Cantalupo in Sabina ( Sabino: ) 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 ...

'' in the

province of Rieti The Province of Rieti ( it, Provincia di Rieti) is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Rieti. Established in 1927, it has an area of with a total population of 157,887 people as of 2017. There are 73 ''comuni'' i ...

, on the Sabine Hills of

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

. It is famous as the reputed origin of the

muskmelon ''Cucumis melo'', also known as melon, is a species of '' Cucumis'' that has been developed into many cultivated varieties. The fruit is a pepo. The flesh is either sweet or bland, with or without a musky aroma, and the rind can be smooth (such a ...

called a

cantaloupe The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fami ...

melon. It is one of several Italian ''

comuni 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 ...

'' named "Cantalupo" ("song of the wolf" or "howl of the wolf" or literally "sings wolf") and it seems that these place names are due to an elevated presence of wolves at the time of their naming (probably because wolves could be heard howling, but this etymology is actually disputed nowadays).

History

Cantalupo in Imperial Roman times housed a scattering of villas, one belonging to the Tullii, the family of the orator

Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, but in the Migrations period the inhabitants were protected by a walled castle at the high point of a rocky spur, which was in possession of the counts of Cuneo. Cantalupo was not mentioned however, until an 11th-century register reported the walled village as a possession of the abbots of Farfa. Though in 1278 the commune's representatives swore fealty to the Papacy, its borderlands position in the

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

(governed from Rome) and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, Cantalupo passed from one feudatory lord to another. The ''rocca'' commanding the town was expanded into a residence for the counts of Sant'Eustachio in the 13th and 14th centuries, and then passed to the Savelli family in the 15th century before it was further enlarged by a series of successive holders of the ''feodo''. The site is now privately owned.Comune of Cantalupo in Sabina
In the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, Cantalupo was governed by a direct representative of the Apostolic Camera. Among the landmark buildings is the baroque church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo.

Notable persons

* Elio Augusto Di Carlo (1918–1998) Italian ornithologist, historian and physician.

References

External links

Cantalupo in Sabina
(in Italian)

(in English with picture of a "family crest" of a wolf howling at a star. Does not have the same information as the Italian language site above) Cities and towns in Lazio {{Latium-geo-stub

History

Notable persons

See also

References

External links