello. It was one of the two parishes of the small town until the XIXth century; it was eventually closed to the public and abandoned. In 2024 it was in the process of being restored. The interior, retains a rich fresco decoration which was whitewashed in modern time.
The houses of the old burg are in the process of being restored after a long period of neglect.
View eastward from the modern tower inside Palazzo Orsini Chigi showing a modern development on the site of a Chigi property and in the background the mountains of Sabina beyond the River Tiber valley
Because of its proximity to Rome, today Formello has a population of 13,000 whereas in 1901 it did not reach 1,000. The development occurred in the neighbouring hills.
Museo Nazionale Romano: sarcophagus found at Cesano di Roma, west of Formello depicting the myth of Selene and Endymion (early IIIrd century AD); see other sarcophagi depicting the same myth at Galleria Doria Pamphilj and Musei Capitolini
Sacrofano (formerly Scrofano)
View of Sacrofano
Scrofano. A remarkable and sequestered village to the east of Monte Musino, containing five hundred and thirty-eight inhabitants. (..) A road from Prima Porta leads to the upper end of the village of Scrofano, which runs along the valley on the west of the Via Flaminia, and accompanies the brook which passes through the glen of Pietra Pertusa. But the best access to Scrofano is by the Flaminian Way; from which, at more than a mile beyond Borghettaccio (Malborghetto), a bridle-road descends to the valley of the Mola di Scrofano, where the stream is crossed by a high bridge. Vestiges of a good road are seen, and the rocks bear marks of having been cut for its passage. (..) From Veii the road ran up a natural valley toward the modern village of Formello, and thence ascended a hollow between Monte Musino on the right, and a range of volcanic hills on the left, to the modern village of Scrofano. Gell
(left) Porta Romana which was protected by a round tower; (centre) coat of arms depicting a sow (It. scrofa), symbol of the town, and a patron saint (Sacrofano has two patron saints, both bishops: [Blaise of Sebaste](Vasi71.htm#S. Biagio della Pagnotta) and Geminianus of Modena); (right) fragment of a Roman statue near the gate
Ara Mutiae (Monte Musino). This place, which anciently belonged to the Veientes, is on the summit of a hill, which rises to a considerable height, and has been of great use in the triangulation for the Map, being seen from every part of the Campagna. A beautiful grove on the top of the hill has been preserved through the superstition of the inhabitants of the neighbouring village of Scrofano, who imagine that the felling of the trees would cause the death of the head of each family. (..) From the upper end of Scrofano the road to Formello runs through an anciently excavated rock, leaving Monte Musino to the left. This singular hill is of easy ascent from the road, and may be said to touch it. Festus (a Roman grammarian of the IInd century AD) says of the word Obscum (Sacre) "Eodem etiam nomine appellatur locus in agro Vejenti, quo frui soliti produntur augures Romani." No place could have been better suited to the college of the augurs than Scrofano, or the neighbouring Monte Musino, where something reputed holy, and very different from any thing else, certainly existed. Gell
In 1928 the name of the town was changed from Scrofano to Sacrofano (Holy site in Latin) thus giving an aura of antiquity to the small settlement which, similar to Formello, has seen a dramatic increase of its population in recent years.
(left) Medieval tower housing S. Giovanni Battista; (right) Renaissance tower
Sacrofano with its characteristic medieval appearance lies on a short ridge on the slopes of Monte Musino. It is first recorded in 755 when Eustathius, the last Byzantine dux of Rome donated its territory to S. Maria in Cosmedin. In 1269 Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi bought a part of Sacrofano (he did the same at Campagnano). In the XIVth century the small town was acquired by a branch of the Orsini because it controlled communication between Via Cassia and Via Flaminia. In 1433 it passed to Cardinal Giordano Orsini and to the Orsini of Bracciano. The latter strengthened the fortifications of Sacrofano by adding two round towers.
(left) Tower in the oldest part of the town: (centre) S. Giovanni Battista and Via di Mezzo; (right) its bell tower
Sacrofano was a very small town with just one straight street which crossed it from a small castle to Porta Romana. Its parish church was redesigned in the XVIth century but the bell tower retains most of its XIIth century Romanesque features. In 2024 S. Giovanni Battista was closed for restoration. In general most of the buildings of the old town are being turned into small guesthouses for tourists. Sacrofano and Formello are located along the route(s) of Via Francigena, the Pilgrims' Way to Rome.
S. Biagio (previously in S. Giovanni Battista): (left) baptismal font with the coat of arms of the Orsini; (centre) bears, heraldic symbol of the Orsini; (right) coats of arms of the della Rovere and of Sacrofano
Sacrofano was taken from the Orsini by Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI in 1503, with other lands. The town was recovered by the Orsini with the help of Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere). The fine baptismal font is a sort of celebration of this event. Sacrofano continued to be a possession of the Orsini until it was sold to the Chigi in 1662.
S. Biagio: (left) fa�ade; (right) ceiling with the Chigi coat of arms
During the XVIth century the medieval town became too small for the population of Sacrofano and a church was built outside Porta Romana. In 1703 the Chigi promoted its embellishment and provided it with a decorated wooden ceiling.
S. Biagio: (left) Renaissance fresco depicting The Flagellation (see the same subject in a painting by Sebastiano del Piombo): (right) XVIIIth century bronze chandeliers
The XVIIIth century stucco statue depicting a mother pelican striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her own blood is a symbol of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It was a symbol of the Santacroce which can be seen at a church near their palace and at Oriolo, one of their fiefdoms.
Palazzo Placidi Serraggi
The move of the centre of Sacrofano outside the medieval walls was completed in the early XVIIIth century by the construction of a palace which eventually housed the Town Hall. It is named after the Placidi, a wealthy family of landowners, who held important positions at Orvieto. The Serraggi were another family of landowners. In 1930 their estate (Serraggi Luigi) produced wine, oil and cheese. Some of their properties were expropriated in 1952 in the frame of a major land reform.
