Riano - Virtual Tour 360°

The first news we have of Castrum Raiani dates back to 1159, when, formerly belonging to Giovanni di Ronzone (or Roncione) and Berardo, his younger brother, living in Rome in the place called the mount of Johannes Roncionis, they donated the locality with the castle and all its appurtenances to Pope Adrian IV.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, in 1203, Riano was among the places that Innocent III confirmed and donated to the Abbey of San Paolo fuori le mura.

It is not clear whether this donation was intended in full, because probably the portion sold by the de Rontionis brothers to Adriano IV had been sold to the Vezzosi family.

Pierluigi Galletti, in his work on Capena and the Collinense land, cites an existing document in the archive of the monastery of San Paolo, from which we learn that in 1259 the monastery bought the part of the Castrum Raiani belonging to Iacopo de Vezzosi and his relatives. 

In 1268, to pay the sum for this purchase, he had to sell the farmhouse of Fiorano to the monastery of Santa Balbina.

In 1393 Riano was once again dependent on the Abbey of San Paolo and subsequently, due to the numerous conflicts that troubled Rome and its surroundings, the locality heavily suffered the effects that had to be largely rebuilt.

In 1527, the monastery of San Paolo, in order to cope with the impositions due to the imperial troops by Pope Clement VII, had to sell the locality with all its appurtenances to Luigi Gaddi for 20,000 ducats. Only two years later, however, he returned to the monastery for 20,000 scudi.

Due to new needs it was again sold in 1531 to Francesco Spinola for 12,000 ducats: in 1538 the descendants of Spinola sold it to the Gaddi for the second time for 16,000 ducats.

In 1570 Cardinal Pierdonato Cesi bought it for his nephew Emilio, from Silvia and Antonia Gaddi, heirs of Luigi, to whose family he remained in the branch of the Dukes of Acquasparta to subsequently pass to the Ludovisi-Boncompagni princes of Piombino.

In 1924 the body of Giacomo Matteotti was found on August 16, between 7:30 and 8 in the morning, by the dog of a sergeant of the Carabinieri on leave, Ovidio Caratelli in the Quartarella scrub.

In 1985 the abbey you see in the film "The Name of the Rose" on a mound was turned and rebuilt above the Pian dell'Olmo quarry at 10 km of the Via Tiberina, as the scenographer Dante Ferretti testified in a film, the abbey it was built near Riano and immediately after the shooting was dismantled, now there is only a ruin of medieval times on the hill with a wide panorama of Northern Rome.

Map: Riano - Virtual Tour 360°