Step Back in Time: Visit Monterano’s Enigmatic Ruins
You start visiting Monterano and right away feel like a fresh Indiana Jones. Indeed, it is a ghost town close to the province of Rome’s Canale Monterano municipality. Built on top of a tufaceous spur midway between the Tolfa Mountains and Lake Bracciano, this village of ruins is marked on the Monterano Regional Nature Reserve in a hidden corner. Those same ruins, however, know how to speak to the hearts of those who see them, whispering the ancient splendor of the past, the vitality still imbues them, the seduction they know how to exercise.
The Rich History of Monterano
Once a tangible presence, the evanescence saw the Etruscans establish a colony in the urban center thanks to the arrival of the Romans, able to build the road network and the aqueduct capable of boosting the water flow.
The site’s specific form let the population defend itself from the barbarian raids; in fact, many more people gathered here from villages too exposed and vulnerable. Manturianum had walls and fortifications; its impregnability made the starting village a nodal center for the Sabatino until the 10th century, the beginning of a slow depopulation that stopped in the 14th century, when the economic recovery gave hope and confidence.
The Orrsini bought the dubious fiefdom in the sixteenth century, but it was the Altieris who molded its riches into the form of buildings commissioned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who oversaw the octagonal fountain, façade of the Baronial Palace, and Convent of San Bonaventura. Pope Clement’s paradise was fleeting.
This was still nothing, thus Monterano’s last appointment with destiny arrived to decide the official destruction of the town by the French troops, who then set everything on fire, punishing the people for having refused to grind wheat for the Tolfanesi, subjected to the transalpine occupiers.
Discover the Ruins of Monterano
Though we will never know what future Monterano could have had from an urban standpoint, ironically today is worth more uninhabited than occupied. It is a very moving place, a poetic environment during the day and ghostly at night, romantic at sunset, and heaven at dawn. From the top of the Fontana Capricciosa, the Church of San Rocco, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, and ancient buildings left abandoned for a long period, the Etruscan burial sites on the slopes of the hill are a prelude to a climb leading to the ectoplasmic town, a receptacle of ruins evoking the old life of the mentioned monuments.
Monterano: A Unique Setting for Films
The emptiness of the village welcomes the echo of the past, so inspiring melancholy, amazement, and bewilderment—all emotions complicity in the choice of some directors to set scenes of their films. Monterano hosted the filming of well-known masterpieces including the unforgettable massive “Ben-Hur” (W William Wyler, 1959), “Brancaleone alle crociate” (MMario Monicelli, 1970), and “Il Marchese del Grillo” ( Mario Monicelli, 1981). It is still a superb film set.
Visiting Monterano is undoubtedly a singular experience that terraces and, at the same time, amazes, torments, and excites in a game of emotional contrasts that causes goosebumps. A ghost town but not a dead city since inside its boundaries much still lives and has unquestionably beauty.
Lastly, let us not overlook the early summer activities: the Potato Festival and the Fettuccine Festival, which honors one of the gastronomic treasures in Canale Monterano.
Visiting Monterano: A Guide to Getting There
There are many ways to get to the ghost village of Monterano, but first you have to get to Canale Monterano. To do this, take the Via Cassia and the Braccianese from Rome up to Manziana, then continue on the SP 3a towards Tolfa-Civitavecchia. Trains on the Manziana-Canale Monterano line depart from Roma Ostiense station every hour; Rome Fiumicino is the reference airport. Once at Canale Monterano, follow the small road that runs alongside the left side of the local church until you reach a crossroads where there are signs for the Monterano Nature Reserve. Turn right here, passing two clearings, and you’ll reach the entrance bar, where you park your car and can climb up to the hill.