🏰 Faleria – Guardian of Over Two Thousand Years of History

✨ Faleria preserves more than two millennia of history, with roots deep in the Faliscan civilization.📍 Located between the ancient Roman consular roads Flaminia and Cassia, it was a crossroads for travelers, armies, and merchants.

🐎 The Ancient Stabula

• Born as Stabula (stabulum, horse-changing station).

• Some scholars link the name to stabilis, in reference to its tuff foundations.

• Faliscan settlements date back to the 10th–9th centuries B.C., on the site of Piedicastello.

• Reached its peak between the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., with necropolises and agricultural settlements.

🏰 The Medieval Village

• 📜 First mentioned in 998 as Stabla, within ecclesiastical possessions.

• 🛡️ From the 14th century, ruled by the powerful Anguillara family (coat of arms with entwined snakes).

• 👑 In 1660, it passed to the Borghese family, who transformed the castle into a Renaissance residence.

• 🇮🇹 Only in 1873 did it take its current name, Faleria, to honor its Faliscan origins.

🏯 The Anguillara Castle: Symbol of the Village

The Medieval Fortress

• Built in the 13th century on a tuff base.

• 🔺 Trapezoidal plan with a keep and four round towers.

• 🏰 Defensive walls with battlements (traces still visible).

The Renaissance Transformation

• 🌟 Between the 14th and 15th centuries, expanded with travertine loggias and “kneeling” windows.

• 🚪 Monumental entrance with the emblem of the intertwined snakes.

• 💧 Once in the courtyard stood a travertine well bearing the coats of arms of the Anguillara and Strozzi families (later stolen).

The Private Chapel

• ⛪ 15th-century chapel with frescoes, connected to the castle by a suspended bridge.

• Served as a palatine chapel for the family.

⛪ Historic Churches

• ✝️ San Giuliano (13th century, renovated in the 16th): patron saint of Faleria.

  • Romanesque façade, interior with three naves.

  • 1610 altar restored by the Compagnia del SS. Sacramento.

  • Fresco of the patron saint, depicting both the medieval village and Renaissance Rome (Colosseum, Castel Sant’Angelo, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Aurelian Walls).

• 🙏 Madonna della Pietrafitta (1599): built over an ancient sarcophagus.

  • Rare quadrilobed shape with an octagonal drum.

  • Frescoes of the Black Madonna and Madonna with Child.

  • Originally housed three altars: High Altar, Holy Cross, St. Francis.

• 📖 Sant’Agostino (14th century): single nave interior.

  • Once held a painting of St. Augustine and St. Monica.

  • Crypt used as the Anguillara family burial site.

🏚️ Ancient Faleria: The Ghost Town

The Abandoned Village

• Stands on a wedge-shaped tuff spur.

• Stratification: modern quarter → Renaissance village → medieval core → Faliscan nucleus of Piedicastello.

The Abandonment

• ⛏️ Cause: instability of the tuff, similar to Civita di Bagnoregio.

• 🧱 In 1290, surrounded by a defensive wall with a single access gate.

• ⚠️ Landslides and collapses made it uninhabitable.

Today

• A haunting ghost town, suspended between abandonment and memory.

• Some areas off-limits, others still alive → a moving contrast of ruin and resilience.

🎉 Traditions and Celebrations

• ✝️ Feast of San Giuliano (May 15–17): procession with 250 torchbearers, the village in darkness, fireworks, and blessing at the Madonna della Pietrafitta shrine.

• 🌼 Zucchini Blossom Festival (July 4–6): local specialties such as fried zucchini flowers, pasta with zucchini and shrimp, grilled meats, and traditional desserts.

• 🥁 La Frustica of Faleria (June 24–25): the town’s folkloric band, official group of the Italian Rugby National Team, performing in Italy and abroad (including at the Columbus Day Parade).

🌳 Territory and Surroundings

• 🌄 Treja Gorges – tuff canyons rich in biodiversity.

• 🏛️ Falerii Novi (241 B.C.): Roman city abandoned in the Middle Ages.

  • 2 km of walls with towers and gates.

  • Remains of the 12th-century Abbey of Santa Maria.

🏡 Faleria Today: Tradition and Modernity

Faleria lives suspended between two souls:

• the ancient one, carved in tuff and memory;

• the modern one, vibrant, keeping traditions alive.

The village is a striking example of historical continuity:

• From the Falisci to Rome,

• From the power of the Anguillara to the Borghese,

• From ghost town to living community still celebrating San Giuliano.

🌟 Faleria is a place where past and present intertwine, in a suggestive balance that tells the resilience of a community able to reinvent itself without losing its roots.

✍️ By Giano di Vico – Viterbolandia