How Frascati was built and evolved over time

Frascati was built up in stages, each by someone else's decision.

It began small: in the ninth century, according to the Liber Pontificalis, it was a little village, probably founded two centuries earlier.

It grew when Tusculum fell. The destruction of the neighbouring city in 1191 brought population and the bishopric down the hill.

It was fortified by a pope. In 1460 Pius II fortified the city with walls, after centuries in which its territories had been ravaged by raids and it had passed between baronial families, the Colonna among them.

It was given a constitution by a condottiero. Marcantonio I Colonna, installed by Julius II and resident from 1508, granted the first statute in 1515.

And it was raised to a city by another pope: in 1538 Paul III conferred the title of Civitas with the name Tusculum Novum, after which the major building followed — the hospital of 1518, and from 1598 the new cathedral dedicated to St Peter.

Around all this the Castelli Romani villa landscape was laid out, which is what gives the town its character today.