The historic centre of Albano Laziale corresponds to the territory of the first municipal decentralization district of the municipality of the same name of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, Lazio.
Albano was founded in the early Middle Ages on the site occupied in the imperial age by the Castra Albana, the Italic encampment of the Legio II Parthica: during the Middle Ages the city experienced troubled military and proprietary vicissitudes, disputed between the Apostolic Camera and the Savelli family. It was sacked by the Saracens in the ninth century, besieged in 1108, and razed to the ground in 1168 and 1436: since the thirteenth century, it was permanently subjected to the rule of the Savelli family, who graced the city with the title of principality. A period of splendor for the city began with the acquisition of the fiefdom by the Apostolic Camera in 1697, and the city's commercial life revived considerably in the late eighteenth century with the reopening of the Via Appia Nuova.
The historic centre of Albano Laziale is home to the municipal palace. The Albano territory also includes the administrative hamlets of Cecchina (second district) and Pavona (third district). It is also a suburbicarian diocese attested since the fourth century,Alberto Galieti, Cronotassi storico-critica dei vescovi albanensi, in AA.VV., Contributi alla storia della diocesi suburbicaria di Albano Laziale, pp. 92-112. the seat of the magistrate's court and the general direction of the ASL RMH.
History
Ancient age
From the first human settlements to the republican age
The Albano territory, together with the entire area of the Alban Hills, was subject, between about 600,000 and 20,000 years ago,Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, L'ambiente naturale del Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, pp. 3-8. to the activity of the Latium Volcano: this caused the creation of a volcanic terrain, composed largely of peperino and, to a lesser extent, tuff. The first human settlements attested in the Albano territory date back to the Iron Age, that is, to the Latium periods I and II A (1000 BC-830 B.C. circa);. these are surface finds discovered in two localities (Tor Paluzzi and Colle dei Cappuccini) probable sites of as many human settlements..
In the later Latian period II B (c. 830 B.C.-770 B.C.) the first finds that can be linked to the birth of Alba Longa are attested. According to the account of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the city would have been founded by Aeneas' son Ascanius thirty years after the founding of Lavinium, "near a mountain and a lake, occupying the space between the two." Although the archaeologist Antonio Nibby placed the site of the city on the eastern side of Lake Albano, between the localities of Costa Caselle near Marino and Pozzo Carpino in the municipality of Grottaferrata, at the foot of Monte Cavo,. the most substantial archaeological remains have been found on the southern side of the lake, between the Colle dei Cappuccini and the convent of Santa Maria ad Nives of Palazzolo in the municipality of Rocca di Papa..
In the Albano territory in the locality of Selvotta and in the neighboring territory of Ariccia at the disused peperino quarries, several necropolises have also been found that can be linked to the development of Alba Longa. A new human settlement flourished at Castel Savello, attested by some burials found in the Valle Pozzo below; the settlement of Tor Paluzzi continued to exist, albeit scaled down. In the Latium III period (770 BC-730 B.C. circa) there were no substantial changes in material culture nor in the continuity of the settlements; the most important finding of this period concerns the growing hegemony of Alba Longa, which can be seen from the finds in the Via Virgilio necropolis.
The Latium IV A period (c. 730 B.C.-640 B.C.) probably saw the introduction of viticulture in Lazio:. during this period Alba Longa was destroyed by Tullus Hostilius, its population deported to Rome and the Latin League subjected to Roman rule. The Alban Hills still retained some religious importance, due to the existence of the important shrines of Latian Jupiter on Monte Cavo,. Diana Aricina near present-day Nemi,. and Juno Sospita in Lanuvio,Pino Chiarucci, Lanuvium, in Il Lazio antico, p. 127. as well as the permanence of the surviving Albano priestly congregations in Bovillae, which from then on boasted of having succeeded Alba Longa as the Latin religious capital.Girolamo Torquati, Studi storico-archeologici sulla città e sul territorio di Marino, vol. I cap. XX p. 178. After the ouster of Rome's last king Tarquinius Superbus in 510 B.C., he fled to Chiusi's lucumo Porsenna, who in 505 B.C. sent half of the Chiusi army commanded by his son Aruns against Aricia; in front of the city walls, roughly near the present church of Santa Maria della Stella on the outskirts of Albano,. thus took place the Battle of Aricia, which saw the Aricines and their Cuman allies triumph. over the Etruscans, who after signing peace with Rome had wanted to try to extend their rule over Aricia as well. The tomb of Aruns, who was killed in battle, has been identified by some historians with the tomb popularly attributed to the Horatii and Curiatii.
The Albano territory was traversed beginning in 312 B.C. by the Via Appia Antica, the regina viarum, commissioned by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus as a direct link between Rome and Capua. Later the road was improved (the twenty-kilometer stretch between Rome and Bovillae was paved in saxum quadratum in 293). and extended to Benevento and then to Brindisi, the gateway to Greece. Among the personalities who had villas in the Albano area in the Republican age were Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,. Quintus Aurelius,. Lucius Albucius Iustus,. Marcus Junius Brutus,. and Publius Clodius Pulcher.. Other anonymous villas have been found near the southern shore of Lake Albano. and at the Albano Laziale railway station..
The Imperial Age
In the imperial age were built the villas of Lucius Anneus Seneca or Publius Papinius Statius: however, the most imposing building constructed during this period was the "Albanum Caesarum," the colossal villa of Domitian at Castel Gandolfo, commissioned by Emperor Titus Flavius Domitian (81-96): the palace proper occupied a large part of the present Villa Barberini, in the extra-territorial complex of the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, but the properties attached to the villa covered much of the territory of the present municipalities of Albano and Castel Gandolfo, extending around the shores of Lake Albano also into the municipal territories of Marino, Rocca di Papa and Ariccia for a total of about thirteen or fourteen square kilometers..
After Domitian, his successors abandoned the villa, which was replaced as a suburban imperial residence by the more famous Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. Septimius Severus (193-211) decided because of this decentralization to install within the imperial grounds abutting the Appian Way the Legio II Parthica, a Roman legion loyal to the emperor and charged with guarding and patrolling Rome. Thus was established the Castra Albana, the fortified city that became the residence of the legion and occupied exactly the area of the present-day municipality of Albano..
A series of buildings such as the amphitheater, the Baths of Caracalla, four gates (two remain visible today, including the Praetorian gate) and two internal buildings for use as praetorium, as well as communal dwellings, were built as a function of the Castra: the remains of all these make Albano today one of the urban centers of Lazio richest in Roman memories besides Rome itself.
The Legio II Parthica occupied the castra of Albano at least until the middle of the third century. Later, the Liber Pontificalis states that Emperor Constantine I (306-337), during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I (314-335), founded a cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Albano, providing it with liturgical furnishings and substantial property in the Albano territory, including abandoned castra.
Christianity had already been announced in the Albano territory probably even by St. Peter and St. Paul:.. certainly the presence of Christian communities is quite ancient, as evidenced by the catacombs of St. Senator near the church of Santa Maria della Stella:. dating from the fourth or fifth century, they were kept in use until the ninth century.
Other ancient evidences of the Christian presence in Albano are a Christian oratory located within the remains of the Republican villa in the public park of Villa Doria,. and a Christian oratory discovered within the "vomitoria" of the Roman amphitheater in Via San Francesco d'Assisi..
Middle Ages
From the fall of the Roman Empire to the 12th century The court historian of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, Procopius of Caesarea, reports that during the Gothic War (535-554) Albano was a πολισματα ("polismata"), i.e., a fortified place occasionally defended by permanent troops.Procopio, La guerra gotica, II 4.
Around the 8th century, Marian worship probably began at the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Rotonda,. although the first consecration of the shrine is dated to 1060.. By the 6th century, on the other hand, the church of St. Paul had already been built, carved out of a hall of the Baths of Caracalla..
In August 846 the Ager Romanus was devastated by a raid of Saracens, who went so far as to sack the basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican and the basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, before falling back along the Appian Way "amid indescribable ruins":. Albano. and Aricia were sacked.. The Mohammedans plundered Latium and Campania from their fortified position on the Garigliano until they were repulsed by a Christian confederate army in 916..
Otto I of Saxony in 964 donated Albano, Ariccia and three other surrounding castles to Virginio Savelli:. however, this donation is believed by some historians to be a forgery later made by the Savelli themselves to justify a usurpation of ecclesiastical rights over Albano.. For that matter, the practice was also common among other Roman baronial families to legitimize their purchase of other fiefs in the Ager Romanus.
When Pope Paschal II moved to Benevento in 1108 to settle some territorial issues in the Terra di Lavoro, he thought it best to entrust the tranquility of Latium to Ptolemy of the Counts of Tusculum, who was not slow to rebel against papal authority.. The pope was forced to rush to Rome, and probably suffered victoriously a siege at Albano,. though to reward the people of Albano for their sufferings he dispensed them from paying taxes on chivalry and milling: this privilege is preserved in an inscription placed in the cathedral of San Pancrazio, and studied by the eighteenth-century historian Giovanni Antonio Ricci.. Paschal II preserved the loyalty of the people of Albano even in 1116, when he was forced to flee to Albano because of the revolt of the Roman noble family of Pierleoni..
Frederick I "Barbarossa" of the Holy Roman Empire sent an army to Latium commanded by Rainald of Dassel, archbishop of Cologne, to help Raino of the Counts of Tusculum, a fierce Ghibelline besieged by the anti-imperial Romans in Tusculum:. Romans and Imperials thus fought the Battle of Monte Porzio (May 29, 1167), fought near Tusculum in the present-day municipality of Monte Porzio Catone. The Romans had the largest army they had fielded in centuries, and were numerically superior to the Imperials by twenty to one: nevertheless, they still lost the battle.. Albano, Tusculum, Tivoli and other "small towns" in Latium. were not slow to side with the imperials, a circumstance that was not forgotten by the Romans: after the retreat of the imperial army, Albano was razed to the ground by the Romans in 1168,. and Tusculum suffered the same fate in 1191..
From the 13th century to the destruction of 1436