Top 6 Castles around Valmontone

At 891 metres between the municipalities of Rocca di Papa and Lariano, the peak of Maschio di Ariano is part of the Alban Hills and owes its name to an ancient castle, whose construction is attributed to the Roman gens Aria (or Arria), and whose destruction probably dates back to the 14th century.

Very beautiful and lively village, the oven is notable which alone is worth the visit.

very very nice village

With its height of 763 meters above sea level, it overlooks the western quadrant of Rome and the Cannucceta Valley

Baronial Palace, located at the highest point of the Gavignano hill, was probably built by the Counts of Segni, owners of vast territorial estates. One of their descendants born in this same building in 1160 will become the famous Pope Innocent III. After the destruction in 1495, the building has undergone significant transformations that have left a minimal trace of the original structure. It becomes a real castle-residence: square shape, courtyard, large halls, servants' quarters, numerous rooms. A general renovation of the building began at the end of the 15th century by the new feudal lord, Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini. In particular, the inversion of the main facade is noted, with the entrance to the building in a higher position than the level of the square. The most recent interventions are carried out in the twentieth century with the aim of restoring the ancient medieval aspect to the building.

Paliano, whose origins date back to antiquity, nestled between the Prenestini and Ernici mountains, is inextricably linked to the name of the Colonna family, who had one of their cornerstones here. The period of greatest development for Paliano was the seventeenth century. The Palazzo Ducale dates from this period, built at the behest of Filippo Colonna with the adjacent Collegiate Church of S. Andrea, burial place of the family and the Fortress, which dominates the entire valley of the river Sacco, now a maximum security prison. Noteworthy in it is the pictorial cycle (attributed to Zuccari and his school) which represents Marcantonio Colonna's triumphal entry into Rome after the battle of Lepanto (1571). Today Paliano is still surrounded by walls with three access gates to the city and with ramparts arranged in green. Paliano owes notoriety also to its naturalistic and landscape aspects. (source: https://www.ciociariaturismo.it/it/la-ciociaria/i-91-comuni/tutti91comuni/120-paliano.html)

Perched on the top of Mount Ginestro (763 meters above sea level), 40 km from Rome, the village has a long history, which begins in the late Bronze Age (15th-14th century BC), as evidenced by the ceramics recently found in the upper part of the mountain, referable to the first inhabited nucleus. From it in the following centuries originated the city of Praeneste, the current Palestrina, famous in Roman times for the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia. The top of the mountain became the seat of the acropolis and the cult of Jupiter Arkanus. The rites related to the augurium and auspicium practices were also held there. The ring of polygonal walls of the sixth century BC that surrounds the acropolis, is part of the entire circuit of fortifications, about 4.5 km long, which also encloses the underlying city of Palestrina. In the 6th century AD the site became the seat of a Benedictine monastery, where Pope Gregory the Great stayed. In the twelfth century the territory entered the fiefs of the Colonna family who built a castrum here with a strategic-military function, destroyed in the clash with the papacy, a first time in 1298 under Boniface VIII and a second time with Eugenio IV in 1436-37. The reconstruction of the fortress in 1482 led to the development of the village and the use of the ancient castrum for civil and administrative activities. In the seventeenth century, with the sale of the fief to the Barberinis, the town underwent substantial urban transformations. Where the Benedictine monastery once stood, the Barberinis rebuilt the church of San Pietro Apostolo, placing its entrance on the new square in front. On what is now the main square of the village, a century later the Mocci family built the family palace. In the 1950s Castel San Pietro Romano became famous thanks to the cinema. Its mayor Adolfo Porry Pastorel, father of Italian photojournalism, convinced Luigi Comencini to set Pane, amore e fantasia (1953) there. Still starring Vittorio De Sica, scenes of Bread, love and jealousy were shot in 1954, while in 1958 it was Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia who continued the fresco of the Italian province after the war with Tuppe tuppe, Marescià! Just outside the center, the Cannuccete Valley is a protected natural area that extends for about twenty hectares. The park is home to the typical flora and fauna of the Lazio hilly and submontane landscape. Inside you can see the remains of the pre-Roman aqueduct coeval with the polygonal walls (6th century BC), built by Greek labor, as evidenced by some letters of the Greek alphabet on the walls of the conduit.