|
|
Monuments
The Church of the Assumption
Pope Alexander VII Chigi lived in Ariccia for quite some time, and it is
thanks to him that the town received a completely new layout with the work
of Bernini, through the construction of the Church of the Assumption, and
the public square which lies in front of the Chigi Palace.
Work on the new church of Ariccia began in 1662, and Bernini entrusted
much of the work to one of his best students, Carlo Fontana. Bernini‚s
plans were inspired by the architectural structure of the Pantheon and he
used a circular shape for his church in Ariccia. The church was
consecrated on 16 May 1664 with a mass celebrated by Pope Alexander VII
himself. To flank the church, two buildings called Casino del Governatore
and Casino del Ministro (Houses of the Governor and the Minister)
(1662-1664) were constructed, that are connected to the church through a
theatrical exedra in the rear part of the church.
The building of these side houses was carried out at the same time as
the church, and with great speed, because one of them was to hold
the jail.
In Piazza di Corte there is a building which once was the site of the
famous „ Martorelli Inn" (Locanda Martorelli), famous above all for the
cycle of wall paintings executed by Polish painter Thaddeus Kuntze. They
are of great importance for the history of Ariccia insomuch as they
illustrate the origins and the mythology of the area. The titles of these
paintings are as follows: The Temptation of Hippolytus, Death of
Hippolytus, Diana's Hunt, The Sacrifice to Diana, The Conspiracy Against
Turno Edornio, The Death of Turno Edornio, The Battle of Regillo Lake, The
Egeria Nymph and Numa Pompilio. In 1820 the mansion was transformed into
an inn by Antonio Martorelli, frequented until approximately 1880, mainly
by poets, writers, and painters. It was an obligatory stop for all those
who undertook the
Grand Tour d'Italie
, and became its own painting
academy "en plein air", since the greatest landscape painters of the
century stayed there: from Turner to Corot, to the Russian Ivanov, drawn
there above all by the Chigi Park, which was the epitome of their romantic
ideals.
This building assumes therefore a remarkable importance for Ariccia being
also the legacy to the memory of great artists who studied, worked and
vacationed here, and diffused, through their poetic or colorful works, the
image of the Castelli Romani all over Europe. The "Martorelli Inn" was
acquired by the city of Ariccia in 1988 and has frequently housed
prestigious art and historical exhibits.
Despite the fact that the economic and social development of the Papal
State was slow going at first, on the insistence of the local magistrates,
the papal government was induced to consider the necessity to render the
winding and uneven Appia easier and faster to traverse. The road came down
from Albano into the valley of Chigi Park, went up to the Roman Gate,
crossed the whole town, and went back down from the Neapolitan Gate at St.
Rocco and Lupara Cave in order to go back to Galloro, from where the road
went down to the Fontanaccio in order then to go up Catena hill, towards Genzano.
In 1843 Gregorio XVI tried to remedy the unevenness with a bridge
containing six arches; and a new tracing of a flatter Appia was studied as
well as two smaller bridges and one monumental bridge going towards
Albano. Works were started on the large viaduct in 1846 by new Pope Pius
IX, on plans by architect Ireneo Aleandri, from the Marche region.
The work, completed in 1854 after an interruption in ' 48-' 49, was
considered one of the most impressive engineering projects ever carried
out in the 19th century.
Situated at the bottom of the main street of Ariccia, opposite and to the
side of the deconsecrated church of St. Nicholas, formerly Casino
Kaisermann, the Primoli Palace was acquired towards the end of the 1820‚s
by Carlo Luciano Bonaparte Prince of Canino, brother of Napoleon. Through
his daughter it was passed to Count Primoli.
A typical building of neoclassical style, it was in its greatest splendor during the times of
Gegè Primoli
, between the 18 and 1900's, when it accommodated, amongst
others, Marcel Prevost, Gabriele D' Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Matilde Serao
and Aristide Sartorio.
Monument to Menotti Garibaldi
Coming from Albano, a little before the monumental bridge, on the right is
a public park, in the center of which the bronze statue of General Menotti
Garibaldi stands, son of the „Hero of the Two Worlds.
The statue was created by a "Pro Menotti Garibaldi" association, led
mainly by Ubaldo Mancini, son of the hero of Ariccia Adolph Mancini.
Going along the New Appian Way, on the road to Genzano, one finds the
sanctuary of Saint Mary of Galloro, legacy to the veneration of
an image of Virgin Mary
, which according to local tradition, was found in 1621 by
Sante Bevilacqua, a boy from Tuscany living in Ariccia.
The cult of the Virgin of Galloro went beyond the local diocese and
reached Rome, provoking a great affluence of pilgrims and devout people.
Prince Paul Savelli, gentleman of Ariccia, decided to construct a church
dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
Michele da Bergamo was the architect and in 1631 the sanctuary of Galloro
was founded with the consent of Pope Urban VIII. With the papal election
of cardinal Fabio Chigi, Pope Alexander VII, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was
called to plan the collegiata and to design the sanctuary of Galloro.
In these years there were many miraculous episodes attributed to the image
of the Virgin: in 1656 an epidemic of plague of immense proportions hit
Rome but did not reach Ariccia, the people remained untouched. The people
thanked the Madonna for this miraculous fortune and a festivity was
instituted to celebrate the day of the Immaculate Conception called
"Festivity of the Signorina".
. To this day the tradition of the "Signorina" still survives, and every year
a girl is chosen among the families of the town to whom is entrusted the task of
presenting the people's thanks to the Madonna.
Ruins of the Villa
of Emperor Vitellio
(69 AD.)
In the Imperial age, along the Appian Way, a great city, rich with
temples, thermal baths, forums and public buildings, whose territory
extended up to the
Temple of Diana Aricina Nemorense,
, on the rivers of the Nemi Lake, was full of sumptuous villas, the remains of which
can still be seen today. An example of this is the
villa of Emperor Vitellio
(69 A.D.) of which, besides the ruins of a nymphaeum, the traces
still survive of some large cisterns that fed the villa, whose extension
had to cross a territory of many hectares, as documented by various
archaeological findings in the area.
|
Fountain of the Beautiful Flora
|
Fountain of the Three Taps
|
Roman Gate
|
|
Italiano
