The city of Canino and its history

Itineraries and historical-cultural information

gastronomic excursions based on extra virgin olive oil, a typical local product, but also by admiring the rural landscapes and expanses of olive groves, or by visiting the wildlife oasis and the areas bordering the Fiora river that divides the territory of Canino from Tuscany. In the area you can undertake interesting tourist-cultural itineraries in fact, in addition to what the nearby Bolsena, Tarquinia and Tuscania offer, the area of the ancient Duchy of Castro is rich in history and curiosities of which we briefly report some hints below.

Canino

The city of oil

Its origin is linked to the “gens Caninia”, one of the noblest families of the Etruscan Vulci; remains of an imperial villa attest to the Roman presence, but the first notes date back to the Papal Bull of Pope Leo IV issued in the ninth century. The town was the birthplace of Pope Paul III Farnese. In the palace, the work of the architect Valadier, lived Luciano Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, whose family chapel is located in the Collegiate Church of which you can also admire paintings by Albertinelli, Wicar, Monaldo, and some of the Flemish school. Other paintings and frescoes of the school of Perugino are found in the Convent of San Francesco. The bronze bell was found in Canino, the oldest and smallest known; Recently restored in the Vatican Museums, this relic of considerable importance and rarity was cast in the eighth century and was the oldest example of a bell with a dedicatory epigraph. In the territory of Canino, the Etruscan area of Vulci on the border with Tuscany, there is the National Museum, the Etruscan Necropolis and the Civita; in the area of the “Centocamere” there are remains of a Roman thermal establishment where, even today, the thaumaturgical sulphurous waters of the “Bagno” flow abundantly at 39 ° C; in Vulci you can admire the Castello dell’Abbadia (one of the oldest in Italy), once used as a Papal customs house, and all the wonders of Etruscan art preserved in the museum and found in the numerous

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Arlena di Castro

The city of Etruscan tombs
Formerly called “Arleum” in the Papal Bull that constituted the Duchy of Castro. The first document in which Arlena is mentioned dates back to an ancient parchment of 823 relating to a donation by Walpert of Rofano. In 1537 Arlena became part of the Duchy of Castro, then the town underwent depopulation and, by order of Alessandro Farnese, repopulation; in 1788 Pope Pius VI granted it in emphyteusis, later it was sold to the Polish Prince Poniatowski. Numerous Etruscan tombs have been found in the area, characteristic are the remains of the ancient “Rocca” in the part called “Castelvecchio” at the entrance to the town
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Cellere

Ancient refuge of Domenichino Tiburzi
Formerly called “Cellulae” and “Castrum Cereris”, mentioned for the first time in a parchment of 737, it was, in Roman times, as the name itself suggests, a fertile agricultural fiefdom. In 1180 Cellere, together with Canino, was ceded to Viterbo by the anti-pope Innocent III, followed the events and wars of the period including the liberation of Tuscania with Cardinal Albornoz, the cession of the Castle to the Orsini family, until the destruction of Casto in 1649, which constituted the return of the town under the dominion of the Holy See. In Cellere, in addition to the fertile lands, the scrubs, the cliffs and the caves that gave refuge for many years to the famous brigand of the Maremma Domenichino Tiburzi “king of the road, king of the forest”, you can admire the Church of Sant’Egidio (Renaissance style) attributed to Antonio di Sangallo the Younger and, in the hamlet of Pianano 5 km from the town,  the remains of the tower.
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Ischia di Castro

Important Eneolithic necropolis
Formerly called “Iscla” or “Iscia”, it rises on the border of Tuscany in the area called Maternum by the ancient Etruscans, but the presence of “homo primigenius” dates back to the Stone and Bronze Ages as evidenced by tombs, caves and archaeological finds found in many places in its territory where there are also the ruins of ancient monasteries of the medieval period. After the dominations of the Lombards, the Aldobrandeschi and the Orsini, Ischia became one of the first fiefdoms of the Farnese family and later, after the destruction of the city of Castro, it returned under the temporal dominion of the popes. In 1872, having joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, it took the current name of Ischia di Castro, with a Royal Decree of King Vittorio Emanuele II. At different times Ischia had illustrious guests such as Annibal Caro, Carlo Emanuele IV King of Sardinia, the painter Francesco Coghetti (some of his works are preserved in the parish) and other characters who were able to appreciate the expanses of woods and olive groves, the wild landscape and the historical remains of the troubled existence of the town characterized, even today,  from the gigantic bulk of the castle of the Doge’s Palace.
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Tessennano

The village with its green and picturesque landscape
The first notes of the town date back to 1263 when it was mentioned as one of the castles under the dominion of Tuscania. Subsequently, in 1537 under the Farnesi, it became part of the Duchy of Casto, then forfeited in the possessions of the Holy See which used it as a gift to the various Lords of the time who followed one another in large numbers. A singular ornament of Tessennano is the green and picturesque landscape that surrounds the town which, having about 400 inhabitants, is one of the smallest municipalities in Italy.
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