| Description: |
Caldarola gets its name from the presence of thermal springs on its hilly hamlet named Colle Garufo, once a big thermal site (calidarium). Quite a few roman traces from different periods, found especially in the area below the hamlet Pievefavera, seem to confirm the theory of the town existing already in late Republican times.
During the centuries following the Gothic-Byzantine war, the Castrum Caldarolae was owned in the XI century by Casauria Abbey and in 1240 it is reported bound to the town of Camerino. In 1545 it definitively fell under the control of the Church. The small town expanded considerably after Evangelista Pallotta became Cardinal under the pontificate of Sisto V, moving the residential zone to the area below the feudal castle.
The town owes the cardinal its present sistine urban planning and the pretty Palazzo Pallotta. Caldarola also gave birth to the family of De Magistris, leaders of a significant XVI and XVII century local school of painting. In the surroundings, it is worth spending a few words on the small hamlets of Valcimarra, Pievefavera, Croce and Vestignano, very old defensive strongholds surrounded by a landscape of astonishing beauty.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |