Castelnuovo di Farfa is reachable from the village of Farfa getting out through Porta Montopoli and travelling a couple of kilometers till the main crossroad and other four kilometers along the Provincial Road 42.
The town was founded around 1300 by three oriental families, converted to Christianity by Raniero, a monk from Farfa, who led them to Italy.
The centre has a Medieval urban structure, with narrow streets among Post-medieval buildings, included a few tower houses.
The Oil Museum, which celebrates one of the most precious Italian oils, both in its traditions and symbols and as a contemporary resource, is located in the historical centre of Castelnuovo di Farfa, in the heart of the Via dell’Olio Sabino Sabino, inside Palazzo Perelli (16th century). Ancient civilizations are recorded by jars from the sixteenth century, a mill from 1700, oil presses from the sixteenth to the twentieth century and old ovens. The visit continues along a path which leads to the upper old town of Castelnuovo di Farfa and into the countryside to the 9th century church of San Donato, where the Mediterranean spirituality of olive oil is celebrated in music and architecture.
The Museum includes a prestigious contemporary art exhibition about the myth of olive oil with works from the four world famous artists Maria Lai, Hidetoschi Nagasawa, Alik Cavaliere and Gianandrea Gazzola.
The High Middle Ages archaeological site of San Donato by the river Farfa is also part of the Museum
Travelling further we reach Poggio Nativo, founded around the 10th century on a steep spur of ground 415 meters above the sea level, a tiny Sabine village which preserves its ancient Medieval herringbone structure with narrow, winding, and often steepy alleys.
The original name “Podium Donadei” comes from the powerful local squire Donadeo, supposed to be the village founder or, more probably, the name, meaning “gift of God”, was given the place during the Barbarian invasions by its inhabitants, who elected it as a refuge thanks to its difficulty reachable location.
The thirteenth century Monastery of San Paolo is not to be missed. In 1471 It was given by Pius II to the Franciscan monks, who enlarged it and turned the old church into a choir, which still preserves its magnificent carved wooden seats.
Inside the church, completely rebuilt, a richly decorated monumental major altar in precious marble can be admired. On both sides of it the statues of San Giacomo and San Filippo and, above, a seventeenth-century painting which represents the apparition of the Blessed Sacrament to two Franciscan friars.
Six chapels flank the main aisle, each one under the patronage of local noble families, whose crests still decorate the arches. In the third chapel on the left side two frescoes dating back to 1560 with San Biagio and San Giovanni Battista can be admired and in the opposite chapel an oval portrait of the Virgin Mary and Child surrounded by three angels.
The monastery, rebuilt in 1400, was repeatedly renovated and the lunettes in the cloister decorated with scenes from the life of San Francesco.
The portal of the old church, with paintings representing the beheading of San Paolo and the crucifixion of San Pietro, has been reused for the new one. In the early 900’s a triptych by Antoniazzo Romano, exhibited today at the National Gallery of Rome (Palazzo Barberini), was discovered by chance.
Church of S.S. Annunziata
According to some historians the church was erected in place of a very ancient chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and consecrated by Pope San Silvestro I. The portal and the baptismal font are remains of the old chapel.
• In 1576, under Pope Gregorio XIII, the church was enlarged and richly decorated by Bernardino and Lucrezia Anguillara. The 280 pounds bell, still well preserved in the bell tower, was a gift by Prince Borghese.
• Inside the church, restored after the earthquake of 1915, a precious Umbrian-Roman school painting from the late sixteenth century representing San Francesco di Paola can be admired.
About 11 km further along the Provincial Road 42 we reach Frasso Sabino. until recently it was thought that the name derived from ash trees which surrounded the area, but recent studies have demonstrated that, being the place in the ancient Roman times the seat of a guarding post, it comes from the Latin verb fraxare, which means “to guard”.
The recently restored historical centre of Frasso Sabino is very well maintained and worth a visit for its impressive landscapes, the Farfa river valley and the beautiful olive trees.
The castle was probably founded in the first half of the tenth century, even dating the building back to 1055, when Alberto, son Gebbone, donated it to the abbot of Farfa, Berardo I. The castle of Frasso remained property of the monastery for not too long, and, at the end of the fourteenth century it belonged to the Brancaleoni family, rulers of Monteleone.
In 1441, when Frasso was occupied by Battista Savelli, Paolo and Francesca Brancaleoni donated it as dowry to their sister Simodea, who had married Orso Cesarini.
The Signoria Cesarini ended in 1573 quite eventfully, when Federico Sforza married Livia Cesarini, oblate of the Monastero Romano dei Sette Dolori, provoking scandal. The castle reached its autonomy only in 1827.
The fortress Sforza-Cesarini, remarkable in its size compared to the village, still preserves its tall cylindrical bastion with shoe base and brackets at the ends in spite of the continuous changes which erased the primitive structure of the town and the castle, included the demolition of the tower highest part.
From the Romanic church of San Pietro in Vincoli, located on a higher level, a wide view of the valley can be enjoyed. In the church there are three aisles, a small apse and a portal surmounted by a full curve lunette and a quadrilobed oculus. Inside the building, the right aisle has been turned into a series of funeral chapels related to the nearby cemetery and the left one is divided from the central aisle by four pillars and full arches. The church, whose walls still bear traces of ancient frescoes, is today used as a location for cultural events.
A natural path leads from the village to the sources of the river Farfa called “Le Capore”. In 1980 they have been used as a water supply to the city of Rome.
An old stone mill in Frasso Sabino hosts since 1995 the Astronomical Observatory “Virginio Cesarini”, named after a distinguished Sabine academic from the sixteenth century belonging to the Cesarini lineage, friend of Federico Cesi and keen on astronomy. For its prestigious scientific activities (examination and discovery of asteroids, comets, etc.) the Observatory received on September 22, 1998 the International “Astronomical Certification Code 157 Frasso Sabino” from the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge (Massachusetts – USA).
The building also hosts the Museum “La Città delle Stelle” and the Planetarium, started up in June 1998 with a 40 cm diameter projection sphere and about 700 stars, the sun, the moon, planets, ancient constellations and a precession effect. The reflecting dome, hanging from the ancient wooden beams has a diameter of about 5 meters. Furthermore, Impressive effects can be admired: the sunset and sunrise, the meridian circle, the celestial equator and the ecliptic, the precession and the ancient constellations system. Scientific sessions are held in the Planetarium about future space flights, comets and meteors, black holes and light pollution.
Osteria Nuova, was quickly built close to the ancient village Vicus Novus where precious ancient columns, capitals, architectural fragments and mosaics have been found.
The building and small church stand in the area of the old exchange station (mansio) ad Novas, a stop along the ancient 33 miles route from Rome to Reate (Rieti). The inn, was built in the eighteenth century incorporating a huge funeral Roman monument and then underwent several changes. The tomb known as “Grotta dei Massacci” has been attributed to the wealthy and powerful family Bruttii Praesentes.The square monument, made of large blocks of local travertine, is completely hidden by the modern building and a section of the ancient wall, preserved to a height of about 9 meters and a length of about 7m, can only be seen from the Southern side. A long low arch Dromos in travertine leads to the tomb and in the square burial chamber, whose pavement made of river pebbles is supposed to date back to to the nineteenth century, four rectangular niches divided by pillars and cross vaults can be found. On the Northern side stands with the remains of a door at the bottom.
The three funerary towers called “I Torracci”, are typical tombs appeared in the Lazio region at the end of the first century AC and established during the first Imperial age.
The first buiiding, approximately 99,50 meters far from the Grotta dei Massacci, is preserved to a height of 14,60 meters and has a base of 7,15 x 7,10 meters. The second, 14 meters further and barely one meter high, can only be partially seen because of the earth and turf covering it. The third tower is located in a modern house garden.
