Thursday, November 12, 2020

MONTE PORZIO CATONE

Altitude 451 m (1,480 feet). 8,370 inhabitants

Known as the "City of Orchids"

Mentioned in the sources since 1078 as Castrum Montis Portii maybe because the ancient Portia family had a villa here

It was dominion of the Annibaldi family, after 1581 of the Altemps family and in 1613 it became dominion of the Cardinal Scipione Borghese Caffarelli (1577/1633) who commissioned the construction of the PALAZZO BORGHESE

In the center of town there are the MUSEO DELLA CITTÀ (Museum of the City) in four rooms in the seventeenth-century sector of the cathedral and the MUSEO DIFFUSO DEL VINO (Museum of Wine) in three rooms in three different buildings of the historical center

S. Gregorio Magno

St. Gregory the Great

1580 for Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/1585)

Renovated in 1616 by Jan Van Santen aka Giovanni Vasanzio (1550/1621) for Cardinal Scipione Borghese

Destroyed in 1666 and rebuilt during the years 1666/72 by Carlo Rainaldi (1611/91)

Stuccos by Francesco Fancelli (1624/81)

"Angels and cherubs on the altar" by Cosimo Fancelli (1620/88) brother of Francesco

ALTAR ON THE RIGHT

"St. Anthony of Padua in front of Jesus as a Child" 1674 by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

MAIN ALTAR

"St. Gregory intercedes with the Virgin Mary to stop the plague" 1672 by Giacinto Brandi (1621/91)

ALTAR ON THE LEFT

"Virgin Mary of the Rosary" 1673 by Guillaume Courtois aka Borgognone (1628/79)

Osservatorio Astronomico del Tusculo e Museo Didattico “Astrolab”

Astronomical Observatory of Tusculum and Educational Museum "Astrolab"

Near Monte Porzio Catone

It is part of the OAR, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma (Astronomical Observatory of Rome), along with the headquarters of Monte Mario and that of Campo Imperatore

Eremo di Camaldoli

Hermitage of Camaldoli

In the area known as Grotta del Ceraso

Built in 1772 by Giuseppe Tarquini who replaced a smaller seventeenth century church

Stuccos and reliefs with "Stories of St. Romuald" 1776 by Tommaso Righi (1727/1802)

Oil on canvas "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" about 1610/12 by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620) for Olimpia Aldobrandini

"The moment represented in the canvas shows a perfect balance between the Virgin Mary who turns Her face towards the divine event with a sweet face so typical of Saraceni’s style, the angels with liturgical vestments under the soft shade of palm trees, Josef thoughtful, all in a landscape partly abraded, but always of high quality in terms of luminosity, that recalls the meditation of Camaldoli’s community about nature as mediator towards the divine" (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)

MAIN ALTAR

"Dream of St. Romuald" about 1620 by Antiveduto Grammatica (about 1572/1626)

Barco Borghese

Ancient huge structure, a wide quadrangular esplanade about 219 x 245 m (718 x 804 feet), decorated with a monumental fountain of tufa stone and bounded by a continuous wall built in the Renaissance period

180 rooms for an area of ​​about 16,000 m² (4 acres) built as foundations around two long and high (8 m - 26 feet) parallel corridors

Maybe it dates back to the first century BC on an area already occupied a century before

Maybe it was a huge foundation for a Roman villa

From the first half of the first century AD the complex became part of a vast imperial property on the area where Frascati is now

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