The ancient city of Monterano in the province of Rome is characterized by an abandoned village of great charm.
Among its surviving monuments, the church of San Bonaventura designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini stands out.
Canale Monterano is the new village of Monterano, now a ghost town.
The town from which Canale originated arose, around the middle of the 16th century, thanks to the work of laborers and woodcutters from Tuscany and Umbria, called to deforest the dense scrubs that covered the area. Their first homes were simple huts, built at the foot of Monte Sassano.
The inhabitants of the old town of Monterano also gradually contributed to the demographic growth of Canale di Magliano (as the nucleus of huts was called) which, due to a concomitance of factors, was undergoing a gradual process of depopulation, culminating in the early nineteenth century.
Over time the so-called "castelletti" were built, small groups of houses scattered along the slopes of the mountain, but only later did Canale acquire the appearance of a real village, with houses and shops facing along the road that today corresponds to the Corso of the Republic.
From 1873, with Royal Decree, Canale and Montevirginio, united by a common history, took the name of "Canale Monterano", a name that also establishes the indissoluble link between ancient Monterano and today's inhabited centers.
In the center of Piazza del Campo stands an octagonal fountain from the ancient abandoned village and the work of the Berninian school. The municipal building of Canale Monterano, dating back to the early years of the twentieth century, overlooks the surrounding countryside and the Tolfa Mountains and houses numerous testimonies useful for reconstructing the history of the area.
In addition to stone finds from the Roman era, it also houses the monumental sculpture depicting a lion and attributed to Bernini, originally placed on the fountain of Palazzo Altieri di Monterano.
Village of Monterano
Address: Antica Monterano, Str. Antica Monterano, 00060
Phone: 06 9962401
Site:
https://www.comune.canalemonterano.rm.it/Location inserted by
Anna Carla Angileri