Alta Tuscia is the territory between Tuscany and Umbria which represents the last northern offshoot of a hidden Lazio, often misunderstood and almost always sacrificed by the cumbersome presence of Rome.
Alta Tuscia: Lazio between Umbria and Tuscany
The villages in Alta Tuscia do not have a “Lazio” connotation, but are hybrids in history, uses and gastronomic traditions. And the accent is more influenced by Tuscan-Umbrian than Roman inflections: after all, different “masters” followed one another here between the 12th and early 15th centuries.
Acquapendente was an imperial, papal, Orvieto and Siena fiefdom. In 1434 it was conquered by the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, but in 1443 it returned to the Holy See under Pope Eugene IV.
Its symbol is the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher to which it owes the name of Jerusalem of Europe. In fact, the church, built in the 12th century by Queen Matilda of Westphalia headed to Rome along the Via Francigena, boasts a suggestive Romanesque crypt with 24 columns which houses a chapel which is the oldest copy in the world of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.
Our tour began with a picnic in the city public park, which replaced the nineteenth-century vegetable gardens and vineyards and is dominated by the high Torre del Barbarossa. The current shape of the imposing tower, once part of the Castle of Frederick I Barbarossa razed to the ground during the rebellion of the citizens against imperial power in 1166, is a refurbishment of the 19th century.
On the upper part there is the “orologione” (big clock), as the Aquesians call it, which has marked the time of the city for centuries. Here we enjoyed the warmth of the spring sun while admiring one of the most beautiful views of the city and the surrounding area which is part of the Monte Rufeno Nature Reserve, established in 1983.
The other tower in the city is the one dedicated to Julia De Jacopo. It is said that in 1550, during the attack by the troops of Pitigliano by Nicola IV Orsini in Acquapendente, it was this girl who ran to close the door left open by the soldiers on guard, thus saving the town.
The original medieval core of the tower was the one facing the inhabited area consisting of a high quadrangular construction used for defense and sighting of the enemy. During the Renaissance the anterior body was built with a singular hexagonal shape. Today Torre Julia De Jacopo is the seat of the Visitor Center of the Municipality and houses the tourist office and the City Museum which collects valuable medieval ceramics.
The northernmost village of Alta Tuscia and Lazio is Proceno which, according to legend, was founded by Porsenna, the Etruscan king of the city of Chiusi who, attacked by a wild boar, killed him: for this reason the town has the head of a this animal.
There are numerous finds testifying to the Etruscan origins of the town and below the Castle of Proceno, which hosted our first sleeps and dreams in the territory of Tuscia Viterbese, there is an Etruscan tomb currently used as the seat of the kitchen of the restaurant of Albergo Diffuso.
Sleeping between walls that exude history was a very exciting experience completed by a tour in the castle park and through the narrow streets of the town from whose top you can enjoy a unique landscape ranging from Monte Amiata and Radicofani to the Paglia Valley. The confluence of the Stridolone and Merdazzo streams with the Paglia river makes Proceno’s climate special, very similar to mountain villages with long and cold winters, despite its modest altitude of only 418 meters above sea level.
The village has maintained its medieval layout and, after passing Porta Fiorentina also known as Porta Ripa, one of the three access gates, you find yourself immersed in a surreal and timeless atmosphere, especially when the evening lights go down and Proceno returns silent and populated only by cats that, popping up everywhere, attracted Otto’s attention.
On the roofs and houses stands the Rocca with its donjons and towers. In one of these we were hosted by Mrs. Cecilia Bisoni Cecchini, whose family has owned the Castello di Proceno since 1644.
Here it is the Tuscan accent that dominates: the northernmost town of Alta Tuscia in the Middle Ages was part of the Marquisate of Tuscany, then it was subjected to the Municipality of Siena and became part of the possessions of the great Renaissance families, Orsini, Sforza, Mozzanti, Selvi and finally Cecchini.
On the main square of the town the majestic Palazzo Sforza makes a fine show, built on a project by Sangallo by Cardinal Guido Ascanio of the same family, Camerlengo of Santa Romana Chiesa and Governor of Proceno, in the mid-sixteenth century. The facade shows a rampant lion, symbol of the Sforza of Santa Fiora and the Farnese lilies, symbol of the maternal branch.
In the heart of the town there is also the thirteenth-century Church of the Santissimo Salvatore, with its simple façade and the bell tower, built in 997, which was the first Rocca of Proceno.
On the top opposite that of the castle stands the small circular chapel dedicated to the patron saint of Proceno, Sant’Agnese da Montepulciano.
It was built in 1872, in the exact position where the monastery of the Suore del Sacco stood, founded by the saint and of which she became abbess.
Nothing remains of the ancient convent, except an olive tree in the Sacred Garden which witnessed the miraculous communion that Agnes had the privilege of receiving from an angel.
It is very suggestive to stroll through the districts of the ancient village when the warm rays of the setting sun tinge the walls of houses and palaces with gold, pausing to read the signs describing the districts of Proceno.
The Center is the one located in the heart of the town where the main square, the town hall and the sixteenth-century Palazzo Sforza stand, while the Porta district is the one at the foot of the Rocca, which takes its name from one of the three gates that in the past gave access in Proceno.
Which ones intrigued us the most? Verdura, which develops along the main street, Salaiolo, which takes its name from the mineral of which the subsoil is mainly made up, and Bottino seat in the fifteenth century of the Jewish ghetto and the synagogue, near which there are a part of surrounding wall and one of the three access gates to the town and which recalls the presence of a bottinaccio in which rainwater was collected.
The magic of living another era continued in our room inside the castle tower where we enjoyed the cozy and intimate atmosphere of the fire lit in the huge fireplace that warmed our hearts even before the air.
