Filacciano one of the amazing town far from the main traffic routes but close to Rome

“Lazio is the most unknown region of Italy … Lazio is believed to be Rome and everybody knows Rome … but Lazio is so unknown.”

Il Lazio è la regione più ignota d’Italia … si crede che il Lazio sia Roma e tutti conoscono Roma … ma il Lazio è cosi ignoto.

Cesare Brandi

North of Rome, about 50 km (31 miles) from the city, are Nazzano, Torrita Tiberina, Filacciano, and Ponzano Romano, all villages which, due to their location far from the main traffic routes, have not changed, unlike other towns crossed by important roadway. They were part of a system of small fortified towns strategically placed to protect the Papal States.

Green slopes and plains of unspoiled nature with a bicycle tour

There is no better way than a bicycle to discover these places. As you leave the Nazzano Tevere Farfa Natural Reserve and start to ascend an enchanted landscape, made of green slopes and plains of unspoiled nature, opens before your eyes. The pace of a bike tour allows you to enjoy it and to connect with these places where time has been frozen in a blurry past, into a dimension made of ancient rhythms and flavors.

The development of a fortified village: from farm to castle

Filacciano is a tiny village that stands on a spur of rock above the Tiber River valley. When Rome began its expansion, once the populations living in these areas were defeated and conquered, the occupied territories were transformed into farms and villas for the powerful Roman families. Many areas around Rome owe their name to those families and the name Filacciano likely derives from the Flaccus, a  Roman family who owned land here. After the fall of the Roman Empire these areas, now insecure, will be almost abandoned. Around the 10th century, castles began to arise, strategically placed on hills and heights to better dominate the valley and protect the territory, around which houses grew within an urban space bounded by the walls.

The Castle of Filacciano, the smallest of the fortified villages dominating the Tiber River in the Natural Reserve

Filacciano is the smallest of these villages, it has a very peculiar structure linked to the shape of the ridge on which it stands. It grows along a single road that crosses the village from East to West (a direction often chosen to protect the villages from the stormy southwest wind ). It was owned by the families of Orsini, Farnese, and Savelli ( to these powerful Roman families belonged Popes and Cardinals who shaped the history of Rome and its surroundings) until, in 1674, was sold to the Muti-Papazzurri family who kept the property for more than a century. It’s thanks to them that we owe the current layout of the village, to them and to the successful collaboration that this family had with the architect Matthia De Rossi, the starchitect Bernini’s favorite pupil.

Fortunate urban planning of Filacciano village: a castle into a noble residence

De Rossi, with a fortunate urban planning operation, will transform the castle into a noble residence according to the fashion of the time. He will redesign the facade of the castle and add a U-shaped block to the outside of the old borough, creating a beautiful scenic effect. Asymmetric structure with two parallel buildings on the longest sides, instead of along the shorter side, he will create a new entrance that frames the palace and the grandiose portal that gives access to the oldest part of the village.
In the 60s, Federico Fellini, a famous Italian film director, chose Filacciano as the set for his movie 8½, the one considered by Martin Scorsese the best film he ever saw. Today the castle is owned by the Del Drago family who bought it in the mid-1800s.

Bellezza Orsini, the doctor witch of these fortified villages

Here between the end of the 1400s and 1500s lived a witch, at least according to the judge who presided over her trial. Her name was Bellezza Orsini and was the natural daughter of Pietro Angelo Orsini. She was an educated woman, she knew how to read and write and had learned how to use herbs to heal the sick. She used her skills to help the ill people of Filacciano and Ponzano, that was her sin. Because of this, she was accused to be a witch. She confessed under torture to being a witch and was sentenced to die by being burned alive. While awaiting her sentence to be carried out, she found the strength to write her story. Once she finished she committed suicide, avoiding an atrocious death and also saving her notebook from the flames which, according to the law of the time, should have burned with her. The notebook was attached to the records of the trial and that is why today we can tell her story.