Italy > Vicovaro

Vicovaro

Vicovaro is spread out in a tree-lined basin on level ground to the right of the Aniene valley. The very ancient city of “Varia” was a defensive outpost of the Aequi tribe. The original village was enclosed in double-ringed Aequistyle wall which only traces remain. It was soon conquered by the Romans of whom archaeological remains still exist today. Around 1500, the first primitive monastery dedicated to Sts. Cosmas and Damian, which is now called the St. Cosimatus Monastery, where St. Benedict stayed. Many writers believe that Pope Boniface IV was born in Vicovaro. After suffering the barbarian and Saracen invasions, it recovered in the 12th century and Pope Celestine III gave Vicovaro to the Orsini family. The Duke of Alba owned it for a short time and, in 1672, it was sold to the Bolognetti family. After about a century, the family died out and ownership passed to the Cenci family who added the Bolognetti name to their town. It falls within the district of the Regional Natural Park of the Lucretili Mountains.

In the Fifties 18 bakeries worked full time to provide Rome and Tivoli with bread; production was of about two thousand loaves a day. The ovens were fed with broom wood and used to bake large round loaves of bread with a very special fragrance. All the families were employed in the process: every morning many men, women and children caught the first train for the city and went round selling bread by ringing on the doorbell of every house.

• Things to see

• Church of St.Peter
• Church of St James
• Cenci Bolognetti Mansion
• Caves of St .Benedict