Formello

Infobox CityIT
img_coa = Formello-Stemma.png official_name = Comune di Formello
name = Formello
region = Lazio
province = Rome
elevation_m = 225
area_total_km2 = 31
population_as_of = December 31, 2004
population_total = 10871
population_density_km2 = 298
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|41|56|N|13|06|E
mapx = 42.08
mapy=12.41
frazioni = Le Rughe
telephone = 06
postalcode = 00060
gentilic = Formellesi
saint = Saint Lawrence
day = August 10
mayor =
website = [http://www.comunediformello.it www.comunediformello.it ]

Formello is a town and a "comune" in the province of Rome. It is located south-west to the Monti Sabatini, within the Regional Park of Veii. The communal territory is mostly composed by tuff , and is intensively cultivated.

History

The area was settled since prehistorical times, and was later the territory of Veii. It decayed with the latter's destruction in 396 BC. About 780, with newly peaceful conditions, Pope Adrian I assembled a great estate of which this territory formed part, his "Domusculta Capracorum", in contrast with the power of the Abbey of Farfa, but it was destroyed by Saracen attacks in the ninth century. The domus' territories included a "fundus Formellum", where a settlement developed that was first mentioned in 1027. [J.B. Ward-Perkins, "Etruscan Towns, Roman Roads and Medieval Villages: The Historical Geography of Southern Etruria" "The Geographical Journal" 128.4 (December 1962:389-404) p. 402]

In the eleventh century it was a possession of the Roman Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, and was probably fortified in the same period. In 1279 it became a fief of the Orsini family, who sold it to the Chigi in 1661.

Main sights

*Church of "San Lorenzo" (10th-11th centuries). It received a bell tower in the fifteenth century, and was renovated in 1574 with the addition of the two aisles. The left one houses frescoes by Domenico Palmieri.
*"Palazzo Chigi". It was built by the Orsini, probably over the pre-existing "castrum" mentioned in the eleventh century. It houses the Archaeological Museum of the Countryside of Veii
*Church of "San Michele Arcangelo".
*The ruined Villa Chigi-Versaglia, built by cardinal Flavio Chigi in the seventeenth century.

Transportation

* [http://www.zelitlimousine.com/ Airport Transfers from and to Rome]

Notes