Montebuono
Hi everyone! Today I want to talk to you about Montebuono, a small Italian municipality in the province of Rieti in Lazio, where only 816 inhabitants live.
Physical geography
Montebuono is located 325 meters above sea level, at the foot of Mount San Benedetto, which is part of the sub-Apennine chain of Monte Cosce - Monte San Pancrazio, between Lazio and Umbria. Part of the municipal territory is located on the river terraces of the Tiber Valley, of Pleistocene geological origin. As for the climate, Montebuono's climatic classification is zone D, 1956 GR/G.
History
The history of Montebuono dates back to Roman times, as evidenced by the numerous archaeological sites scattered throughout the municipality's territory. For example, there is the Roman villa near the Church of San Pietro ad Centomuros, locally called the Roman Villa of the Baths of Agrippa. This villa, as evidenced by the inscriptions found on site, belonged to Augustus' able general, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. It was powered by the Grottoni di San Donato, water tanks that are now in a state of total degradation.
Another very interesting rural villa is located near the cemetery of Fianello Sabino. In this case, it is not the architecture that makes the difference, but the exceptional findings made during some work on the road that leads to the cemetery. Many statues were found, including a Silenus, a dancing maenad, an Attis-hero, the portrait of the head of Aeschylus, and various large-diameter lamps. To this day, all the statues are stored in the warehouses of the National Roman Museum.
Around the year 1105, the construction of the Church of San Pietro ad Centomuros is documented, which remained the reference point for the rural population until the foundation of the castle of Montebuono, which probably took place between the end of the 200s and the first years of the 300s. In the late century, the castle was occupied by Luca Savelli, who was then forced to return it to the Holy See.
In 1944, during the Italian resistance to Nazifascism, a massacre ordered by the supreme command of the south at the Soratte Bunker took place in the territory of Montebuono. On April 13, 1944, eight former American soldiers were shot at the hermitage of San Benedetto, located at the top of the mountain overlooking Montebuono. The Americans were escorted to the vicinity of the hermitage by the partisans of the Vacone Band, who handed them over to the partisans of the Btg G.Manni of the Garibaldi Brigade "Antonio Gramsci" (Central Italy) of Terni. They had escaped from a prisoner transport train, probably near Allerona in the Tiber Valley, mistakenly bombed by Allied aviation. During the retreat of the Wehrmacht from the municipality of Collevecchio on 05-06-1944, Antonio Peloni, a farmer residing in Fianello, forced by the Germans to transport livestock with the "Traja," a wooden sled pulled by animals, was killed by Nazism along with his animals in the municipality of Tarano, near the ford of the Campana stream on the Costa dei Zoppi road that descends from Cicignano, a fraction of the municipality of Collevecchio.
Conclusions
In short, Montebuono is a municipality full of history and archaeological wonders, as well as a symbolic place for the Italian resistance to Nazifascism. What do you say about a visit? I assure you it's worth it!
