OLÉVANO ROMANO

Altitude 517 m (1,670 feet). 6,500 inhabitants

On MONTE CELESTE in the territory of the Equi people

Consisting an old section and a modern section

The old section is located on the remains of cyclopean walls that stretch for about 250 m (820 feet)

It belonged to Subiaco and later to the Colonna and Borghese families

It became a popular town among Italian and foreign (mainly German) painters and poets in the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century. The most famous was the "Nazarene" Joseph Anton Koch (1768/1839) who married a local peasant woman

Castello Colonna

Colonna Castle

It was built in the thirteenth century. Only one tower is left now

The small church of S. MARIA DELLA CORTE (St. Mary of the Court) was originally part of the complex of the castle

Bosco della Serpentara

Wood of Serpentara

1.5 km (0.9 miles) to the north of Olévano Romano, on the slopes of Monte Sant'Arcangelo, celebrated by painters and poets who were inspired by the eerie setting including Gustave Dorè the illustrator of an historical publication of Dante's Inferno

It is owned by the German government together with the Villa Serpentara and Casa Baldi founded in the seventeenth century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese Caffarelli (1577/1633)