Top 5 Castles around Rocca Priora

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.

The Barberini palace is on top of the temple and hosts the National Archeological Museum of Palestrina. The museum holds the Nile Mosaic of Palestrina, sculpture and jewelry from the temple and antiquity.

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

Rocca di Papa is a town of about 20,000 inhabitants and is part of the Castelli Romani Park. It boasts splendid views over the Roman countryside and a fortress.

amazing view at the top of Rocca di Papa

very very nice village

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

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.