The Town of Romantic Landscapes, great wine and the Borghese family

The Town of Romantic Landscapes, great wine and the Borghese family

In my travels in the Lazio Region around Rome, I had the fortune to visit the picturesque town of Olevano Romano, up in the Prenestine Mountains, an area renowned for its vineyards, olive groves and tasty local food. The trip to visit this town is a welcome break from the city of Rome and offers some of the most suggestive scenery in the region.

In the 19th century, many German artists came to the slopes of the Mount Celeste, where Olevano Romano stands, as they felt inspired by the breathtaking views of the open countryside and the incredible beauty of the nature around them. The origins of the Romantic and Heroic Landscape School of artists started up in the area. The Tyrolean painter Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839) fell in love with the small town and decided to stay here and marry a local girl. One of the main streets in the town is named in his honour.

The list of German artists who have visited or painted some scene of Olevano Romano is long. The German appreciation of the town led to the purchase by a group of Germans of the Serpentara Wood (1873), along with Villa Serpentara and Casa Baldi, which nowadays houses annexes of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts and the Villa Massimo German Academy. In 1997, the German influence increased with the opening of the Latium Museum and Centre for Studies of European Landscape Painting, which houses examples of many 19th century German artworks.

Olevano Romano is approximately one hour from Rome by car in a winding journey through the open countryside passing close to other beautiful places like San Cesareo, Zagarolo, Genazzano and Colleferro.

The town itself, probably founded by the Romans, is small with just over 6600 inhabitants. The name of the town may derive from the Latin word olivus meaning ‘olive’ and the ‘Romano’ part of the town’s name is used to specific the region.

Apart from the amazing countryside, Olevano Romano has an interesting variety of churches and small historical monuments to be explored at a leisurely pace. In fact, it seems that life moves along very slowly in this town.

Do not miss the beautiful frescos in the Church of Santa Maria della Corte or the Baldi House, which was the summer residence of the Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who bought Olevano in 1614. The remains of the town’s castle with its tower give a great view of the rest of the town and the landscape below.

Any visit to this town would not be complete without buying a couple of bottles of the international award-winning wine, Cesanese di Olevano.

A final note worth mentioning about the contribution of this town to modern Roman history is that of the effort of the residents to hide and protect 70 Jews who had fled from Rome to Olevano Romano during the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1943. In 2001, the Yad Vashem Institute of Jerusalem proclaimed the members of the Agapito and Milana families to be included in the list of “Righteous Gentiles of the Nations” in honour of their gesture.

                                

Written by Robert Coghlan
Photos by: Robert Coghlan