The history of the most important and renowned center of the Roman Castles tells of pillages, constructions of Roman villas, foundation of monasteries, building of baroque villas and a whealth of ruins left by the Second World War. In the Roman Age in the area of Frascati stood the villa attributed to Lucullus that in the Imperial Age passed to the family of Flavian emperors. In the the area occupied by the villa stands today the church of Saint Maria in Vivario built up in the area correnspondent to the Vivarium (water tank). Little is known of the medieval past of Frascati: most probably a Benedictine monastery was erected near the ruins of the ancient Roman villa and it was thanks to activity of the monks that the village was kept alive. In the Middle Ages in fact monastic orders, playing a cultural and economic role, became centers of power in the territory. At the end of XIII century the importance of Frascati increased as testified by the restoration of Saint Maria in Vivario and the construction of the bell tower (in 1305 as written in the epigraph) still today the most important testimony of medieval Frascati. In 1354 passed in Frascati also Cola di Rienzo, that ” here had plenty of bowmen and foot soldiers”. During the exile of Popes in Avignon till the end of the 400’s, Frascati was under control of the Colonna family, indicated on the maps as castrum, fortified center. It is thanks to great humanist Pope Pius II of the Piccolomini family that Frascati began to form itself as a city: the Pope ordered construction of city walls and a castle, today bishop’s residence. Nevertheless the town passed under control of different rulers: in subsequent periods settled the Apostolic Chamber, cardinal Guglielmo d’ Estouteville (Pope Pius II rival during the conclave in1458), Lucrezia Borgia, Lucrezia della Rovere and Marcantonio Colonna that provided the town with a statute in 1515. Later on Frascati passed in the hands of the Farnese family: in 1538 Pope Paul III Farnese gave to the town the name of Tusculum Novum. Paul III entrusted Antonio da Sangallo the Young with the task of definining the urbanistic features of the town so divided into three different districts: St. Maria, St. Flavia and St. Peter. In 1559 (year of the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis) began a glorious period for the town: the noble Roman families (Aldobrandini, Lancellotti, Falconieri, Mondragone, Parisi, Dumb, Grazioli, Torlonia) elected Frascati for the construction of their country residences, places of delight, in which they lived set apart from common people and town daily activities. separation confirmed by the architecture of these villas that offer to the city an austere flat façade and reserving to the inner façade the sight of majestic and fancy decorations. In 1558 the new cathedral of Saint Peter was built in the area that was designated as new center of the town, marking the development that the area had had as a result of the setting of the villas towards the hills and the peripheral position of the ancient Saint Maria in Vivario. Since then the city urban setting did not change so much; in1856 was laid the first section of the railroad in the Papal state linking Rome to Frascati (project completed by Pius IX but planned by his predecessor Gregory XVI who loved these sites). At the time of its construction the station was someway distant, separeted from the inhabited center and a popular saying asserted that “the Rome-Frascati train did not leave from Rome and it did not arrive in Frascati” because both stations were far away from the town. The distance between the towns was covered in 28 minutes at a speed of 40 km/hour. With the advent of the railroad, Romans had the chance to go to Frascati and return in a single day after generous lunches accompanied by famous wine whose local production goes back to the Roman time. The last train that brought the Romans back home was called “tropéa train” that in Roman dialect means drunk train. The Roman custom of weekend journeys to the Roman castles is still alive as an unconscious historical rope that links strongly together the vicissitudes of Rome to the ones of these places. After the Unification of Italy the city walls were destroyed and it was erected a massive wall that supports the walkway dedicated to Queen Margherita. In 1941 settles Frascati the German High supreme command in the Mediterranean; the 8th of September 1943 the town was bombed with hundreds of victims and destruction of a large section of the city, liberated on 3rd of June 1944. In the Aldobrandini stables has been recently opened the Museum Tuscolano that exhibits important archaeological ruins of the territory. (06- 9417195). Famous is also the Carnival of Frascati that is celebrated with allegorical charriots and that finishes with the fire of a Pulcinella. Among the typical products, beyond its wine that can be tasted in the numerous “fraschette”, renowned are the Pupazze, pastry cakes with honey having the shape of woman with three breasts, with reference to ancient rituals of fertility.
