Caprarola historical timeline

Although it sits in the middle of ancient Etruscan territory, Caprarola's roots are much more recent. The first notices of stable settlement date to around the eleventh century — and the reason, as with Ronciglione, is the Monti Cimini themselves, anciently called the Selva Cimina and considered impervious and impenetrable country.

Through the Middle Ages the town was contested between feudal families. In 1275 there is evidence that it was under the Orsini, but only briefly: power passed quickly to the Prefetti di Vico. From 1370 a struggle for control of these lands began between the Prefetti di Vico and the Counts of Anguillara, and in 1435 Caprarola fell under the jurisdiction of the Holy See.

Five years later, in 1440, the fief was bought by Count Everso dell'Anguillara and remained with that family until 1465, when Pope Paul II confiscated all their property. Towards the end of the fifteenth century Caprarola was entrusted in vicariate to the Riario-Della Rovere, under whose government the town began to flourish and to repopulate.

Its greatest moment came in the sixteenth century, with the Farnese. With the election of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III, and with the constitution of the Duchy of Castro, the family greatly extended its dominion, building sumptuous villas and castles — and at Caprarola it built the residence most representative of the wealth and power it had reached.

That building has a sharp date attached to it. It was begun in 1530 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese the elder, to a project by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, initially as a fortress. After only four years the project came to a halt, when the cardinal was elected pope in 1534 as Paul III.

And there is a modern chapter the town keeps. After 8 September 1943 and the German occupation, the twenty-four members of the Roman Jewish family Veneziano took refuge here. Guests of the Brunetti family, they had eight months of solidarity from many of the inhabitants and from the local authorities, until the Liberation. On 27 January 2005 Roberto and Maria Brunetti were given the honour of Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.