Municipality of Grotte di Castro
Lat. 42.661648 Long. 11.868400
Piazza G. Matteotti, 1
01025 Grotte di Castro (VT) Italy
Tel. ++ 39 0763798002
(39,29 square km. with 3180 inhabitants: Grottani)
Castro’s caves village,467 m. above sea level is on a tufa’s rock of Volsini mountains, in the northwestern Bolsena lake, 48 km. NW from Viterbo. It was founded in the beginning of the Middle Age by the people who got off safely from Civita’s destruction looking for a safe and defensible place.
Here are Etruscan necropolis of VII century B.C. It is an agrarian economy; further than vines, olives and wheat, there is also the potato’s cultivation that made it renowed. The origins of the Castro’s caves village go back to the Etruscan period, a reliable evidence are the numerous nepropoles in the whole territory and the multitude of remains, that are always coming out.
On the hill, called Civita, a few hundred meters from the current inhabited centre, was a flourishing Etruscan village to that the tradition forced the name “Tiro”, in spite of furthermore opinions about it. We suppose that the city was wiped out during the roman’s invasion in 280 B.C., while in the following period we have no traces left , probably the life there went on following the roman’s laws and habits.
At the beginning of the Middle Age, Bolsena lake’s populations passed through the Barbarian invasions coming from North towards Roma. In VII century, Tiro was wiped out again by the Longobards; the name of a locality called “valle muje” that means “shouts’ valley”, remains as a proof of the bloody massacre happened there. A few survivors then met in small centres, building the villages of S.Lorenzo vecchio and Grotte but, in IX and X century they had to suffer further mournings by the Saracens.
In 1077, the countess Matilde di Canossa gave a part of the land of Tuscia, comprising the caves, to the roman Church; this one was the first official act where the new village’s name appeared. The following years were full of bloody territorial fights keeping this centre to improve their life’s conditions.
The bad period ended on March 1537, when Pierluigi Farnese, the son of papa Paolo III, exchanged the before purchased city Frascati with Castro also having the castle of the caves on his territory so, with this contract the village became one of the Farnese family’s properties. Finally, under this family, the Duchy’s populations had a peaceful and prosperous period.
In 1646 Grotte went back under the Church’s control and the two following centuries were quite humdrum; the most relievable happenings were the religious ones. Neither the Napoleonic period or the Risorgimento one managed the village to change the church’s loyalty. In 1886 the Fontana Grande was built and thanks to that, the water finally reached the village’s centre.
On September 8th 1926, the freedom of the city was given to the General Umberto Nobile, aeronautical engineer who, in May the same year, flyed over the North Pole with his dirigible “Norge” throwing italian, american, norwegian flags and also the pennant of the club “Cesare Battisti” situated in Grotte di Castro down there keeping the promise to the population; he thought they were simple and proud people, worthy of representing all the Italian country towns. Grotte di Castro is full of monuments and places to visit: in the Necropolis of Pianezze there are numerous rock graves and the other place where more graves are, is built by Vigna, both are the proof of the Etruscan antique period.
In the historical centre, not a long way from the municipal building in the Palace where the Podesta’ lived a long time ago is situated from 1993 the archaeological and popular traditions’museum that keeps more than 160 etruscan finds. The municipal Palace, built in XVI century in conformity with a plan drafted by Vignola, keeps a fine stone spiral staircase. In Cavour Place was placed a gravestone to remember the exploit of Umberto Nobile (Grotte di Castro’s freeman) on the North Pole’s glaciers.
The sanctuary Basilica “Maria SS. Del Suffragio” was built baroque way from the 1625 on a foregoing VIII century Parish Church dedicated to S.Giovanni Battista of which remain some englobed parts and the undergrounds that keep a remarkable holy finds’ collection. Furthermore it’s kept inside some precious wooden inlaid works, baroque style and a polychrome wooden statue representing the Madonna del Suffragio, solemnly celebrated every ten years. The church dedicated to S.Pietro Apostolo, built in XI century for Matilde di Canossa will, keeps a few of the ancient origins, concealed by the restorations and the following rebuildings.
