250px, View of Valentano. Valentano is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' of the

province of Viterbo Viterbo ( it, provincia di Viterbo) is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. Geography Viterbo is the most northerly of the provinces of Lazio. It is bordered to the south by the Metropolitan City of Rome C ...

, in the

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

region of central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is from the provincial capital,

Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history ...

. left, 220px, Rocca Farnese in Valentano. The placename is of uncertain origin. Some identify the town with an

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

''Verentum'', others trace the name to ''ontano'', Italian for

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

, since alders cover the slopes of a nearby valley: ''Valle Ontano'' becoming ''Valentano''.

History

Antiquity and High Middle Ages

The town is named for the first time in a manuscript of 813 in the Farfa Register; starting in 844 a "Balentanu" appears in other documents of the abbey of San Salvatore on Mt. Amiata. The land was definitely inhabited in prehistoric times, and important finds in the Lake Mezzano and near Mt. Becco, Mt. Saliette, the Poggi del Mulino and Mt. Starnina seem to confirm the theories of historians, who identify the lake with the Lake of Statonia (''Lacus Statoniensis'') described by

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

in his ''

Naturales Quaestiones ''Naturales quaestiones'' (''Natural Questions'') is a Latin work of natural philosophy written by Seneca around 65 AD. It is not a systematic encyclopedia like the ''Naturalis Historia'' of Pliny the Elder, though with Pliny's work it represent ...

'' and by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

ii.209
an

.

The Farnese

In the Renaissance period, the town fell under the dominion of the

Farnese family The House of Farnese family (, also , ) was an influential family in Renaissance Italy. The titles of Duke of Parma and Piacenza and Duke of Castro were held by various members of the family. Its most important members included Pope Paul I ...

: it is to them that Valentano owes its fortress (''Rocca'') and many of its churches. In 1649, when the town of

Castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

, capital of the

Duchy of Castro The Duchy of Castro was a fiefdom in central Italy formed in 1537 from a small strip of land on what is now Lazio's border with Tuscany, centred on Castro, Lazio, Castro, a fortified city on a tufa cliff overlooking the Fiora River which was its ...

, was destroyed, Valentano became the natural center of the Castrense region and the custodian of its archives.

Modern times

In June 1944, an artillery shell exploded in the "Portonaccio" gate, killing seven civilians who had taken shelter in it. The gate itself is a witness to the tragedy, since one of its stones is missing, but in 2004 a plaque was placed in the Via Trento e Trieste to commemorate all local victims of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Main sights

* ''Palazzo Comunale'' (Town Hall) * ''Porta Magenta'', designed by

Vignola Vignola (Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese: ; Bolognese dialect, Bolognese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Its economy is based on agriculture, especially fruit farming, but there are also mechani ...

* Vitozzi Palace * Cruciani Palace, birthplace of

Paolo Ruffini Paolo Ruffini (Valentano, 22 September 1765 – Modena, 10 May 1822) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. Education and Career By 1788 he had earned university degrees in philosophy, medicine/surgery and mathematics. His works inclu ...

* San Martino lookout * Museum of the Prehistory of Tuscia and of the Rocca Farnese * Churches: ** Collegiate church of '' San Giovanni Evangelista'' **'' Santa Maria'' **'' Santa Croce'' ** ''Madonna del Monte'' ** Sanctuary of the ''Madonna della Salute '' **'' Chiesa dell'Annunziata'' at Villa Fontane ** ''Sancta Maria ad Templum'' ** ''Chiesa dell'Eschio ** Church of the ''Madonna della Pietà ''(also ''Madonna dell' Ospedale'')

People

* Ranuccio Farnese, Roman Catholic cardinal * Alessandro Guarnelli *

, 18th century mathematician

Events

* Good Friday: Procession of the Body of Christ ("Cristo Morto") * Third Sunday in May: Cedar Fair, instituted by the Farnese in 1461 * August 14–15 Agosto: Feast of the Assumption, with a Plowing Competition. * Throughout the summer: various events, including the Palio of the Duchy of Castro, a historical pageant.

Twin towns

Haltwhistle Haltwhistle is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, east of Brampton. It had a population of 3,811 at the 2011 Census. Stone-built houses are a feature of Haltwhistle. It is one of two settlements in Great Britain which c ...

, United Kingdom *

Saint-Méen-le-Grand Saint-Méen-le-Grand (; ; Gallo: ''Saent-Men'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is located west of Rennes between Montauban-de-Bretagne and Gaël. At the 2006 Tour de France, Saint-Méen-l ...

, France

References

External links

*
Valentano.OrgProLoco Valentano
(Tourist Office)

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lazio Castles in Italy